Andrew Watson: The 'most influential' black footballer for decades lost to history

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  By Andrew Aloia BBC Sport Last updated on 11 October 2021 11 October 2021 . From the section Football Watson was a trailblazer who helped transform how football was played There are two murals of black footballers facing one another across an alleyway in Glasgow. One helped shape football as we know it, the other is Pele. Andrew Watson captained Scotland to a 6-1 win over England on his debut in 1881. He was a pioneer, the world's first black international, but for more than a century the significance of his achievements went unrecognised. Research conducted over the past three decades has left us with some biographical details: a man descended of slaves and of those who enslaved them, born in Guyana, raised to become an English gentleman and famed as one of Scottish football's first icons. And yet today, 100 years on from his death aged 64, Watson remains something of an enigma, the picture built around him a fractured one. His grainy, faded, sepia image evokes many differen

POLITICS Phumzile Van Damme shades Zuma’s Nkandla home - ‘SA built this man a lounge the size of a restaurant'

 Cebelihle Bhengu

19 February 2021 - 13:00
Some South Africans said they wanted 'their share back' when DA MP Phumzile Van Damme commented on the size of Jacob Zuma's living room at his Nkandla homestead. File photo.
Some South Africans said they wanted 'their share back' when DA MP Phumzile Van Damme commented on the size of Jacob Zuma's living room at his Nkandla homestead. File photo.
Image: Esa Alexander

Besides the contents of the meeting between former president Jacob Zuma and police minister Bheki Cele, what caught the attention of DA MP Phumzile Van Damme was the size of Zuma’s lounge at his Nkandla homestead in KwaZulu-Natal.  

Pictures of the two ANC members circulated on social media after Zuma’s daughter, Duduzile, shared them on Twitter.

Unlike Zuma’s recent tea meeting with EFF leader Julius Malema, Cele was served fruit in the former president’s lounge.

“South Africa built this man a lounge the size of a restaurant,” tweeted Van Damme, taking a jab at the Zuma’s homestead.

Her post sparked tons of reactions, with some saying they want their “share back” and others dismissing Van Damme. 

The police minister did not address the media about his meeting with Zuma, but the former president’s daughter took to Twitter to give SA a glimpse of what was shared.

“No Nkandla tea was served but great conversations and laughs were shared among  comrades, one of them being, should an arrest warrant be issued, it is the minster  would come and fetch [former] president Jacob Zuma,” she joked.

Zuma faces the prospect of jail time after he refused to appear before the state capture inquiry this week after the Constitutional Court ordered to him to testify. 


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