Soccer hero Philemon Mulala is latest South African pit bull victim

South African pit bull-inflicted fatality rate,  over past 100 days,  soars to four times the U.S. record rate of 2022

LICHTENBERG,  South Africa––Few Americans would recognize the name Philemon Mulala,  but among soccer fans in Africa,  he enjoyed approximately the fame of a major league baseball player who punctuated a career longer than most by hitting two home runs to win a game in the World Series.

On January 7,  2023 that renown made former soccer star Philemon Mulala,  60,  the best known pit bull fatality yet,  worldwide––or at least the victim who was most famous for something other than the gruesome manner of his death.

Staffordshire pit bulls killed Mulala in his garden

Philemon Mulala was killed in his own Lichtenberg garden during an electricity blackout by the two Staffordshire pit bulls and a dog of unidentified breed,  possibly a pit bull mix,  shared with his wife Lillian Chileshe.

“I didn’t know our three dogs were biting my husband to death,”  Chileshe told police and media.  “I was busy at the backyard.

“Yes,  I heard the dogs barking,”  Chileshe admitted,  “but I thought they were barking at people and cars passing by on the street,  because our house is located on a very busy street.”

“Outside their home,  situated along the busy Thabo Mbeki Drive in Lichtenburg,  North West [province], is a sign warning people about the dogs,”  observed the television network News24.

“We never thought they would turn against us”

“However,  when electricity was restored,”  Chileshe continued,  “I started looking for my husband and saw him lying motionless in the garden.

“That was when I realized that he was bitten to death by the three dogs,”  Chileshe said.

“We loved dogs. We never thought they would turn against us,”  Chileshe finished.

“We never thought they would turn” has been the mantra of nearly 10,000 other pit bull owners whose dogs have killed or disfigured someone since ANIMALS 24-7 began logging the cases and tracking the numbers in 1982.

Police spokesperson Captain Sam Tselanyane confirmed the details of the attack.

Followed brother to stardom

Born in Tanganyika,  the former British colony that was merged with Zanzibar to become Tanzania,  Mulala followed his elder brother Philemon Kaunda to stardom with the Mufulira Wanderers,  founded in 1953 and the dominant Zambian soccer club ever since.

Philemon Kaunda,  a central defender,  debuted in professional soccer with the Wanderers while still attending Kantanshi Secondary School in 1977.

Becoming a starter for the Wanderers in 1979,  Kaunda was already near the peak of his career when Mulala arrived in 1983.

Used at first as a left back,  Mulala proved to be a hard worker,  nicknamed “Shombo,”  meaning “pepper,”  for his efforts.

However,  because Mulala was better on offense than defense,  he was soon moved by coach Samuel “Zoom” Ndhlovu to a starting position as right winger

Kicked Zambia to first African championship

Both Kaunda and Mulala were named to the Zambian national team at the end of 1984.

Zambia had never won the championship cup offered annually since 1927 by the Council for East & Central Africa Football Associations.

Mulala on December 7,  1984 kicked the goal that earned a 1-1 tie with Uganda to put Zambia in the championship tournament finals.

Five days later,  on December 12,  1984,  Mulala came off the Zambian bench in extended overtime to kick both goals in the 2-0 victory over Kenya that at last brought Zambia the championship.

Both brothers were also part of the Zambian national team that in April 1985 reached the second round of eliminations in the Federation Internationale de Football Association World Cup tournament,  defeating but then achieving only a tie in two matches against Cameroon.

Quiet but contradictory

Kaunda played on for the Mufulira Wanderers through 1986,  then played two years with the Mbabane Dribbling Wizards and three years with the Moneni Pirates.

Kaunda ended his career as a non-playing assistant coach for the Cape Town Spurs,  of Cape Town,  South Africa.

Mulala left the Wanderers after the 1985 season,  playing for the Cape Town Spurs in 1986 and 1987,  for the Johannesburg Rangers in 1988 and 1989,  and for the Kaizer Chiefs of Soweto in 1990,  finishing his career with the Giyani Dynamos.

Posted former Chiefs and Dynamos star Marks Maponyane to Twitter,  “Sad to read about the passing of my former teammate/striking partner Philemon Mulala.

“He was a very contradictory man or contrast in attitude,” Maponyane added to FARPost. “Very quiet as a person,  but he was very strong and willing to play.  He was sort of a staunch stocky striker.”

After Mulala’s playing career ended,  he took up a business career in Lichtenberg.

Seventh South African death by pit bull in 52 days

Mulala was the seventh South African pit bull fatality in 52 days,  and the first of 2023,  coming nine days after the mauling death of Melitta Sekole,  43,  of Senwabarwana, Limpopo state,  brought a culpable homicide charge against pit bull owner Nchabeleng Charles Masebe.

            (See Pit bull owner charged with culpable homicide in South Africa.)

Both deaths reinvigorated the Sizwe Kupelo Foundation campaign for a South African national ban on pit bulls,  begun after the September 26,  2022 pit bull mauling death of 10-year-old Storm Nuku in Gqerberha,  Cape Province.

Nuku’s death was followed by those of eight-year-old Olebogeng Mosime on November 12,  2022 in Bloemfontein,  three-year-old Keketso Innocent Saule on November 20,  2022 in Hennenman,  fifteen-month-old Reuben le Roux on November 23,  2022 in East London,  37-year-old Zimkhitha Brenda Gaga on November 27,  2022 in Port Alfred,  and 39-year-old Floyd Metsileng,  39,  on December 3,  2022.

Death rate four times that of U.S.

The South African pit bull attack death rate over the past 365 days is approximately equal to that of the U.S. pit bull attack rate since 2020.

South Africa,  however,  has less than 20% of the U.S. human population,  is believed to have fewer than 20% as many dogs,  and over the past 100 days has had a pit bull attack death rate more than four times as high as that of the U.S.

(See Dogs killed 62 Americans & three Canadians in 2022; pit bulls killed 41.)

Altogether,  of 102 dogs involved in fatal attacks in South Africa since 2004,  75 have been pit bulls.

Firefighter Sizwe Kupelo in December 2022 electronically transmitted a petition bearing 138,000 signatures favoring a pit bull ban to Department of Agriculture,  Land Reform & Rural Development minister Thoko Didiza,  after Didiza refused to meet with him in person.

The petition was endorsed by the Congress of South African Trade Unions [COSATU],  the largest labor federation in the nation,  and by the Economic Freedom Fighters political party [EFF],  founded by former African National Congress Youth League president Julius Malem,  but has not yet drawn any official response from the ruling African National Congress.

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