Siya Kolisi is pure black magic and black excellence

If there is anything the Rugby World Cup taught me, is that hard work leads to dreams being fulfilled.

It also teaches me that the dreams of a child are attainable – and what a sight when they are met!

In the squalor of poverty, we are not encouraged to dream – we are told to go out there and make ourselves employable.

Springbok captain Siya Kolisi has such a story: this is a man who was raised in poverty. He liked school because he was guaranteed a free meal at school – sometimes his only for the day.

A grandmother held the household of three generations together…

There is nothing unique about the Kolisi house – apart from one thing: this young man was determined to be all that he could be.

Siya dared to dream, on an empty stomach, with rain dropping on corrugated tin roofs – he dared to dream, but continued to work.

That is the narrative that needs to be told to every child: with every dream, every goal and every hope, hard work must be an accompanying factor.

Siya rose above the adversities of his circumstances. He overcame …

His successes are great encouragement for people of colour: this is black magic, black excellence. This is encouragement for township and village schools. This is a story of hope that our children must go to bed with – dream it; you can be it.

Our children need a Siya; we need to always remember how close we are in reaching for every dream.

For the longest time we were held back by the colour of our skin – but this glass ceiling is shattered daily.

Remember how, as a country, we applauded Advocate Thuli Madonsela for being everything her position required her to be? This is because we are just not accustomed to men and women who are true to their oath of office.

And men like Siya have become such a rare breed in our sporting corridors that when we stumble across them, we are left in awe.

We must celebrate our people, but we should not reduce their hard work to it only being about them being black.

Kekeletso Nakeli-Dhliwayo.

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