Orlando Pirates have endured a tough couple of weeks. However, the emergence of teenage central defender Mbekezeli Mbokazi is a massive plus.
Mbokazi gets a clean sheet on debut
5 March 2025 might go down as a big day in the history of the club. 19-year-old Mbekezeli Mbokazi made his Orlando Pirates debut and we might look back on that as a huge watershed moment. It was a 1-0 win for Pirates and, fittingly, Mbokazi marked his bow with a clean sheet. It’s the first of many, and DStv Diski Challenge [DDC] head coach Joseph Makhanya has played a big role in his rise to prominence. Mbokazi has started subsequent matches against SuperSport in the Nedbank Cup (he scored the opener in a 2-2 draw, Pirates eventually prevailed on penalties) and against Stellenbosch in a 0-0 draw. Mbokazi was man of the match in that thrilling cup tie against Matsatsantsa. He started and shone in Pirates’ superb 2-0 win over leaders Sundowns. It’s a result which breathes new life into a title challenge that seemed to be fading out.
Makhanya’s role explained
Via FarPost, Joseph Makhanya has detailed his role in bringing Mbokazi into the first team.
“With Mbokazi, if I were to tell you a story, at some point when he came in he couldn’t even understand what was spoken because he only understood IsiZulu. So now, all the time we were making team talks, I had to coach him on the other side,” said Makhanya.
“So, I had to express myself in IsiZulu so that he could understand properly. He was just a kid who came from the rural area in the KwaZulu-Natal. So he found himself at Pirates and he had to adjust to the environment.
“I needed to make sure he fast-track things because he has good resilience in terms of physicality and you can see he is a strong boy who didn’t need gym or other things.”
“Kudos to him and the first team coach [Jose Riveiro] for believing he could get the job done. Credit should be given to all the boys who have gotten an opportunity in the first team and never looked back.”
How did Makhanya get the best out of an unpolished diamond?
“You know, I’m a very demanding coach, especially at this level. They know that I push them a lot so that they are ready for the first team. The aim is that we need to make them ready and push them hard to see who breaks to pick up who is ready or not ready for the senior team,” he added.
“This is because the senior team is a demanding team that needs results. It’s a high-performance environment, where people need to be pushed beyond their limits so that we know what to expect.”
Is Mbokazi going all the way to the top?
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