AS someone who inevitably writes about the grief and shame of others, a journalist is unavoidably immersed in a life dogged by a love-hate relationship with those that cross his or her professional path.

AS someone who inevitably writes about the grief and shame of others, a journalist is unavoidably immersed in a life dogged by a love-hate relationship with those that cross his or her professional path.

More so in sports, where their written word is always under scrutiny for a hint of partisanship or error from both sports people and fans.

Sowetan soccer correspondent Sipho Mthembu, who died this week after an illness, braved this occupational hazard with a peculiar resilience.

Not one to suffer fools gladly, Mthembu packed steely nerves as well as a short fuse that always landed him in hot water with authority and soccer officialdom.

The fuse would invariably blow when his impartiality was questioned - and not least when his work was edited out of context. But his forté was the tenacity of a bulldog.