The day God-fearing AmaZayoni resorted to muti

In this edition of My Muti Story, KickOff catches up with former Witbank Aces and Acardia Shepherds striker Mark Lester.

Lester says he will never forget the weekend Aces management, a club known as 'AmaZayoni' decided to try muti for the first time, and it backfired. 

Who and where? 

"I still remember the one weekend when I was still playing for Witbank Aces, where we played against Hellenic on a Friday, and Cape Town Spurs on a Sunday.

"And they gave us this new muti that they came up with. And they put it into our socks. That was just before the games. And both games, we lost them 3-0 [laughs].  

"And we never had muti ever again [laughs]. And I still remember that muti, it looked like mud." 

Why were you doing it? 

"We were just told the club thought it was a good idea to try this muti guy who will try and help the team. And everything backfired.

"There was also a time where we played against Orlando Pirates, and I was playing for Arcadia; we didn't have any muti, and Pirates had muti, and we beat them 3-0 in Soweto at Orlando Stadium [laughs]." 

Who was the muti man? 

"At Witbank Aces, we didn't have a muti man, it was a once-off thing, and of course, at Arcadia, we didn't have one either."

What did you have to do?  

"Nothing. We just got into the bus before the game, and we washed our feet in that bath, and then there was a little bit of muti on the socks, and it didn't work anything." 

Did everyone take part? 

"I think everybody did it. I was a Christian back then, and I still am, and I wasn't nervous about those things at all." 

What stood out? 

"I don't think it had any bearing on the game, to be honest. Most guys I knew and played with didn't believe in it. And I played with a lot of different guys and black guys you know. 

"At Aces we didn't have that; it was more the other teams we always played against, Pirates, Chiefs, and AmaZulu, amongst others.