To have followed the Dumisani Ndlovu owned Benoni Premier United in their years in the top two-tier leagues meant an equal appreciation for the man whose presence defined the heart and soul of the club.
That was July Mahlangu – a lanky midfielder who played football with the rhythm of an accomplished guitarist.
It has been over a decade since Mahlangu disappeared from the face of the game yet those that played with him sing sweet melodies about his influence on the pitch.
"I joined Benoni Premier while they were in the first division and immediately met a player named July Mahlangu," says Obinna Okafor who won promotion with Benoni and then stayed on with them in their single campaign in the PSL.
"July Mahlangu was the best footballer that I ever played with because he could decide a game on his own from the middle.
"It is unfortunate that in football not everyone gets to play for Kaizer Chiefs, Orlando Pirates or Mamelodi Sundowns.
"I can never and will never dispute how much he made us tick at Benoni.
"In every game he would stamp his authority in the middle.
"I think July was once invited to Chiefs after the Play-Offs but then if you really didn't have a backbone, you wouldn't have left Benoni.
"If he had left Benoni I think he would have made it big because teams really wanted him.
"However, I feel he had some kind of bond with Ndlovu which made him not have the energy and strength to leave.
"I somehow thought that July felt he owed Ndlovu, but he was the best and remains the best of those that I played football with.
"July was a perfect fit for all the big teams," points out Okafor who also met a teenager named Bernard Parker at Benoni.
'One thing that I noticed about Bernard after I just joined the team was that he was serious about his trade despite being young.
"I found some of the younger to be not so serious about the way they went about their football duties.
"Bernard trained with the same commitment that he would put in a game and that impressed me about him.
"He would train as if he were playing a game and that was one trait that you couldn't take away from him.
"He might have never set the scene alight at Benoni and only flourished after the team became Thanda but there were never questions about how much he loved his job.
"In terms of his work ethic, I was never surprised that Bernard then went on to play in Serbia, Holland, and Greece," says Okafor looking back to his time at Benoni.
"Benoni was a club and a half owned by the late Dumisani Ndlovu who was a man that you couldn't understand.
"I enjoyed my time there as much as we had our ups and downs which included not even talking to him even though I was playing in his team.
"We would not even see eye to eye because of money issues.
"I had plenty encounters with him because I was a foreigner and needed money to support my family who I needed to pay their rent back in Pietermaritzburg where they stayed.
"It was a big mess with him, but he had his way of getting the best out of you.
"He knew how to cheer you up and promise you heaven and earth but not deliver.
"But I enjoyed playing football for Benoni," says Okafor who played football against the will of his parents.
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