Tributes continue to pour in for the late Isaac “Shakes” Kungwane who passed away on Wednesday afternoon (28 May). He was 43.
Among those paying tribute were the South African Football Coaches Association (SAFCA) for the former Bafana Bafana player’s contribution to South African football. He made a positive impact in his days as an industrious midfielder with Kaizer Chiefs and later in his new career as a football analyst.
“Kungwane’s sudden death is a shock to the football family and a true loss to the coaching fraternity. Football is deemed by many as a matter of life and death, but the affable Kungwane introduced an entertaining dimension to football analysis; the same approach that brought joy to millions of television viewers during his playing days,” said SAFCA President Greg Mashilo.
SAFCA views Kungwane’s death as a great loss to his family and the nation at large, but at the same time as an opportunity to reflect and draw lessons from his unique ways of doing things.
“Our role as SAFCA is to educate, train and empower people with technical matters relating to coaching, it is always a sad and devastating blow to lose one of us. Shakes has coached from the bench and went on to spread the coaching gospel through the broadcast media, we take this opportunity as the South African Football Coaches Association to convey our heartfelt condolences to the Kungwane family. We wish them strength in these difficult times,” added Mashilo.
Mashilo concluded by saying:

“Our recent on-the-field fond memories of Shakes was when he entertained millions of television viewers with his disguised passes in a legends match against the African selection at the Moses Mabidha Stadium in Durban.  Coach Clive Barker introduced Shakes in the second half and South Africa went on to win the match 3-1. Kungwane went on to play the next day against the Durban legends in a match that was staged to open the new stadium in honour of the legendary Cedric Sugar Ray Xulu in Claremont.”
Although the South African legends lost the match, Kungwane was elated to have played in honour of a legend with a magic left foot like his. He kept on reminding everyone about his common trait with Xulu, the magical left foot.
SAFCA salutes Shakes Kungwane by saying: 
IT IS NOT HOW LONG YOU LIVE, BUT HOW WELL YOU LIVE. 
-TDN
Follow us on Twitter@Taung_DailyNews or @IceT_