Kabelo Tlhabanelo
Victor Mahatanya received a call last Friday and was told that Bloemfontein Celtic will no longer play in the City of Roses.
Victor, who founded Siwelele with the late Norman Mathobisa in 1969, told Scrolla.Africa how it felt to see his side leave Bloemfontein after over 52 years.
The iconic club was bought by businesswoman and reality TV star, Shauwn Mkhize.
“It felt like I had lost a child but things changed when I got a visit from businessman Lebogang Mokoena,” said.
The two met with the supporters on Saturday and Lebogang made an announcement that the team will be back in the PSL.
Without revealing which team, Victor said Lebogang had bought a PSL status and they had almost finalised the deal to bring Bloemfontein Celtic back to the PSL.
“I felt so happy because I saw the happiness in the supporters,” said Mahatanya, who is hopeful the supposed deal will go through.
“Traffic came to a standstill and security had to be called to escort us from overjoyed supporters. That was the best day of my life. I thank Lebogang for his efforts.”
Victor said that in the early days of Bloemfontein Celtic, the editor of the newspaper The Friend helped them to market the team.
“He asked us to include Celtic in the name because he was from Scotland. We called the team Bloemfontein Celtic to honour the editor,” he said.
He recalled how they played their very first game against Kaizer XI which belonged to Kaizer Motaung.
“They gave us a beating of 4-0 in our home in front of a full stadium. Kaizer left Bloemfontein with R11,000 and we also had something left for ourselves,” he said.
Victor said they used that game to convince other teams to come and play in Bloemfontein’s stadium.
“I have spent a few millions to make sure the team survives and stays in Bloemfontein,” he said.
“But I was shattered when I heard the team had been sold in KZN.”
However, Victor said it made him proud when Lebogang joked that he will make him the president of the team.
