THE BOOK COVER cover of Ghetto Ninja – The Junior Khanye Story, has the semblance of a Tinseltown movie poster!
The protagonist – a teenage version of the now 36-year-old – is depicted striking a gung-ho pose whilst staring askance from the camera, mouth agape and with some toothpick of sorts dangling from his lower lip.
He possesses the schoolgirl-heartbreaking-handsome-dude’s looks replete with his trademark blonde hair.
That the cover evokes the make believe realm of Hollywood is complemented by the surreal life experiences the erstwhile Kaizer Chiefs FC winger hailing from the hardscrabble Ekurhuleni township of Daveyton, has had to navigate through – frankly, what he had partly subjected himself to!
Transcribed by the en vogue author of two other tomes about footballers (The Curse of Teko Modise and Strike a Rock – The Thembi Kgatlana Story), namely, Nikolaos Kirkinis, Khanye’s biography, whose title was inspired by the star’s love for Kung Fu flicks, reads like a thriller the converse of familiar reality. It is a cauldron stewing with ingredients ranging from the proverbial, wine-women-and-song to the parable of being one’s own worst enemy. It is laced with conscience awakening lines such as: “Why did you sleep with Nomsa? You were warned that she had a man!” (This was after the soccer star had cavorted with the girlfriend of a feared gangster.) Inter alia, it casts the spotlight on a sporting hero’s proclivity for philandering.
It is, at places, the tragic saga of the son of a footballer father who ironically discouraged him from taking up the sport as a career, and whom he had to ultimately loose at the blades of thugs’ knives – strangely, motivated by a neighbour’s jealousy from seeing soccer’s rewards filtering through to the Khanye family in the form of their upgrading from a zinc shack they had resided in for a lengthy period, to a brick house.
Surgent, Junior’s dad – and to whom the book is dedicated – is shown on the book’s back cover posing carrying his eldest son (the youngest, Tebogo, died at the age of five) on a neighbourhood street. The paterfamilias’ demise resulted in the son laying him to rest on his birthday.
Kirkinis’ account delves into Khanye’s talent propelling him onto the books of Amakhosi whilst a teenager and the repeated incidents of ill-discipline which put paid to his brief stint with the vaunted footballing brand; the ravages of liquor and the multiple automobile crashes due to its adverse influence on him; letting down those who cherished him; a perpetual knack for self-destruction and his ultimate redemption through joining the Zion Christian Church.
A juncture in his still young life seasoned broadcaster, Robert Marawa, observed thus: “He crushed his dream only to resurrect himself!”
At the book’s launch at the Rosebank Mall branch of Exclusive Books, a now dried-out and repentant Khanye, showed up alongside Kirkinis and SABC presenter, Melody Miya – who was facilitating a panel discussion in front of a multiracial crowd of about a 100 – an impressive mode dressed up in celebrity-esque shades and a snazzy Fabiani shirt.
Hailing from the same location which gave South African soccer, Jabu Mahlangu and Skapie Malatsi, Khanye was described by the author as belonging to a “naughty generation of players.”
Khanye sums his past as his having had to experience the things he did.
Whether such an assertion could be interpreted as an excuse from someone who once had it all only to let it slip whilst conscious, is objective since his re-born version appear to speak from genuineness.
A 250-page soft cover published by Tafelberg, Ghetto Ninja retails for R250.00.
Image Jacob MAWELA (Junior Khanye, former Kaizer Chiefs player recorded gesticulating while engaging in a panel discussion at the launch of the book on his life. Looking on is facilitator Melody Miya).
