Exclusive: Kaizer Chiefs Legend William Shongwe Reveals How the Club Can Restore their Fear Factor

Following Kaizer Chiefs' 2-0 victory over Stellenbosch FC on Sunday, legend William Shongwe challenges the Soweto Giants to pull together a longer string of victories in order to instil faith and belief in their supporters.

The Start

Chiefs ended the 2024/25 season on a high, beating Orlando Pirates in the final of the Nedbank Cup to win the first trophy in over a decade.

That trophy brought hope to Naturena after the team had endured many tough years where they failed to win any silverware.

To get the 2025/26 season started, Chiefs beat Stellenbosch FC 2-0 at Athlone Stadium in Cape Town on Sunday evening.

Despite the victory, in an exclusive interview with SportsBoom.co.za, club legend William Shongwe highlighted that coach Nasreddine Nabi's side is not a finished product.

"It was a good start, but I think it is still important to say, hey, Chiefs also are not a complete product as yet. First, I think they got the luck of a red card from Stellis, and that maybe made things a little bit easier, but Stellis still came up very strong even after they went a man down," Shongwe told SportsBoom.co.za. 

"There were still some close calls, they were still making mistakes of giving the ball away in positions where the recovery was almost zero. But maybe Stellis wasn't clinical at all in front of goal. I think that's maybe the one thing that worked on the part of Kaizer Chiefs."

"But maybe the biggest improvement, we don't know if it's an improvement or it was just by luck; defensively, Chiefs concede a lot of goals, stupid goals, cheap goals because of schoolboy mistakes, at least that's one thing that didn't happen in yesterday's game. I'd like to think this is how they're going to look now."

"Eliminate those defensive errors, then you've got a much better Chiefs because they can go forward with speed and with quality, but it's what they do eventually, having taken the lead in most cases, whereby they concede and then they lose the lead and eventually lose the game."

"If there's one thing that was very evident last season was that Chiefs can't hold onto a lead. So, you get that right, you've corrected half the team's problems. I'm hoping that what we see will be maybe a little bit of what we might see going forward into the season."

Losing the fear factor

Because of the decade of drought at Kaizer Chiefs, Shongwe believes that teams around the country have almost no respect for them, at least not the same than when Chiefs were enjoying a golden era.

Shongwe believes that the style of football that is currently in display is so different to the authoritative style of yesteryear, a feat that has slowly reduced their fans' confidence in the club.

The 63-year-old challenges the team to pull together a longer string of victories in order to instil the confidence and belief in their fans.

"I think they've drifted so far from the styles that they don't even send fear to whoever they're coming up against. This is a big change that happened at Kaizer Chiefs because of their lack of good results for a long time. Teams don't fear them anymore," said Shongwe.

"They take them on as well, unlike in the past when a team was going to play Chiefs, they always played with fear, having a deep line of defence where they hardly troubled Chiefs in the offensive part of the field."

"But now that has changed. Teams are playing with a lot of confidence against Chiefs, and they don't fear. That fear factor, they don't have it anymore."

"They need to build it up. It must be said that it is a miracle that Chiefs have maintained this level of attendance even after so many disappointing seasons. But that's one thing that Chiefs have kept going, which always keeps the players and the coach under a lot of pressure. That is working."

"Now, the coach can use that to garner the momentum with this first win. It's like, now let's get on to the second one. They were never able, for the whole of last season, never did they win three on the trot. This is a moment that they can use to say, okay, we got the first one."

"Yes, we're a bit shaky, but we got all three points. Let's win the next one. Let's see if we can win the third one. I'm telling you Chiefs need just a few wins and everybody's back full and strong."

Chiefs are set to host Polokwane City at FNB Stadium on Wednesday, 13 August.

A bad start for Sundowns & Pirates

Shongwe weighed in on Mamelodi Sundowns and Orlando Pirates' rather disappointing starts to the season as Sundowns drew one-all against a weakened Chippa United, while Pirates lost 0-1 at home to Sekhukhune United.

"It's not the kind of start that you would want to see for Sundowns, not being able to get all three points from a Chippa side that was not at full strength," said Shongwe.

"Maybe Chippa had one defender in that whole team, a central defender. They played with three, but they had one out-and-out defender (Seun Ndlovu). Otherwise, the other one is a full-back, that is (Malebogo) Modise, and Ayabulela Konqobe is actually an attacking midfielder."

"I mean, it's like it's a rugged team. Nowhere near the kind of team that you'd love to see from a Chippa United point of view. So, it goes to show that in football, you can predict, but only at your peril.  Pirates also slipped up here."

On Tuesday, 12 August, Sundowns host Amazulu FC at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria, while Pirates travel to the Dr Molemela Stadium in Bloemfontein.