If you were back in the comfort of your lounge in Johannesburg, Durban or wherever else you may have been watching Bafana Bafana’s matches at the Africa Cup Of Nations. Spare a thought for Amakhosi supporter Saddam Maake, who was in Tamale drumming up support for Bafana Bafana ahead of their two group matches against Angola and Tunisia.

The prominent and well liked Chiefs supporter has made many friends in Tamale and will probably do like wise when he travels for Bafana Bafana’s final game to Kumasi on Wednesday, with the match taking place on Thursday.

A visit to Maake’s hotel room at a lodge on the outskirts of Tamale, one is taken aback by the amount of South African flags and T-Shirts that he has at his disposal, and given the visual presence that South African flags have had in Tamale, he has clearly been doing his job.

After their own Black Stars, the team that the Ghanaian fans in Tamale are behind, is Bafana Bafana with South African flags fluttering from cars, police vehicles and shop fronts. Which clearly shows that Maake and his team, which includes prominent fans from other PSL teams, have been doing their job well.

Mayor of Tamale

Maake, who is part of the Tembisa branch of the Kaizer Chiefs supporters club based on Gautengs East Rand, has become a popular figure amongst the locals and has mobilized and got many of them to rally behind Bafana Bafana.

Such has been his ability to drum up support and get the locals in Tamale behind Bafana Bafana that they joked about with him and said that he should stand for mayor of Tamale. Maake himself has been thoroughly enjoying what is his fifth journey to the Cup of Nations following Bafana Bafana.

“Tamale might be one of the more rural of the four venues but I have been having a good time here. The people are very friendly and they have really helped lend their voices to Bafana Bafana”.

Bafana to Kumasi

South Africa will move out of their Tamale base which they have occupied for the last ten days on Tuesday afternoon, and will board their specially arranged charter flight which will take them to Kumasi for their final Group D game which will be against Senegal in Kumasi on Thursday afternoon.

The flight will roughly be around thirty minutes long and Bafana Bafana will be hoping that they will be playing more than one game in Kumasi, which is a possibility as long as they get a healthy win over Senegal.

For the mean time Bafana Bafana’s hotel will be occupied by Sudan who are already eliminated, and South Africa who will check into the hotel which was occupied by Cameroon during their stay in Kumasi will like the Indomitable Lions will be hoping to stay beyond the weekend in Ghana.