A true inpiration..

21 November 2014

Today, I am finding it hard to express the kind of joy that I feel about this post, as it is very relevant to the topic of this blog. I want to tell you about a very special person, Mr Siphatho Handi.

I read an article about him and the soccer club he currently is with, Relatives FC that’s situated in Mdantsane. It was last week's Friday Daily Dispatch in the sports section.

The man is known for producing boxing Olympians at Amateur level and world champions in the professional rank. However, he is now focusing on soccer so that he could produce future Bafana Bafana stars from Mdantsane.

The team he is investing in plays in the SAB Regional league. When he was asked by the Daily Dispatch why he was doing this now, he said he saw the need to go back to football primarily for two reasons. To ensure that there was youth development and secondly they needed security in their community because at the time NU3 was ravaged by crime. He said they felt they needed to organize young people in their community to make sure they kept themselves busy with something constructive, away from crime.

Another reason he chose to come back to soccer was because some parents of the community pleaded that he did, as their children didn’t know how to play boxing, something which makes sense as we cannot all be interested in the same things.

He says his aim is to recruit players only from Mdantsane, they are a community team. He feels that opportunities must be given to the local boys.

He is the one that bought the SAB status with the aim of motivating youngsters. Just as I have mentioned in my previous posts, it becomes really difficult for players that come from Mdantsane to emerge to higher leagues, many players give up on their dreams of playing professionally. As I also said, some people might not be as gifted as others academically, so it is best that they succeed in somethings they are really good at and passionate about. Therefore, because he acknowledges that he has made it his mission to create opportunities of this sort.

It is evident that he is all about development, spotting talent, nurturing it and helping those youngsters to be whatever they wish to be.

 There’s nothing painful to me than seeing someone who was regarded as the best of what he could do, poor, a drunkard or and someone with no hope, who’s just living because he is still breathing. I like what this man has done, he is a God sent. I wish people could learn from this and do the same, not necessarily in soccer or sports at large, but also in other aspects. I’m truly inspired, I hope you have too out there.