Gumbi is a wheelchair warrior

THE man sitting across from me bears a striking resemblance to Kaizer Chiefs’ goalkeeper, Itumeleng Khune, but if you ask him, he’ll say with a knowing smile, Khune looks like him.

Siphamandla Gumbi or PV (peripheral vision as he is known to his teammates) is involved in the sport of wheelchair basketball. The 35-year-old has been capped 164 times for the national team and has represented KZN at a provincial level. He has been to two Paralympics in Beijing (2008) and London (2012). He also captained the national team before passing on the reins to Marcus Retief.

For anyone who has watched the sport, the sheer juddering physicality and unremitting style of play shows this is not for the fainthearted. For Gumbi, the intensity of the game and team aspect was what hooked him. He began his career as a wheelchair basketball player in 2000.

Gumbi attributes his achievements to a dedicated work ethic, and to a support structure of friends and family that never allowed him to use his disability as an excuse. Losing the ability to walk at age seven was not easy for the former uMlazi resident.

“My mother and father were great. They never allowed me to feel sorry for myself and always said I could achieve what ever I wanted to. In a way that helped my independence,” he said.

Besides winning the KZN wheelchair athlete of the year award, Gumbi is vocal about his desire to continue to give back to the disability-sports community that he credits with much of his success. He is currently the KZN junior wheelchair basketball coach. “The sport is a huge part of me. My advice to young athletes with disabilities is to set a goal, go after it, and once you reach it, set another one. I don’t feel like my disability has ever prevented me from doing anything I wanted to do and that’s the same message for younger athletes,” he added.

Though the London Paralympics was his last competition as a Protea, Gumbi hasn’t ruled out the prospect of playing for the national team again.