A voice and face synonymous with horseracing television in South Africa, the popular Cecil Mthembu will host his final racemeeting at the Vaal today before cantering off into the sunset of retirement.
“I turned 65 on 12 January and in terms of policy, I will retire today. But it’s an honour and a wonderful surprise to receive your call,” the even tempered and ever polite Cecil told the Sporting Post as he readied himself to travel to Vereeniging.
Cecil Mthembu – retires today (Pic – Supplied)
Thanks to groundwork done by fellow broadcasting legend Neil Andrews, we can recount that Cecil Mthembu has been presenting for close on thirty years dating back to the halcyon IGN days through SuperTrack, Tellytrack and now to 4Racing’s Racing Today on Channel 240.
The Mthembu family was initially resident in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal, but moved to Sophiatown shortly before Cecil Enoch was born in the Bridgman Clinic Mayfair, Johannesburg.
As a single mom with her three-year-old son, Mom and Cecil moved to what was then Rhodesia and it was there that he grew up.
In 1974, after living for a year in Malawi, Cecil left for the United Kingdom and settled for a while in the Somerset cathedral town of Wells.
Although he wrote his O levels in Birmingham, Cecil swears he never met any of the Peaky Blinders but he did dabble in the catering industry for a while before moving to the bright lights of London in 1981.
In the capital, he lived in Highgate, less than four miles from White Hart Lane. No surprise then that soon, spellbound by Glenn Hoddle, he fell in love with Tottenham Hotspur FC.
Cecil returned to the land of his birth in 1995, his return coinciding with the euphoria around South Africa’s hosting of the Rugby World Cup.
Urban legend says that Cecil was ‘discovered’ by the late Terence Kirchner whilst working in the M-Net tape library.
The lived experience from his years in the UK not only ignited his passion for Spurs but also for horseracing.
On reflection he reckons that it was the Aga Khan-owned Shergar, who in 1981 famously won the 202nd running of the Epsom Derby by 10 lengths, that was the likely genesis of his love of the sport. Those early seeds of interest were germinated by the media coverage afforded the colt’s infamous kidnapping in February 1983.
His broadcast schedule seldom allowed him to be on-track but he was at Hollywoodbets Greyville when Pocket Power dead-heated with Dancer’s Daughter in the 2008 Durban July – a race he says is his most memorable.
In 2021 Cecil underwent treatment for prostate cancer, which he says is now in remission. He is thankfully generally healthy, but suffered a haemorrhage in his left eye recently and will likely never regain 100% vision.
“Health comes under pressure with age and father time. But I’m good!” he adds.
As to the future, Cecil tells us that he is going to put his legs up in February, and will make himself available for ad hoc work from 1 March.
“There are platforms like the Racing Today show, which I can contribute to. And in reality, I didn’t apply for the retirement – that’s the policy! I’m strong enough to have carried on and I am going to miss all the stakeholders and wonderful folk that I have had the pleasure of working with over the years,” he enthused.
The first race at the Vaal starts at 12h25 today on what Cecil labels a ‘tricky card’.
