The book a good attempt but lacks adequate research on Pisto Mosimane’s life

By Giyani Baloi
Title: Pitso Mosimane Cry Baby or misunderstood genius
Author: Hosea P Ramphekwa

This is not Pitso Mosiname’s biography. You won’t find anything about Pitso’s first girlfriend. You won’t find anything about his first wife, etc, declares Hosea Ramphekwa. Then what is the book about?

I can also vouch that Pitso Mosimane is South Africa’s best coach and among the best soccer coaches in Africa without a doubt. It seems like there is a relationship between temperament and success. Or is it a challenge of understanding, reading, and interpreting each other between journalists and coaches. You may agree with me that a journalist is like a middleman between members of the public and the coach, hence the tension. Sometimes, a journalist may misread a coach and tell the public or the coach’s employer wrong things about the coach.That way, the coach is sold.

 There are many things that cause that. A coach is trained and often knows what he is doing, better than the interpreter, who is a journalist in this case. But the interpreter wants to pass on to the public what he thinks and not what the coach thinks. Then the war breaks loose.

I see some of the world’s best soccer coaches like Pep Guardiola and others becoming so tense to journalists’ questions. Even politicians don’t seem to enjoy the company of journalists. But they also need them to get their message across. It’s that endless love-hate relationship

Pitso Mosimane has won it all in soccer and also burnt a lot of bridges on his journey to his soccer coaching success. He is the only South African coach to win three CAF champion’s league cups. He won one CAF Cup with Mamelodi Sundowns and two with Africa’s best soccer club, Aly Ahly of Egypt.

Writing a book about such a figure can be an ambitious undertaking. Because you need to push hard enough to give justice to the person you are attempting to write about. Worse, if you are writing an unauthorized book about a person. You need to research thoroughly and write the notes and indexes. Otherwise, you may only say I was told this by so and so, and I heard him say this and that.That way, it may become a book of hearsay.

I am not taking anything away from Hosea Ramphekwa’s effort to write a book about Pitso Mosimane. But when we write books and put them out there for people to read, we must also know that people will read and say their view on our books. So, it should not be just a book to brag about in our drinking holes with our fellow journalists and pseudo writers.