Black Panthers ready to pounce in new kit

The Black Panthers football team, from Etwatwa, finally have their donated items, thanks to Astroplex Benoni and the City Times.

The City Times and Astroplex decided to host a ‘Be a Sport!’ tournament on October 3 in aid of the Black Panthers with tons of sponsors coming forward to aid the team with all they required.

This led to the donations of equipment and uniforms. The Be a Sport was part of the newspaper’s 100th birthday celebrations and the project brought in donations of new and used sports equipment, which was distributed to several underprivileged clubs.

The handover to Black Panther took place on December 7 with all items given to Daveyton residents Andrea Chauque and her sister Nkateko Chauque, who started the football club called the Black Panthers earlier this year.

This club has grown so substantially that they now boast four divisions – u-11, u-15, u-13 and a girls’ team.

“Before the Black Panthers team came into play, I was part of an NGO called Bacha Ba Dichaba Explorers,” she said.

“When the organisation first began, we wanted to deal with socio issues, such as teenage pregnancy and poverty and find solutions to those issues.

“We had a plan to create programmes that would shift focus from the negative and focus more on something positive. This is where I came in with the sports programmes. But this never happened as the organisation focused more on spelling bee competitions, so I decided to do my own thing.

“My sister and I had a book club at the time, which we turned into our sports club.”

The Chauque sisters then began their planning and preparation with Nkateko coming up with the name Black Panthers FC.

“We started our recruitment section with the children from our book club before starting to recruit children from around our neighbourhood,” she said.

“Some of the children were recruited by children that were already on a team. We started with 20 children but as time went by, our number kept on growing. Now, we have 43 children playing in four divisions.”

“We would to thank Jemma Pringle for finding us and giving us this opportunity to be recognised by Astroplex Club. This means a lot to us as Black Panthers FC. It means we are moving forward slowly but surely,” said Andrea.

Astroplex donated the equipment and Diski Sports donated the clothing.

“Some people deserve more than just a thank you. Just like you, Jemma! Thanks for everything. No words can express my gratitude for the support I received from you and Abdul at Astroplex. Just take my heartiest thank you,” concluded Andrea.

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