Free State Stars boss is no more

Staff Reporter

Free State Stars Football Club chairman Mike Mokoena is no more.

The cause of his death is still unknown.

He was 68.

Announcing the sad news, the Premier Soccer League (PSL) said the death of the veteran football administrator was a sad loss as he had worked hard to build his team which had become a source of livelihood for many.

“Bra Mike was an epitome of practicality,” the PSL said in a statement.

“People do not come more practical than Mr Mokoena lived.”

Mokoena founded Free State Stars, formerly known as QwaQwa Stars, back in 1977 and saw them gaining promotion to top-flight football for the first time in 1986.

The team are currently campaigning in the National First Division.

Mokoena was also one of the founding members of the National Soccer League and a long-standing member of its executive committee.

Narrating his team’s impact on the game of football as well as on the economy of the Free State, the PSL said Mokoena had brought life to some of the little known parts of the province.

“He shined a spotlight on a little-known town in South Africa. He literally put QwaQwa and the town of Bethlehem on the map,” the PSL said.

“The economic activity generated by Free State Stars in that part of our country is a powerful legacy of a passionate man that always maintained that ‘where there is a will, there is a way.’”

The PSL described Mokoena as a selfless leader who used his own resources to build the team.

“Mike Mokoena was a self-made man that took the fruits of his toil, which he could have used for his personal benefit and that of his family and invested selflessly into football,” the top-flight soccer body said.

“The Free State Stars payroll that he created and maintained, sometimes under very trying circumstances, is a source of viable livelihood for many.

“Our prayers are with the Mokoena family, especially its matriarch, Ausi Joyce Mokoena, who has been a pillar of strength that propped Bra Mike up over the years . . . through his toil, (he) left this world a better place than he found it.”

Under the leadership of Mokoena, Stars turned raw talent into superstars.

Players such as Steve Komphela, Serame Letsoaka, Siphiwe Tshabalala, Mpho Makola, Sithembiso Ngcobo, Edward Manqele and Thabo Matlaba were all discovered by Free State Stars.