Well, so many things to say about this upload, just don't know how to say them.
On the this day 46 years ago, the 2nd greatest man that walked this earth was born, the 1st is his father... and that's only my opinion. Well he goes by the a lot of names, some call him Manyora, some call him Boutros Boutros-Ghali (which I inherited, people in Temba still call me Small Ghali) after the late UN President, because he united people, and when he spoke, people listened, and some just call him Puleng, well his birth name is Puleng Samuel Malemane.
So you ask, what is he to me? Well 1st and foremost he is my uncle, and also my role-model, best friend, comforter, eerrr I could go on all day... he is the last of 4 children that were concived by Lucas Augustus Malemane and Hilda Mabjale Malemane.
For the 26 years of my life I have known this man, he taught me 90% of the things I know about life, the streets and being a man, when I macked on someone for the 1st time in my life it was because of him, when I drove a car for the 1st time it was because of him, during my 1st fist fight he was rite behind me, I can still remember him saying "Bhanzi (another name he gave me) mofe right san". Besides my cousin Jacob Moshokoa I could safely say he is the only person in the family that understood me, knows what I am about, and he is the only other family member I could "really openly talk to" about anything. I was closer to him than I am and will ever be with my own father.Over the past 4-5 weeks my life has gone thru an extreme make over, and I wish he was still around, because he would know what I should do from this point on, he would know the rite things to say to pick me up. One evening in May 2011, a few weeks after myself and him hung out for a drink and soccer, he woke up 1 morning and he was blind... shocking I know, when I 1st learnt of this news, I wasn't worried, because of what I knew of him, he was a fighter / a soldier / a warrior and what we used to call each "MOKAKATI" which is similar to "Skhokho". "He can't just wake up blind, he'll be alright", that's what I thought to myself, the next day I went to see him in hospital, what I saw wasn't my uncle, it was someone else, someone I have never met, he couldn't see me, but he could hear me... "Sure Manyora" - I said, "Kabzino, o sale bhari mfanaka?" He responded, I said "Malome nkaba bhari jwang kele mfana ya gao" , and he replied "just making sure my laaitie". After that I still thought that he would bounce back to himself, boy was I wrong. His condition got worse, I feared to go see him again in hospital because I didn't know what to expect, then finally on 5th of June 2011 (which just so happens to be my sister's birthday) I got a call from my dad to let me know that he has passed on, I could feel the world crumble around me, life has never been the same after that. 6 months later and there still isn't a day I don't think about him, he is after all my hero...
R.I.P Malome and as we used to say "Mokakati never dies" , to me you will never die...
