With the love of football from a tender age, Ernest Mohale is a regular match commentator at Botlokwa
By his own admission, Ernest Lekola Mohale was born with an abundance of football DNA.
Albeit he could not pursue the game he claims to breathe, eat, drink, dream; and sleep at the highest echelons of professional leagues, he still plays an integral role as a match commentator.
From his formative years growing up at Sekonye village at Botlokwa, the young man was always running after senior players, a way of life he became accustomed to.
Mogale remembers vividly how, as a four-year-old kid used to accompany his father, who was owner-cum-coach of Tembisa-based outfit Mighty Swallows.
“At that tender age, I was my father’s tail. Whenever there was a football match involving his team, I was after him.
It was because of the love of the game my elders had in football that became my way of life…” explains Mohale.
He reminisces of the days he was tasked to look after the playing kit and sprinkle salt into soccer boots prior to kickoff.
“Those are some of the fondest memories of my childhood” he recalled, further saying, “Spraying salt onto those boots would reduce the effect of any muti if the opponents are using evil traditional medicine.
Most clubs in the past and nowadays still use this method.”
The robust defender who went by the nickname of “Wire” sustained an injury that cut short his playing career.
In 1993; he joined Botlokwa Football Association as a referee: the youngest match official of that era.
At the beginning of the millennium, Mohale began his stint as a coach at his childhood side until 2003, the same year he was recruited by Dikgading Young Killers to coach their ladies team who were campaigning in the Vodacom League.
Taking a trip down memory lane, Mohale recollected that: “That was the beginning of bigger things to come. During the 2005/06 season, I joined Highlanders in Bushbuckridge in Mpumalanga campaigning in the men’s Vodacom League. Later; in 2007; I joined Winners Park; who were campaigning in the Mvela Golden League as assistant coach. It was in 2009 when I took up my current job at PAX College as a coach.”