One of the former presidents of the Alexandra Northrand Local Football Association Simon ‘Mbazo’ Selepe, who turned 88 on March 4, says he detests people who often say to him he was now living on borrowed time.
“I don’t particularly like the phrase borrowed time, because to me borrowing anything is never a good thing at all,” Selepe said, equating borrowing to money, clothes, or food. “I am not living on borrowed time but on the time that the Almighty allotted to me.
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“All I can say is to thank God for the so-called borrowed time. I am lucky to be one of those who are still enjoying their time in this departure lounge and seeking to live life to the full, realising their limitations of course, and enjoying the company of their families, friends, and contemporaries while building each other up as they go along life’s road.”
Selepe has a collage of books in his 6th Avenue home in Alexandra as he now devotes most of his retirement years to his favourite pastimes -reading and writing books.
“The fact that I have turned 88, is a signal that I am not in a hurry to leave and depart into oblivion. I will be ready and sure of my destination when my call comes – and come it will,” Selepe said.
Simon Raphael Selepe, who was nicknamed ‘Mbazo’ for his soccer prowess, which is a Zulu translation for his surname, turned 88 on April 4, 2024, and still vividly remembers his colourful career as a young footballer growing up in Alex and later rose through the ranks to be president of the local football association.
After his playing days, Selepe rose within the ranks of the beautiful game to become a top referee, football administrator, secretary general, and later president of the Alexandra Northrand Local Football Association then known as Afa [Alexandra Football Association].
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Selepe was one of the founding members of the National Professional Soccer League (NPSL), which later became the present-day National Soccer League (NSL) which was a splinter group formed by Selepe, Abdul Bhamjee, the late Dr Leepile Taunyane, Kaizer ‘Çhincha Guluva’ Motaung and Dr Irvin ‘Iron Duke’ Khoza in 1985.
The NSL gave birth to the Premier Soccer League, a professional football body that has risen both in stature and financial standing over the years and boasts of being one of the richest in Africa.
Born in 166 4th Avenue, Alexandra, in 1937, two years after the formation of Afa, Selepe’s late father, Simon Mogale Selepe, who died in 1963 in Alex, was conscripted into the British Army in 1939 during WWII and sent to Egypt.
Mbazo is one of 11 children, three boys and eight girls, and two of the boys and one of the girls are still alive. Selepe played for his school team, Kangaroo FC, an affiliate of Afa.
His soccer prowess attracted the attention of another Alex football stalwart, the late Simon Noge, who recruited him to Alex Gunners, which was a splinter team of Alex Moroka Lions.
From 1975 to 1988, Selepe gained the presidency of Afa and resigned in 1988 when then president of the South African Football Association Solomon ‘Stix’ Morewa, as the mother body of football, made what Selepe considers as an unfair ruling on a matter involving Gunners and Arsenal. Selepe then devoted his energies to his work with the NPSL.
He has worked with various luminaries of Alex football such as Roger Sishi, Moss Selolo, Oupa Tsiane, Taunyane, a Mkhwanazi and Mabitsela and Dr Khoza, the current chairperson of Premier Soccer League and Orlando Pirates.In between, Selepe at one stage was jailed for selling political books, was a secretary of the Transvaal Referees Association and a ticket control officer of the Premier Soccer League.
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