It's muti Monday, every Monday we get in touch with a former player where they share a memorable muti story from their playing days.
In this edition of My Muti Story, we hear from former Umtata Bush Bucks and Kaizer Chiefs player Lifa Gqosha.
Who and where?
"At Umtata Bush Bucks and usually it was done in hotels. In fact, all the teams I played for used muti. Most times the rituals took place in hotels and in stadiums.
"There was an incident where we were in Mthatha and we were playing against Kaizer Chiefs.
"One morning in the wee hours of the morning we were taken to our muti man's place. What he did is, he smeared some stuff on our bodies, we were then instructed not to speak to anyone for the duration of that day.
"Imagine you are camping in a hotel, you have to go and eat in that hotel's restaurant and you are told not to speak to anyone. How are you supposed to tell the waiters what you would like to eat that day? You want to ask something, and you couldn't ask.
"The hotel staff was like, hey you guys today you are full of yourselves you don't want to speak to us because you are playing Kaizer Chiefs?
"We had to use the sign language that day. You wanted sunny-side-up eggs, you didn't know how to tell the hotel staff.
"You get to the stadium, supporters want to shake hands with you and you had to ignore them…eish it was tough.
Why were you doing it?
"Apparently we were protecting ourselves because other teams were using it."
Who was the muthi man?
"A certain old man from UMzimkhulu called Mageba. A very short man who spoke in Isibhaca. He used to dress in normal clothes, you wouldn't tell he was a muti man."
What did you have to do?
"Remain positive, believe the muti will work and not speak to anyone. You speak to someone, and the team loses, you are to blame. But funny enough you speak to somebody, and the team still wins, you won't be blamed."
Did everyone take part?
"Yes of course, these things of being a born-again Christian was not there in our time."
What stood out?
"What happened during the half-time break and in the second half? The muti man came to the dressing room and said, now things are going to change.
"He then gave us another muti to smear on ourselves. When we went back to the pitch for the second-half a huge wind started blowing. And that wind blew in the Kaizer Chiefs' direction. The unthinkable happened out of the blue on a very hot day. Within two minutes we scored."
What was the result?
"We beat them with that one goal, that was in 1994."