Mamelodi Sundows co-coach Rulani Mokwena has sent a heartfelt message to those affected by floods that happened in KwaZulu-Natal this week.
According to the reports, over 300 people have lost their lives and many more have been left homeless due to the severe floods in KZN.
Its been close to five days after heavy rains had heartbreaking impacts on the lives of many people in the province and Mokwena didn’t want to start his match preview for their CAF Champions League match against Petro De Luanda without mentioning those at home.
“As a South African even though we are away from home, our hearts, our prayers are still with our many South Africans particularly those that are affected by current situation that is happening in Kwa-Zulu Natal,” Mokwena told Sundowns’ media team.
“We would like to first extend sincere condolences, commiserations to the families of the periled those that have lost family members, loved ones really through these devastating floods but also secondly we would like to pray and extend feelings of safety towards all those that are responsible for the mop-up operation in the KZN.”
We’re saddened by the news that over 300 South Africans have lost their lives in the #KZNFloods so far. We wanted to express our heartfelt condolences to the affected families and friends. Our thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by this tragedy. 🕯️ pic.twitter.com/4zKizGteKL
— iDiski Times (@iDiskiTimes) April 14, 2022
Sundowns will face Luanda in their CAF Champions League quarter-final first leg in Angola on Saturday and Mokwena believes winning their last two games has definitely helped his side to build the right momentum after his free-scoring side netted 15 goals in their last three games, including 6-0 triumph over Lamontville Golden Arrows.
“Well at least the good thing on physiological perspective is we come from two very good results where we scored a lot of goals and in particular the game against Golden Arrows was a demonstration of how much we’ve put in from the beginning of the season up until now,” he added.
“So from that perspective we come to this game with a lot of confidence, the players understand that we are in this part of the season where every single match counts. These are what we call ‘games of consequences’ – I labelled them as ‘games of consequences’ a little bit earlier and coming in this second round with a clear understanding everybody is playing for something and all the fixtures have some form of a determination, be it in the domestic front and be it in the Champions League, so we know what at stake.”
Downs already faced their Angolan counterparts in 2020 during group stages of this competition when they played to a 2-2 draw in Angola after Masandawana won the home fixture 3-0. While Downs topped their group ahead of Al Ahly, Luanda finished second in Group D behind Wydad Casablanca, who handed them a heavy 5-1 defeat on the final day of the group phases.
