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‘I have come full circle,” says newly appointed Safa chief operations officer (COO) Mthobi Tyamzashe as he sits back in his chair when our interview comes to an end in his sizable, but sparsely furnished office.
“Hopefully, I have learnt a few tricks over the years,” he says.
The few pieces of furniture and equipment in his office are an indication that he only took occupation of this space on Monday.
His closing remark – although pregnant with meaning – is poignant.
Tyamzashe was part of the unity talks that brought together black, coloured, white and Indian football structures, which led to the birth of Safa in 1992.
“I was with football administrators like the late Solomon ‘Stix’ Morewa, Rama Reddy, Goba Ndlovu and Danny Jordaan at the talks,” he reminisces.
This was his first involvement in sports unity talks, but they led to more in other major sporting codes.
However, football was not his first love.
“My love for sport started during my primary school days when I became a boxer,” he says.
“I only started playing rugby as a scrum half at St John’s College in Mthatha. During school holidays, I would play for the Star of Hope Rugby Club in King William’s Town.”
Tyamzashe was born in Uitenhage on November 26 1954. His parents, Philda and Herbert, were both teachers.
After graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree from Fort Hare in 1978, he left for Port Elizabeth, where he worked for several companies.
He later moved to the US, where he obtained a master’s degree in business administration from the Bowling Green State University in Ohio in 1982.
Upon his return from the US, he joined Johnson andamp; Johnson as a marketing assistant in 1985.
“I specialised in the promotion of nappy liners and baby powder,” he says with a mischievous smile.
“As a result, I can tell you everything about what these products do to a baby’s bum.”
The seed for sports administration was planted during his playing days at the Star of Hope Rugby Club when he would “occasionally be asked to take notes at meetings”.
Also in 1985, he was elected secretary of the Border Rugby Union.
Tyamzashe was later involved in the formation of the National Sports Congress with Mluleki George, with a view to unify sport in this country.
“We soon realised that people were not comfortable with the word ‘congress’ [the African National Congress was still a banned organisation then], so we changed that part to council,” he says.
It was through the National Sports Congress that he became involved in the football unity talks that led to the formation of Safa, with George as its first president.
In 1994, he was offered the position of director-general in the department of sports in the first democratic government of President Nelson Mandela. Tyamzashe reported to then sports minister, the now late Steve Tshwete.
He soon discovered his job was not going to be a bed of roses.
His trademark exuberance comes to the fore as he talks about how the SA Rugby Football Union (Sarfu, which was the predecessor to the current Saru) took Mandela to court.
“I remember two caricatures by [cartoonist] Zapiro at that time.
“One had Madiba drinking milk from a glass with me, and Tshwete pouring some liquid from a watering can into the glass. The depiction was that we had poisoned his mind,” he says with a hearty laugh.
“Another one showed Sarfu as a tree, with me as a snake around it, and Tshwete as a bespectacled chameleon.”
After serving the sports fraternity in different roles, he joined Vodacom as corporate affairs manager.
He left the company in 2012 and has been taking it easy at home since.
It was from this relaxed lifestyle that Safa plucked him as he “whiled away time by watching ducks on the lake inside the estate where I live in Pretoria”.
“I gave them each names and I’m sure this week they must be wondering: ‘What’s happened to this chap?’ I had also replaced sitting on my sofa stroking my cat with doing the same to my two-month-old granddaughter, Talita.”
Tyamzashe’s new role is to ensure the smooth running of the Safa administration, as well as to give support to CEO and president Danny Jordaan.
The father of two, he has Mthobi junior (27) and Chubeka (25), Tyamzashe loves travelling.
“I have travelled a great deal to Australia,” he says.
“My wife, Queeneth, loves London. These days I ask her if she is aware of the rand/pound exchange rate,” he laughs.
For this well-travelled sports administrator who turns 61 next month, it’s goodbye tranquillity and welcome back to the rat race.
