‘I lost my R2m house and car’ – PSL legends get candid about booze at Konka campaign launch – News24
It is something they have become known for. Besides their prowess on the fields, soccer players are often linked with fast cars, flashy lifestyles and quick money.
And it could all come crumbling down, with one drinking and driving incident.
This is why Premier Soccer League legends have come together to teach up-and-coming soccer players and the general public about th…….
It is something they have become known for. Besides their prowess on the fields, soccer players are often linked with fast cars, flashy lifestyles and quick money.
And it could all come crumbling down, with one drinking and driving incident.
This is why Premier Soccer League legends have come together to teach up-and-coming soccer players and the general public about the danger of drinking and driving.
The soccer personalities gathered at the trendy Konka Lounge in Soweto to launch a new initiative to reduce drinking and driving. Called the “Wrong Side of the Road”, the initiative uses online interaction between consumers and prominent individuals to share a real-life experience of troubles that come from driving under the influence of alcohol.
Amongst those present at Konka to launch and support the campaign were former Mamelodi Sundowns long-serving captain Hlompho Kekana, former Chiefs and Pirates striker Phumlani Mkhize, SuperSport United experienced striker Bradley Grobler and Banyana Banyana coach, Desiree Ellis, who were part of the panel that was hosted by Bareng-Batho Kortjaas.
Former Kaizer Chiefs star Junior Khanye was also there.
Some of the players tell us why it was important to be part of the campaign.
Soccer legend Phumlani Mkhize says it gives them an opportunity to reach out to the general public and not just soccer players only because everyone is affected by alcohol and drinking and driving.
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He started drinking alcohol when he was still in high school, and at the time he didn’t even think he would play soccer professionally. When he became a professional soccer player and earned lots of money, that is when his alcohol consumption spiked. Being exposed to a lot of money at a young age is dangerous, he says. Had he had people around him to teach him how to handle money, he would’ve been far in life.
“Young players who are earning a huge amount of money at the beginning of their careers should seek advice on how to handle their finances well because you will end up misusing it on alcohol. I wish I had someone close to me to sit me down and take me through managing my finances, I could have avoided a lot of things that make me fill with regrets,” he says.
He said Wrong Side of the Road is a good initiative and wishes that such campaigns were mobilized when he was still playing soccer because it could’ve saved him a lot. The former African Wanderers striker had been involved in three accidents and all his cars were beyond repair.
“I am grateful to God that I am here to tell my story and save others. I had experienced a lot of trauma because of my alcohol consumption. I lost everything I had, and now it is time for me to start over.”
Phumlani says people bury themselves in alcohol and other addictions because they do not talk about their problems or have great role models around them. It took him losing his family to get his act together.
“When you have access to money and can afford your lifestyle, you don’t care if people leave you because you think you have everything you need. I was a heavy drinker and my wife of eight years couldn’t deal with me drinking so she decided to leave. I didn’t care because I had everything that I wanted, other girlfriends, and drove the most expensive cars. My life was perfect and but it all changes when you don’t have money anymore.”
Phumlani says things took a bad turn when he hit rock bottom and started to be suicidal to a point where he once took a gun and wanted to end his life because the accidents were not killing him.
“It got to the point where I was ridiculed by members of my community because I had fallen from grace. I had no one but myself to blame because of the bad decisions I made. I would not like to see the current generation of footballers falling into the same trap.”
Former Kaizer Chiefs star, Junior Khanye, who is no stranger to finding himself on the Wrong Side of the Road, leads the platform with a series of videos that tell of his incident of drinking and driving. Junior, who has experienced fifteen car accidents, was on his way to greatness when his career derailed.
“I crashed into four cars. Two cars were beyond repair and two I had to repair. I lost the R2 million house I had at the time as well as the car. What is sadder are the injuries I caused on other people. One of the motorists involved in the accident was in a coma for three days and others were badly injured. It is regrettable,” he says.
He tells Drum that he can’t get into details of his life story because he is in a process of writing a book and has signed a non-disclosure with the publisher, but he is happy to be part of the campaign that is aimed to save people’s lives.
Former Banyana Banyana player and current coach of Banyana Banyana Desiree Ellis says she has first-hand experience of witnessing consumption of alcohol and use of substances which has ravaged hers and other communities around the country.
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“You see the law enforcement agencies pulling over cars with cooler bags loaded with ice cold liquids. It is a dangerous thing to do because you find that drivers are drinking, putting their lives and those of others at risk. We need to have a mind shift and change of attitudes and drive dry at all times,” she says
Hlompho Kekana says it saddens him that in his more than two decades career in the PSL, he has seen a long list of footballers he professionally respected perish from car crashes. He is known for being a responsible.
“I am clear in my head that football is a very short career that can be cut short by injuries at any time. But it is a sad South African story that so many players have either seen their careers end too early or their lives cut short because of misusing alcohol,” he says.
Wrong Side of the Road is developed in partnership with United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), the initiave is financed by Diageo South Africa which owns several spirits brands including Johnnie Walker, Tanqueray, Ciroc, Smirnoff and Captain Morgan.
Corporate Relations Director at Diageo SA, Sibani Mngadi says the company is deliberately taking the Wrong Side of the Road campaign to trendy alcohol outlets like Konka because they want to spread the message far and wide.
“This initiative is a part of Diageo’s global effort to change the attitudes towards drinking and driving amongst at least five million people by 2030. As a global leading beverage alcohol company, it is our responsibility to create and implement prevention tools to help save lives working together with partners including liquor outlets,” Sibani says.
