Legend Scara urges young players to be money savvy

Legendary Kaizer Chiefs forward Absalom “Scara” Thindwa spends most of his time advising people on saving and investing money. 

Thindwa, who has turned financial advisor, says he understood long ago that football would make for a short career.

“The idea of advising people to invest their money excites me. As my dad passed away when I was only 18 years old, he didn’t leave anything for me and my siblings. It is important to prepare yourself for retirement,” he says. 

“I started doing this in 1993 with a well-known financial institution and trained as an advisor. I started a company with other advisors in 2006, and it’s called Oracle Brokers.”

Thindwa left football after serving under John Lathan as an assistant coach at Wits University following his release from Amakhosi in 1992. 

He says spreading financial knowledge among young people and long-serving workers is what keeps him going if he’s not training upcoming football aspirants.

The 63-year-old runs a club in Randburg that aims to teach soccer to young boys and his intentions are not money-related but rather about empowerment. 

Known for his dangerous long-range shots, Thindwa says it took great practice and training to master the art of such goals that brought him his recognition as “Scara”.

The Eswatini-born legend says he would “borrow” his older brother’s soccer kit, polish his striker skills and quickly put the ball back before anyone noticed. 

“Because my stepbrother was a good soccer player, I wanted to emulate him and become like him as he was a good defender. I would usually take his ball without him knowing and just practise scoring on my own. That helped me, I managed to sharpen my talent,” he recalls, laughing. 

He would run, play barefoot with his peers in the streets as a young boy, and score goals. . 

“I liked scoring long-range goals because, usually, nobody will see it coming. Just when you’re outside the 18 area and are expected to pass the ball to a player who’s closer to the goal posts, you catch them off guard and unexpectedly score from distance,” he said. 

“There was a guy who was called ‘Scara’ back in Eswatini, who used to score from a distance. Whenever I was alone, I used to practise a lot because every skill you have is improved by practising. That’s why they ended up calling me Scara.” 

He says taking his talent seriously advanced him to Young Aces, a football team back home, and later to Isihlangu se Nkosi, the Eswatini national squad.

“I joined Young Aces at 15 years, at 18 I started playing for the national team. I felt like I didn’t know what I was doing because it came with a lot of responsibility,” he said. “We didn’t have a professional coach and not enough time to prepare for games because everyone would be busy with their respective careers,” he adds. 

“We once went to play with the Zambian team, they beat us 9-1. I wondered why I was there during the tournament. We got beaten again 11-2 two days later. When we returned home, there was an article saying we were beaten 20-3, I was so embarrassed.” 

While Thindwa was suffering embarrassment, Patson Banda, a goalkeeper for Orlando Pirates who would travel to Eswatini whenever he heard there were matches, was mentioning his name in the Buccaneers’ boardrooms and planning to move him to SA to become their striker. 

“I wasn’t aware that he had seen me playing before he approached me. Banda came with veteran coach Shakes Mashaba at his home in the Havelock asbestos mine in Bulembu. I didn’t even know they were coming,” said Thindwa. 

Bulembu is a small town located in Hhohho, Eswatini, 10km west from Piggs Peak city and close to the South African border. Thindwa was taking care of his three sisters at the time because his brother was unemployed. 

“I was surprised that I was headhunted and that they came all the way to look for me. I didn’t know whether I should run away or dance.

“They said I should come play for the Bucs. I told them to give me a bit of time, but in 1984, I made my way to SA and started training for the pre-season, which was playing under the NPSL,” he said. 

Scara was unaware that other football officials had plans to break away from the NPSL to form another league named NSL and leave with all the sponsors.  

“I then remained with the faction that was in the NPSL, which didn’t have sponsorship,” he said. “The other Pirates team in the NSL was fighting with the one in the NPSL.” 

He remembers the Ellis Park incident in 1985, where Pirates official China Hlongwane had to be rushed to hospital after being stabbed multiple times on national TV. 

“China was the guy I was close to. He used to help me and transport us. I remember that day, there was a game that had to take place in Ellis Park. It happened that the Pirates under the NPSL went to Ellis Park to stop the game against Jomo Cosmos because my teammates felt our Pirates was the real one – and the other Pirates also thought the same about their team – so it led to a fight, people had knives and guns.” 

He said he wasn’t getting paid at Pirates and therefore had to go home to Eswatini but returned in 1986 after Kaizer Motaung started discussions with the technical director in Eswatini. He got signed up at Amakhosi.