18 Jan 2017

As a child he thrived on football and spent many hours in the streets of Palapye.

Little be it known that he would be one of the shining stars in Botswana’s football history.

Today, John ‘Jimcraza’ Sehunelo, aged 60 who has a his own family spends most of his time at his father’s farm.

He is a difficult man to find and meeting him was an opportunity of a lifetime.

This is the man, that South African singer, John Mokhali talks about in his song about Jwaneng Young Stars.

We chat about his life as a football player during the 70s as the blue eyed boy of Jwaneng young stars.

He said he learnt how to play football using a tennis ball he got from his father. “The transition from something as small as a tennis ball to a bigger soccer ball was effortless,” he said.  

He said he topped the school’s football team at  Sebeso Primary School.
 

He  later went to St Joseph’s College, where he continued playing football.

It was at St Joseph’s where his  fame spread like wild fire, where he was subsequently name “dribbling wizard.”

By then there were two teams in Palapye, Dynamos and Swallows and later a third team was formed known as Palapye United.

During school holidays he said he would train with the Swallows team “mare e ne e jesa skim,” he said.

However, due to unforeseen circumstances he left football and school for a while.

He found a job in Orapa in a  company called LT. and started playing for White Diamond at Orapa.

While at Orapa, he had the toughest teams with strong muscular players, but they made a formidable team with the dribbling wizard.

He was the kind of player who could decide a match with just one action. He could beat defenders with his brilliant play by utilising gaps and suddenly accelerating into them, finally beating the keeper and scoring a goal.

He left White Diamond to form a team called Bucks together with three other men.

 The first game he played was against White Diamond and the Bucks team won a trophy by a 1-0 score.

His father fell ill and he had to leave Orapa to Palapye to take care of his father.

He said he one Sunday afternoon while playing soccer he got spotted by a man called Tamocha who recruited him to play for Queens Park Rangers.

 He was a quality player that developed brilliantly under the management of Tamocha (also known as Triple T) under the Queens Park Rangers. This is where he showcased his incredible ball control and fast acceleration by scoring a qualifying goal against the Red devils from Zambia.

That, he said was the highlight of his journey in football.

He moved to Jwaneng where he played for Blue Diamond for about two years.

After that the manager of Jwaneng Young Stars recruited him to play for their team. The team played against Tafic and they defeated it 3-1. Youngstars won the league and graduated to first division.

He said Mokhali saw his brilliant play at Jwaneng Young stars and later composed the song Dinaletsana.

He said Botswana might not have qualified for AFCON, but there was home grown talent that need to be celebrated.BOPA