In this section: Dale Steyn, JP Duminy, Adrian Zaugg, Noko Matlou and more…
Adrian Zaugg, race car driver
Forget Lewis Hamilton, South Africa has its own behind-the-wheel boy wonder. He took to the track like a duck to water at 13.
By the time he was 16, Adrian Zaugg had taken part in the Formula BMW license and made his car-racing debut on the Formula BMW Championship. Zaugg graduated to the A1 Grand Prix for Team South Africa during the 2006-2007 season at the revered Silverstone circuit in England. He is back in the World Series by Renault this year with the Interwetten.com team. — Phathisani Moyo
Lunch spot: Anywhere in South Africa
Jean-Paul Duminy,Cricketer
Left-handed batsmen JP Duminy’s maiden test century of 166 against the Australians helped the Proteas win the second Test in Melbourne — and ultimately the Test series.
It also won him a place in many South Africans’ hearts. He turned the Test on its head as he converted a heavy first innings deficit into an unexpected first innings lead with a performance that devastated the opposition.
Duminy was first identified as a player with huge potential when he started making substantial scores as a 19-year-old in both first-class and one-day domestic cricket.
Duminy’s batting is elegant and graceful, with a silky cover-drive and a strong square cut. He is also a brilliant fielder anywhere with a safe pair of hands and a decent arm. In ODIs he has helped fill the gap left by Jonty Rhodes and when he plays alongside AB de Villiers and Herschelle Gibbs.
In 2004 he was selected for the 2004 tour of Sri Lanka but his opportunities were limited. But now that he has been given an extended run in the Proteas Test and one day sides he has cemented himself in the team, becoming an effective spin bowler in the ODI team. — Lloyd Gedye
Lunch spot: Home sweet home
Tendai ‘The Beast’ Mtawarira, rugby player
Although Tendai Mtawarira may be the 23-year-old fresh-faced Springbok rugby hero, fans in Durban have been singing his praises for years.
The Zimbabwean-born front row prop has been delivering consistently strong performances for the Sharks franchise since he debuted against the Lions in the 2007 Currie Cup. Hence the crowd baying his nickname “The Beast” whenever he gets hold of the ball or makes one of those crunching tackles.
Mtawarira started his career as a flank, but has matured despite his young age, into a strong scrummager, big tackler and powerful ball carrier. Now that he had made the step up to the Springboks, a lot is expected of this scrummaging powerhouse, especially in the British Lions tour and Tri-Nations tournament. With 10 Springbok caps at the age of 23, Mtawarira could go on to be one of South Africa’s greatest rugby players. — Lloyd Gedye
Lunch spot: Home sweet home
Kgothatso Montjane, wheelchair tennis player
This 22-year-old from Seshego in Limpopo is an amazing wheelchair tennis player. Kgothatso Montjane, who had her leg amputated in 1999 because of an infection, is ranked number one in the country and number 50 in the world. Montjane’s solid and accurate shots — and her scintillating speed on the court — makes wheelchair tennis look easy to play. She is physically strong and can move her wheelchair far better than any other local female opponents. She made a clean sweep of all the tournaments across the country between 2005 and 2006. Last year she earned a wild card entry into the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing. — Lucky Sindane
Lunch spot: McDonald’s, anywhere
Michael Mbanjwa, kayaker
His hope of becoming a football star was washed away in 1997 at Nagle Dam when he climbed into a canoe. The 25-year-old Mbanjwa from the Valley of a Thousand Hills in KwaZulu-Natal made history last year when he became the first black African to win the Hansa Powerade Dusi Canoe Marathon.
Mbanjwa and his teammate Martin Dryer beat more than 2 000 participants in the K2 (double kayak) race and broke the marathon record by seven minutes. Early this year Mbanjwa finished second in the K1 (single kayak) Dusi race. It’s only a matter of time before he re-writes the history books because of his passion for the sport. — Lucky Sindane
Lunch spot: Spur Steak Ranges, anywhere
Noko Alice Matlou, football player
She is the newly crowned queen of African football.
Noko Alice Matlou’s milestone is a first for South Africa. Great players such as Benni McCarthy and Portia Modise may have been nominated for the biggest Confederation of African Football accolade in the past but that’s the closest South Africa got until Matlou.
