How Shakes Mashaba succeeded in dousing himself in petrol and setting himself alight

Perhaps recently sacked Bafana Bafana coach Ephraim ‘‘Shakes” Mashaba should have paid closer attention when his concerned colleagues dispensed with convention and tried to offer him advice as his war with the media threatened to get out of hand in the beginning of the year.

Former Bafana coaches are usually reluctant to offer their views on the national team after they’ve been relieved of the keys to that corner office with a breathtaking view of the FNB Stadium but Pitso Mosimane and Jomo Sono felt strongly enough to break this unwritten rule.

Mosimane offered some friendly advice to Mashaba — who was capable of starting a fight in an empty room during his tumultuous reign from July 2014 to December 2016 — and he warned the 66-year-old veteran that no coach has ever won a fight with the media.

‘‘It takes us a long time to learn and I have made mistakes. And I realise I have made mistakes‚” Mosimane said in February.

‘‘When I was in (charge of) Bafana I lost it when I fought against you guys (the media) and ever since that I got six draws and you know what happened after that (Mosimane was fired).

‘‘That’s why I told Bra Shakes (Mashaba) that ‘No coach has ever won the battle against the media’.”

Mosimane tried to counsel to Mashaba and said his own Bafana career — Mosimane was SA coach from August 2010 to June 2012 — could have taken a very different route had he not allowed needless skirmishes with the media to distract him.

 ‘‘You just shut your mouth‚ do your job‚ keep going and when you win‚ they (supporters) sing. Don’t go against supporters.

‘‘The media and supporters‚ they make you‚ they break you. Keep quiet and focus on your job.”

Sono — who has had several stints as Bafana caretaker coach — flew in like a featherweight and said Mashaba had to accept the media criticism as something that comes as an inevitable part of the job.

“When it comes to journalists there is nothing you can do‚” Sono said in April.

 ‘‘They have to inform the public‚ they have to tell the public‚ they have to voice their own opinions. You cannot fight opinions from the journalists.

“I have been there and I was there. I think if there is a coach who got more flak than any other coach it was me.

 ‘‘I dropped all your top players and I was hit left‚ right and centre but sanity prevailed in the end. We have to accept it that if you take that position then you must know that you are on fire. Either you become a hero or a villain‚ one of the two.”

But Mashaba seemingly did not heed his predecessors’ advice and escalated the war instead.

The South African Football Association (Safa) intervened towards the end of April and arranged a meeting between Mashaba and senior journalists in an attempt to cool the simmering tension.

A seemingly repentant Mashaba said at the meeting he had seen the error of his ways and would do things differently going forwards.

Things quietened down in the weeks after the meeting and it seemed Mashaba was finally concentrating on doing his job without the distraction of feeling the need to respond to every word written or said about him.

But the truce was short-lived as Bafana’s lacklustre 1-1 draw with Mauritania in a dead rubber final 2017 African Cup of Nations qualifier in September escalated the pressure on Mashaba — SA had also failed to qualify for the Gabon tournament — and he in turn turned the screws on his favourite punching bag.

Almost all his press conferences soon began with rants directed at the media and given his claims that he never read newspapers‚ it was rather curious that he repeated everything that was written about him almost verbatim at these gatherings.

Matters came to a head on November 12 when he allowed Bafana’s 2-1 win over the much-fancied Senegal in a 2018 World Cup qualifier at the Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane to get the better of him.

In a tirade reminiscent of DJ Euphonik’s #Nonke invective‚ Mashaba fired a salvo full of fire and brimstone at his employers‚ the media‚ the tooth fairy and anyone else who’d dared to question his decision-making during the year.

It seemed the win over Senegal was the trigger that released months of pent-up rage and it erupted like a raging volcano that had quietly simmered beneath the surface.

He was promptly suspended by Safa the next day and the team travelled to Mozambique to play friendly match on November 14 without him.

He was hauled before a disciplinary hearing days later and was eventually sacked from his R500000-a-month job last week.

The man actually had a good record as Bafana coach and it’s a pity that he didn’t listen to Sono and Mosimane.

Talk about succeeding in dousing yourself in petrol and setting yourself alight. — TMG Digital