You would have to go back 10 years to find an SA striker who scored 20 or more goals in a Premier Soccer League (PSL) season spanning 30 matches or more.

This feat was achieved by former Bafana Bafana and Moroka Swallows veteran striker Siyabonga ‘Bhele’ Nomvethe, who netted an impressive 20 goals for the Dube Birds during the 30-match 2011/2012 premier league season.

Nomvethe was 34 at the time.

Before Nomvethe scooped the Lesley Manyathela Golden Boot for his avalanche of goals that season, one has to go back 13 years to find an SA striker who netted more than 20 goals.

This time the outstanding display was achieved by former Kaizer Chiefs goal poacher Pollen Ndlanya, who scored 21 goals for the Amakhosi during the 1998/1999 PSL season, running at 34 matches at the time.

It is shocking that since the inception of the premiership in the 1996/1997 season, a total of 26 league seasons, only two South African strikers, who have both since retired, scored 20 or more goals in a single league campaign.

Maybe the reader thinks I am being unfair by making 20 goals the yardstick to rate our strikers. OK, let us use 15 goals as a measure of our goal poachers.

Apart from SuperSport United striker Bradley Grobler, 34, who scored 16 goals last season, one would have to go back 10 seasons to find an SA striker who scored 15 or more goals. And guess who achieved this feat? The hardworking and reliable Nomvethe.

Before him, former Bafana striker Katlego Mphela scored 17 goals for Mamelodi Sundowns during the 2009/2010 campaign, 12 years ago.

So, dear reader, it is a sad reality that our South African strikers are not able to score a lot of goals in a single league campaign. They cannot even get to 15 or more goals. They are goal shy.

As a striker your job is simply to stand in the 18-yard area and score goals. That is all you have to do. Bang in those goals.

To further illustrate how pathetic South African strikers are, I remember how during the 2006/2007 league season former Zambian international and Jomo Cosmos striker Christopher Katongo scored 15 goals in 15 games in the first half of that season. The following year in 2007, during the January transfer window, Katongo joined Danish club Brondy IF, leaving Cosmos. The second half of the season resumed and in his absence no-one was able to surpass Katongo’s 15 goals till the end of the season. Unbelievable!

I am sure Katongo got the shock of his life when he received a call from SA while he was in Denmark telling him that he was the winner of the golden boot.

As things stand this season, Namibian and Sundowns striker Peter Shalulile is leading the goalscorers' charts with 15 goals followed by SA’s Victor Letsoalo (Royal AM) who sits on 11.

SA strikers need to up their game and do better in front of goals. We need them at their best to improve Bafana's chances of qualifying for the Africa Cup of Nations and Fifa World Cup.