Sitting in a plush boardroom in offices within a purpose-built training centre and headquarters for the most famous football club in Africa, drinking tea with a local legend and post-Apartheid success story.
But Kaizer Motaung, he of the Kaizer Chiefs (note the spelling), is a modest, softly spoken man with an illustrious playing career behind him and a secure business future.
The Chiefs, now largely a family business, were created from nothing in the 1970s - the dark days of Apartheid when black teams were forbidden from playing at the best stadia, as they were in 'white' areas. Kaizer was playing for the Atlanta Chiefs in the US and was persuaded to return and build a new club around himself. He was personally very popular in South Africa, so the team grew very quickly. The new headquarters are now situated within a free kick of Soweto and the famous painted power station cooling towers which can be seen from the windows.
Arch rivals Orlando Pirates lost some of their team members to the Chiefs, which sparked a rivalry that exists to this day, and even divides people along political lines. But sometimes, to foreign eyes, it seems everything in South Africa is divided along political lines.
As the country approaches its showcase event of the 2010 World Cup, it is struggling to meet the demands of a growing population and economic growth. We are very aware of those demands as we are sitting in the boardroom during a regular power cut that has affected Johannesburg for the past few weeks. It's not the first time the tea has been warm, but welcome all the same.
Kaizer says: "There are worries about the 2010 World Cup and the impact on Africa's image in the world. For the sake of Africa we must get it right."
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