I Need Them, Not Their Grandmothers

Anguish turned to hope when, after suffering back-to-back relegation from first the Absa Premiership and then the NFD, and following a period of huffing and puffing in the ABC Motsepe League, Moroka Swallows found their way back to the second tier of South African football, having purchased the status of Maccabi FC prior to the beginning of the current season. The Dube Birds’ wings had been clipped and there had even been fears the club would go the way of the dodo, but those same wings are now being flapped high above in the sky, and suddenly the whole picture has changed. But there is still much to do to ensure a return to the upper echelons of Mzansi football, where Swallows enjoy a rich history. Club chairperson David Mogashoa admits as much in this interview with Soccer Laduma’s Beaver Nazo. Read on for more!

- Beaver Nazo

Beaver Nazo: Chairman, you’re one of the men behind the revival of Moroka Swallows, but not a lot is known about you. Who is David Mogashoa?

David Mogashoa: You will have to have a day, at least, if you really want to know who I am, ha, ha, ha. David was born in Newcastle in KZN 43 years ago, but I lost my father when I was only three years old. I then had to move to Limpopo because that is where my mother hails from. So, I grew up in Limpopo. I started my primary schooling late… I couldn’t when I was five because I couldn’t speak Sepedi. I had to stay at home and study Sepedi and only started two years later. I only came to Johannesburg after I passed my matric, in 1995. I started working as a packer in 1996 at a butchery before I moved to The Foschini Group as a sales assistant while doing Marketing and Computer Sciences part-time, from 1996 to 1999. Because I am an ambitious person and I felt like I was caged, I left Foschini and joined Nashua, the copier company. I worked for them from 1999 to 2004 and then I joined Imperial and that is where my passion came out because I love cars. I worked there from 2004 to 2009. I then started my own business, dealing with tyres. In 2015, I employed nine people and now we are a multi-million Rand business and we have 35 employees.

BN: That’s incredible...a real rags to riches story. So, how did you get involved with the Dube Birds?