In our exciting feature My Welcome To The League Moment, it is the turn of former Bush Bucks star William Mugeyi to regale KickOff readers about his early days at the Eastern Cape club.
Mugeyi recalls his shock at witnessing politics literally mixing with sport in the Bush Bucks dressing room.
"When I arrived in Mthatha in 1993, it was during the Apartheid era in South Africa," he reminds this publication.
"So, in the country, there was this rivalry between the Inkatha Freedom Party and the ANC - Xhosas versus the Zulus.
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"In our team, we had players from both the KZN and the Eastern Cape. So, when we were playing matches, it was like they were playing against each other, they were not passing the ball to each other. But you know, at that time we didn't read between the lines what was going on.
"The Zulus, when they get the ball, don't pass the Xhosas, and the Xhosas would do the same thing.
"During half-time in the dressing room, we couldn't understand the language or what was being discussed. There was a lot of shouting. Even the coach would go back to the field without having said a single word. We started asking what was going on and no one could explain to us," details Mugeyi.
He says he and his brother then took matters into their own hands, confronting the coach about this mayhem and madness that was playing out in front of them, much to their confusion.
"After the match, me and my brother Wilfred, we asked the coach, Bizwell Phiri, who was from Zambia: 'Hey coach, phela some of these things you must explain to us, we are not familiar with them'. Then he explained to us that he also had a big problem with the language barrier because all this was about a fight between the Zulus and the Xhosas."
This helped, to a certain extent, in them having an understanding of the situation, he reveals.
"A Xhosa is free to score, but the Zulu doesn't want to pass him the ball [laughs]. Yho! That's when I realised ukuthi I'm at the wrong place here.
"I even said to my brother: 'Wilfred, bro, let's go back home.' I think that's the day I will never forget, that was my 'Welcome to the League' moment."
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Meanwhile, the division in camp went on and on, he remembers.
"It was never resolved. We finished the season and started a new one, it was the same story. Then some of the players were released, and things became better."