Youngsters in the rural Transkei village of Mkhankatho are getting a Christmas present with a difference this week: a soccer field.
The field, to be home base for the 24 teenagers who make up the Mkhankatho Mighty Blues, will be carved out of virgin veld by a contractor who has donated the use of earthmoving equipment.
More donations have secured a complete set of soccer kit for the Blues — which was handed out to them at a ceremony on Monday: three professional balls and a set of metal goalposts with nets.
”To have these things here in the rural areas, it’s like a dream for these boys,” said co-ordinator of the donations, Eastern Cape health department official Sizwe Kupelo.
Mkhankatho is 12km east of Libode, and some 37km from Mthatha.
Kupelo, who hails from Mkhankatho himself, organised the donations in his private capacity.
He said the Blues had been playing on a patch of commonage where they had had to dribble around not only opponents, but also the rocks protruding from the playing surface.
”The only way they could cut the grass was to wait for winter and burn it,” he said.
The new field was being laid out on the premises of a local school, and would be free of natural obstacles.
The contractor, Port St Johns-based Jola & Ginqi Construction, had even brought earthmoving equipment down from a project in Kimberley for the work.
The other items were sponsored by various business people, Kupelo said.
Up to now the Blues had been able to muster only three or four pairs of boots between them. They had been using lengths of wood for goalposts, and having nets would make an immense difference.
”We’ve got players [in rural areas] that have died as a result of disputes around goals because there’s no nets,” Kupelo said.
”We’ve got people that have been shot, people that have been stabbed to death.”
Though the new field would be home ground for the Blues, it would also be used by some 15 other teams in the area. Kupelo said part of his aim was to showcase talent that might otherwise be overlooked.
Rural youths who were prepared to walk up to 30km to play a soccer game, then walk the 30km back home, should be taken seriously.
”With the 2010 World Cup coming to the country, everybody is saying Bafana Bafana is lacking talent,” he said.
”And if you look at PSL teams, you don’t have players from the rural areas. So it’s another way of challenging the PSL bosses in their search for talent. They mustn’t only look in the townships: they must also come to the rural areas.”
Kupelo said it was too late for the Blues or other teams in the area to think about slots in the 2010 squad.
”But in 2014 we want to have stars from the rural areas participating in the World Cup,” he said.
On Friday a younger set of children from Mkhankatho and surrounding villages will benefit from another treat organised by Kupelo — a giant Christmas Day party.
Last year Kupelo paid for the event from his own pocket, but this year, he said, he had obtained sponsorships that would see each child get a hamper of treats.
Five sheep were being slaughtered to provide a braai for about 500 youngsters, while there would also be a jumping castle and a magician.
Special invitations had gone out to orphaned children in the area, and those in care at nearby St Barnabas Hospital would also get treats.
Kupelo said it was important for professionals who worked in the cities to go back to their villages and make a contribution.
”This is a poverty-stricken area. There are very poor people who survive on a child care grant, or on pension payouts, and there are people who were working on the mines and have been retrenched.”