From gang den to sport haven: Businessman gives up on government and fixes community park

Saddened and angered because a community park was becoming a dilapidated hangout for gangsters and drug dealers, a businessman rallied sponsors and the community to do what the local council couldn’t: turn it into a vibrant sport centre that keeps kids off the streets.

It’s simple, said Xolani Mathumbo, CEO of Remember Elite Sport Academy. “A child in sports is a child out of court.”

Now the refurbished academy in Vereeniging is in a near stateof-the-art condition, standing out in a town full of potholes and broken-down structures.

Today it has green grass, grandstands, a fence, a gym, housing facilities for the players and support staff, a boardroom and other facilities for the more than 280 young players who participate in the academy.

Unfenced and overrun by drug users and criminals

It wasn’t always like this, For over 10 years the facility was derelict, unfenced and overrun by drug users and criminals.

Mathumbo said once they built a 1.3km-long wall around the property, the station commander at the local police station told him that the crime rate dropped.

Soccer has always been a part of the Mathumbo family. More than a decade ago, his mother owned a soccer club called Remember Football Club and Mathumbo, once a player himself, remembers his childhood home always being occupied by soccer players needing shelter.

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He recalled: “We’ve never lived at home without sharing the bed. We always shared with a player from somewhere.”

It had grieved him to see the park and basic sport facilities fall into disrepair. He could see its potential.

Mathumbo tried to acquire the land from the Emfuleni municipality in 2012, but it took until 2016 for the municipality to agree to lease the facility to him.

“There was a lot of doubt about whether we would make it, because we had no sponsorship,” said Mathumbo. His salary from a logistics family business was used to fund the project, along with his mother’s retirement funds.

Facility never recieved infrastructure grant

Makhosonke Sangweni of the Emfuleni municipality said the facility never received an infrastructure grant. The Gauteng department of sport, arts, culture and recreation said it has hosted events at the facility for a fee to support its upkeep.

The department’s club development unit provided support for the running of the sport academy through a trainer who specialises in injury, sport testing and conditioning. He was with them for three years, but now is no longer available, so “we will have to engage government again”, said Mathumbo.

“We saw a lot of resistance from the community when we started because they thought the project was government-funded and they did not understand why the government would build a sport facility, as opposed to delivering services.”

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In 2023, a committee from cooperative governance and traditional affairs, water and sanitation and human settlements reported that the municipality was struggling to deliver on its constitutional mandate. “There are potholed roads, water running everywhere and dirty streets.”

School fees players funded

The project not only pays for coaching, it also funds the school fees for half of the players to attend Jeppe College.

“I’m calling on companies that would like to give back to communities and, generally, in sport as a whole. Any corporate that feels we are aligning to the corporate social investment programme can help us.

“We would like to thank Ceramic Industries for the donation of materials and bedding for the centre; TSX for covering our labour over the years and, particularly, the chair for putting millions towards the project; and the Gauteng department of sport, arts, culture and recreation for partnering on the high-performance programme, as well as the management, staff and coaches.

“A private-public partnership can only work if we understand that the government can’t do everything and, as citizens, we must play our part.”

The academy has eight divisions and has included female teams.

Eight players have gone professional

Since its inception, eight players have gone professional with the last being Lucky Muthewi, who was recruited by Supersport United at only 16 years of age to play for the Premier Soccer League.

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Mathumbo said: “I’m delighted that what was once a den of drugs, rapes and murders has became a theatre of dreams and hope for our youth.”