Sporting chance

Losing his best friend to gangsters has spurred this young man into action to help save the youth in his community.

Seeing how children and teenagers get caught up in gangsterism, drugs and other crime in Delft, Athenkosi Dywili, 21, decided to turn the tide.

With the help of the kids, they cleaned up a run-down hall in Delft South, frequented by tikkoppe, and converted it into a youth aftercare centre, where laaities can play sport and games.

“It’s now a place for children in the community to learn, and to stay fit, instead of being engulfed by gangs and crime on the streets,” says Athenkosi.

He got the idea for the multi-purpose centre in October last year, after one of his closest friends, Mongezi Noda, 26, was killed in a bloody gang war.

“That was the final straw, he was part of a gang and he was shot and killed during a shootout.

“I saw many of my friends getting caught up in the wrong crowd and other negative things because they didn’t have anything to do.

“There are so many children in the area that have nothing to do after school and I wanted to start something that could keep them busy,” he says.

Athenkosi, who studies sports management at Cape Peninsula University of Technology, says the broken-down and falling to pieces, windowless building was a hide-out for tikkoppe in the area, but this wasn’t an obstacle for him to make a change.

“I came here with some of the children and we cleaned it up.

“I asked people in the community for old sport and gym equipment and games that they could donate to us,” he says.

Now about 40 kids, aged 11 and older, come to enjoy activities like weightlifting and chess after school.

Sanada Skokwal, 16, from Voorbrug High School in Delft, says he enjoys lifting weights.

“I stay fit and it gives me something to do, coming here keeps me away from doing bad stuff like smoking,” the teen says.

Yankada Mdzanga, 16, a Grade 10 pupil at Leiden High, says playing chess and card games keep his mind sharp.

Athenkosi says their biggest wish is to get bigger premises and more equipment.

“There isn’t always space or equipment for everyone so we have to split the children up in shifts,” he says.