The bustling Banyana Banyana forward was recognised as the best African female player for 2008 at a colourful ceremony in Lagos, Nigeria. She was crowned on the same night Arsenal and Togo striker Emmanuel Adebayor was named the African Footballer of the Year in the men’s category.
An avalanche of 23 goals in 20 games for Banyana in 2008 was enough proof that the 19-year-old Matlou, who plays for the Limpopo-based Brazilian FC team when at home, is a world-class player.
Her devastating form catapulted Banyana to their first ever African Women’s Championship final last year. Her class was evident in the tournament when she banged in six goals, including a hat-trick in the semifinal and a goal in the final to share the Golden Boot Award with her fierce rival Genevova Anonma of Equatorial Guinea.
She was also the shining star of Basetsana, the national under- 21 team. Matlou led the young South Africans to a Women’s Championship of the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations victory in Angola. She scored an incredible 12 goals in five games in that tournament. Needless to say, the queen of African football finished as the top goalscorer and won three Player of the Match awards.
Matlou is set to leave her home in Limpopo for a lucrative contract in Europe to play professional football in Iceland. — Phathisani Moyo
Lunch spot: McDonald’s, anywhere
Gift Ngoepe, baseball player
Gift Ngoepe plays for Pirates. Not the Soweto football giants, but a team that is as foreign to South Africans as the sport. Ngoepe became the first black South African to sign as a professional baseball player when he sealed a seven-figure deal with American Major League Club, the Pittsburgh Pirates in October last year.
The 19-year-old has been touted in the American media as a prospect worth following, given his potential. This is hardly surprising because Ngoepe started training with the senior team at the age of 10. He was introduced to the sport almost from birth after his mother took up the job of caretaker at the Randburg Mets when he was just two years old. His impressive talents at the World Baseball Classic early this year further cemented the confidence of the Pirates in the young protégé. — Phathisani Moyo
Lunch spot: KFC, anywhere
Cameron van der Burgh, swimmer
He is Africa’s first home-trained swimming record holder and the youngest at the age of 20. After the Olympics debacle, there is hope for South Africa’s water babies. Cameron van der Burgh, a Pretoria University law student, broke the world 50m record at South Africa’s national championships this year and in so doing collected his third world record. He set the 50m and 100m short-course breaststroke records last year. He also clinched the overall points awards in the Fina Arena Swimming World Cup circuit in November — the Sport’s World Cup title. He took home a US$100 000 cheque that comes with the award. — Phathisani Moyo
Lunch spot: Biccs, Waterkloof, Pretoria
Bongani ‘Cyclones’ Mwelase, boxer
He calls himself a “genius” and lets his hands do the talking in the ring. The 26-year-old from Meadowlands in Soweto is arguably the best technical knockout boxer the country has produced. The hard puncher has a record of 12 knockouts in 13 fights since turning professional in 2006.
The highlight of his career came in 2006 when he won the Commonwealth amateur welterweight championship and become South Africa’s first black boxing champion at the games. His skeletal physique can be very deceiving and maybe that’s the reason he leaves his opponents crawling like babies in the ring. — Lucky Sindane
Lunch spot: Anywhere where good food is served
Dale Steyn, cricketer
Although Dale Steyn has been on the South African cricket scene for some time, it’s only in the past 18 months that he has really exploded on to the Test cricket arena. Steyn’s bowling netted him 74 Test wickets in the 2008 calendar year, only six behind Allan Donald’s South African record of 80.
This cemented Steyn as the backbone of the Proteas bowling attack, which for too long has been solely reliant on Makhaya Ntini and the ageing Shaun Pollock. Steyn’s extreme pace, coupled with his ability to swing the ball away from right-handers, has destroyed opposition batting line-ups around the world.
Steyn secured his place in history as the quickest South African bowler to achieve 100 Test wickets and to reach the 150 Test wickets mark in the shortest time. The young Titan’s bowler won three successive man-of-the-series awards against New Zealand, the West Indies and Bangladesh and the fact that he took 38 wickets in his three Test series on the sub-continent underlines his ability to bowl under all conditions.
He was named Test Cricketer of the Year for 2008 at the ICC awards following his selection as Mutual & Federal SA Cricketer of the Year and SA Test Cricketer of the Year. — Lloyd Gedye
Lunch spot: Allora, Sandton, Johannesburg