Mamelodi Sundowns coach Steve Komphela, speaking at the funeral of his brother, former Free State police, roads and transport MEC Butana Komphela, powerfully slammed leadership of self-interest in the country.

Komphela said later in life Butana — also a former chairperson of parliament’s portfolio committee on sport — was abandoned by many of his comrades in the ANC, to whom the family had handed his brother packaged with the message, “Handle with care”.

The ex-Kaizer Chiefs and Free State Stars coach slammed the infighting of the ANC and country's leaders, which he said was poisoning the people of the country.

The football coach said he wanted, on the occasion of his freedom fighter and politician brother's funeral, to use his “only opportunity” to speak to the country's leaders, “because they can't talk to one another”.

“Instead of serving the people they would demand that the people serve them. No. That's not servant leadership,” Komphela said.

“Unfortunately, due to shortsightedness, some comrades have declared war on their people and are on a perpetual path of self-destruction. In poisoning people they are destroying the same people they need to lead.

“ ... We wish to thank the loving comrades, 'very few', I must add, though he spent his entire life in their hands. We thank very few comrades when we had given him into their hands for the rest of his life.

“We never had our brother. You had him for the rest of your lives, and this is what we get, but we forgive you.

“Thanking especially those who were brave enough to just ask, 'How is Computer doing, how is Butana doing, how is our comrade doing?' Just asking how he is doing — this is your comrade, how is he doing?

“A brotherly advice to his colleagues and current comrades — when your fellow comrades stop asking how you are, start getting even closer to your family ...

“In the absence of the enemy, brothers and sisters get to arms. In the absence of the enemy they are up in arms against each other.

“I don't know whether the ANC is listening. We come a long way with the ANC. We cannot abandon them now. I am busy kicking our kids back home — 'Don't tell me you hate the ANC'.

“But as they fight their own little wars, little do they know there's a million people attached to those people up there, and they are destroying themselves.

"... The pain cuts so deep, not because of death but how comrades treated our brother. A brother we left in their care.

“Little did we forget to put a full stop when we put on the package, 'Handle with care'. And they found a way to add 'less'.

“And indeed we understand that there was 'carelessness'. Because carelessness comes from lack of compassion.

“Compassion comes from servant leadership, where they tell you how to lead, where you lead from the heart and not from the head, where leadership is learned through the heart and not the head.

“What you learn from the heart is intellectual. You will forget what you learn through the book. But what you learn from the heart will stay there and it is compassion — that's what leadership requires.”

Komphela expressed dismay at political jostling and infighting for position.

“There's many levels of leadership — the [Sundowns co-coaches] Manqobas [Mngqithi] and the Rulanis [Mokwena] will tell you. But position is the lowest level of leadership. But the fighting for position is fierce.

“How do you fight so hard and kill one another for the lowest available material — is that how cheap we have gone?

“People must give you their permission to lead them. After permission you have to be productive and then after that you develop people, and then after that you reach the pinnacle — the highest position of leadership.

“We should be striving and fighting and killing each other for the pinnacle, but when you reach that level you understand that there is more to life than selfish interest, where you say, 'I don’t now see the opponent as my enemy'.

“There is a difference between an enemy and an opponent. If you see your colleague or comrade competing against you, consider that as an opponent, not an enemy. Enemies you kill, opponents you compete with.

“... And I beg with my people, this is my only opportunity, not to talk with my brother, I'm not talking about myself, what he did for me they all explained — I'm trying to talk to our leaders because they can't talk to one another.

“... There's a register roll, just check for me who was there. These wonderful ministers who are here, let's listen to the response.

“When Butana's brother was out of order and pointing, what was their response? Our wonderful ministers are going to be held accountable for not responding to what I said as a normal citizen.

“I have to say it, because if I don't say it I won't say it. If I enter a restaurant and I see the employees being kicked by the manager, me as a person who is eating in the restaurant, if I don't kick this guy — those employees don't kick because they can lose their jobs — so I'm in a position where I can kick, [because] I don't belong in that career.”

The coach said the family declined a state funeral.

Butana Komphela, laid to rest on Sunday, will be remembered as a revolutionary fighter for transformation in sport and one of the leading voices calling for the removal of the Springbok emblem on the national rugby team jersey.

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