It’s not clear whether former Orlando Pirates captain Daniel ‘Dance’ Malesela is indeed a dancer or was good at dancing back in the day.
However, one thing for sure is that Malesela is amenable to dancing to trigger-happy Chippa United chairman Siviwe ‘Chippa’ Mpengesi’s tunes.
Whether Mpengesi’s tunes are off key or not is a story for another day.
Fired for the second time by TS Galaxy following a poor run, Malesela has jumped the long queue of the unemployed as he returns to the Chilli Boys for the fourth time.
Mabopane-born Malesela, who once coached Cape Town All Stars, replaces fired Lehlohonolo Seema.
The former Lesotho international got Mpengesi’s boot after he had led the Port Elizabeth club to a win, two draws and five losses since the season started in October.
‘‘Yes, I’m going to PE,’’ the former Manning Rangers, Mamelodi Sundowns and Pirates defender said before asking to be called back on Monday.
On Sunday Mpengesi wished Malesela all the best now that he will start working at the Chilli Boys again.
‘‘It was not a difficult decision to take because we have the backing of the supporters as you know that coach Dan is the favourite of the supporters,’’ said Mpengesi.
‘‘He is very good in coaching the young ones. He has a proven record
of working with young ones. We wish him all the best. We know now that Chippa United is gonna play that entertaining football. It will be a pleasure to watch Chippa United something that has been missing for many years. We are very happy for him, we love him, we welcome him.’’
There is no doubt that Malesela is already under pressure even before he starts his job and will have to hit the ground running if he wants to escape Mpengesi’s already sharpened axe.
The Chilli Boys, who are 14th on the DStv Premiership table with five points from eight matches, are going to play against SuperSport United away at the Lucas Moripe Stadium in Atteridgeville on Wednesday, 6 January.
Malesela is the only coach in the long list of coaches, who have coached the Chilli Boys, to lead the Eastern Cape side to a top-eight
finish at the end of the 2015/16 season. He led the Chilli Boys to the semi-finals of the MTN8 the following season.
Mpengesi was caught up in a storm on Wednesday after he announced the
appointment of much-hated Belgian Luc Eymael as the Chilli Boys’ new coach.
Eymael’s appointment brought the Chilli Boys unwanted attention as it didn’t go down well with many South Africans, who felt that it was insensitive of Mpengesi to give the Belgian a job considering the circumstances around his departure from Tanzanian side Young Africans.
Eymael offended Africans when he caused a stir with his racist runt while coaching Young Africans. Using despicable language, Eymael called supporters of Young Africans ‘dogs and monkeys’ something which
rubbed the hierarchy of the South African Football Association (SAFA) and many Africans the wrong way.
On Wednesday through a statement, SAFA said that the organisation was going to fight Eymael’s appointment and make sure that the Department of Home Affairs didn’t process his work permit application.
A public backlash as well as Premier of the Eastern Cape Lubabalo Oscar Mabuyane’s displeasure on Wednesday forced Mpengesi to rescind Eymael’s appointment on Thursday.
