Witbank Spurs chairman Themba Mafu has rewarded his former striker Humphrey Khaniel in an unusual way by paying for his studies.
Khaniel, who played for the Emalahleni based side from the days it was called Ferrometals in the Vodacom League (now ABC Motsepe league), now works as a construction manager at Transnet in Witbank, and he says all this wouldn't be possible if it was not for Witbank Spurs owner Themba Mafu.
"I played for Witbank Spurs until I retired in 2014," Khaniel tells snl24.com/kickoff.
"When I was busy playing soccer I was also staying studying at Tshwane University of Technology [Witbank Campus]. I have studied Electrical Engineering so now I'm busy with BTech. This year I'm completing BTech. I'm studying and working at the same time as a construction manager. We do a project for Transnet, we supervise the contractor to see if it does its job according to Transnet specifications. Normally we are constructing substations for Transnet.
"I wanted to be a chemical engineer actually, so after completing [high school] I couldn't get a bursary you see. So I stuck to soccer, luckily in Witbank there was a campus and they were offering engineering so the course I got was for Electrical. It's something I would highly recommend to the young boys and girls out there as a career. At high school they must do maths and science, then after school you register for electrical engineering. Because I was good at playing soccer my boss Themba Mafu offered to pay for my studies. He even bought me text books when I needed them."