Motjeka Madisha burial took place in Ga-Madisha in Limpopo this morning eight weeks after he died following a motor vehicle crash near the club’s base in Chloorkop.
Madisha won his first three Bafana Bafana caps – two at the 2015 COSAFA Cup before adding another in the 2016 CHAN qualifiers – well before he even made his debut at Mamelodi Sundowns where he was already knocking on the first-team door having graduated from the club’s juniors.
His first taste of first-team football came in the Champions League away at Enyimba where he put in a 90-minute shift in challenging conditions in the populous West African nation.
By then he had already been to Highlands Park in the first division on loan. Where he played just twice in the 2015/16 season as the club won promotion to the PSL.
After making his debut at Sundowns he never played again that year. But he remained part of the matchday squad for the rest of that competition. And he was on the bench for both legs of the final against Zamalek.
His league debut was against Maritzburg United on September 14, 2016. Just weeks after he had played first-team football for the first time away in Nigeria.
The year 2017 was his breakthrough as he played 36 games through that calendar year. Period during which he scored his first goal against Free State Stars.
His input and value were both increasing. And when The Brazilians won the first of three titles in a row in 2017/18, he was already a regular whose league appearances count went up to 26.
For the next campaign he made sporadic appearances as Sundowns won the league again.
Last season he was the go-to man at the back playing 46 out of all the 52 games that the club played.
This season he had played six games with his last appearance coming on 28th November last year against Stellenbosch.
On his CV he already had a CAF Champions League winners’ medal, three league titles, Telkom Knockout and Nedbank Cup. And he was Bafana Bafana international who played in all of the last four games for the senior national team.
He also played for both the national under-20 and under-23 teams.
A life taken away just a month before he turned 26.