‘I Personally Drove To Fetch Pirates Star From Camp’

Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi has revealed how he personally signed Monnapule Saleng for Swallows and is torn over who to support due to his affinity towards Brandon Truter.

Orlando Pirates and Sekhukhune United are set for a sold-out Nedbank Cup final this weekend at Loftus Versfeld in an event headlined by Heavy K.

The Premier has stated in recent briefings that the Gauteng government are looking to invest heavily in sport and promised to secure all major sporting events possible, starting with Bafana Bafana and major cup finals for the future.

But ahead of the final game of the 2022/23 domestic season, he revealed how he signed Saleng, who’s developed into one of the leading figures in domestic football, as a contender for major awards and the outright leading contributor for goals in the league this season.

“Pirates have been good to a team that I support dearly, Pirates have the Saleng we never had in that team,” he said ahead of the Nedbank Cup final.

“For him to be a contender for Player of the Season is also heartwarming. I remember when I went to Pirates to ask for Saleng, Floyd [Mbele], at that time even asked me; ‘who are you looking for?’ I said ‘Saleng’, and he said ‘who is that?!’.”

“Because they just brought him in from Free State Stars at the time and the technical team wasn’t sure [if they were going to use him] and they said ‘no, no, no – let’s take him to train first and we’ll decide if we release him’.”

“I waited for that call and it came through, I know they were camping outside of Gauteng and when they called and said ‘come and take your Saleng’, I personally drove to take my Saleng and it’s not a policy of the team I support to arrange accommodation but I personally did that because I knew he was a gem.

“And personally I arranged transport to take him to training and back, so to see him now as almost a top goalscorer and for him to be a contender for Footballer and Midfielder of the Season, it’s heartwarming – I’ve got stories on both sides.”

With ‘Brakkies’ who was sacked by the Dube Birds and AmaZulu over the past two seasons, he received another chance with Sekhukhune, who were in 15th place upon his appointment but now finished inside the top-eight, with CAF Confederation Cup football and potentially 90 minutes away from a historic triumph in the domestic cup competition.

“I met coach Truter and it didn’t take me 15 minutes to make sure that this was a good coach and persuade him to come to Johannesburg,” Lesufi said about luring him towards the club where he won the second-tier title.

“So to see him in the final is a heartwarming moment, but tomorrow I need to see the two teams but I have a very very soft spot for coach Truter. Let the best team win.”

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The Soweto giants and Babina Noko face off on Saturday afternoon in Tshwane (18h00).