Kwa-Thema – The Flames Softball Club hosted its inaugural invitational and commemoration tournament at the Kwa-Thema Sports Complex on Saturday.
This was to honour softball legend Victor ‘Bra Vic’ Gawushe and to raise awareness of dementia and Alzheimer’s.
Bra Vic was present at the tournament with his brother Mbuyiselo Gawushe and daughter Sphiwe Gawushe.
Mbuyiselo said, “Bra Vic is the second child of five. Vic was the one taking care of us until he became a teacher.
“He was a normal person growing up and when he started having dementia, as someone who didn’t know of the disease, I thought it was caused by intensive drinking of alcohol. It was only later that we got to understand the disease and gave him support,” he said.
Mbuyiselo said Bra Vic is currently under the care of his second child.
A social worker at DementiaSA Phaziza Mbilini explained that dementia is a term used by the medical profession to describe a group of diseases that affect the brain.
“By affecting the brain, it affects the memory of a person and how they think and function. It also affects their behaviour, without any disrespect, I can say they behave like children,” she said.
Mbilini said people with dementia also have affected mood swings as they may cry for no apparent reason and they may scream and shout.
She said there are more than 100 types of dementia.
“In whatever way dementia may start in a person, one will end up having memory loss,” Mbilini said.
She said it’s important for a person taking care of one with dementia to know that they will not see things as others see them.
She further said a person with dementia should not be opposed; whatever they see or say is right.
“I always make an example that one may take shoes and put them in the fridge, don’t tell them they are wrong, and rather say ‘they look nice where you’ve put them however, may I use the space to put cabbage there,” she said.
Mbilini said though people say people with dementia are aggressive, they are not. The aggression is caused by those taking care of them without the knowledge of how to.
She said that even when they say the sky is pink, they should be supported and not told it’s blue.
Kabelo Letsholo, the chairperson of Flames, said the tournament they organised was based on three pillars, namely competition, development and dementia awareness.
He explained the difference between baseball 5, baseball and softball.
“Baseball 5 is a gateway sport to softball and baseball. We don’t use the mitts and it’s more similar to a game we played growing up called dibeke, however, more formal,” he said.
Letsholo further elaborated on the difference between softball and baseball and said the balls are different with the baseball being smaller and harder than the softball.
“With both sports, like cricket, we have fielders and batters. However, unlike cricket, we only have three turns to bat and if three of your players are out then you swap with the other team and that round is called an inning. We normally play seven innings in a day but with baseball, the innings can go to about 10,” he said.
According to Letsholo, the baseball field is bigger and wider than that of softball even though the rules are the same.
The teams that played on Saturday included the Pitbulls from Mamelodi, Makanyane Wild dogs from Alexandra, VUT Men, Thembisa Classic, The Flames (the hosts), Texas from Moletlane in Limpopo and Diamonds from Botswana.
