WATCH: For gogos, the gloves are on

Over the past four years, Claude Maphosa has been keeping grannies in the north of Johannesburg fit through boxing.

Maphosa, who has established himself as a bodybuilder, started hosting bodybuilding contests in the townships of Johannesburg. When he held a contest in Cosmo City, he realised there wasn’t a gym or fitness centre in the area. Maphosa decided to take the initiative and opened up a gym in Cosmo City.

He offered boxing classes and when one elderly woman showed interest he decided to create a gym programme for senior citizens. Within four years, he managed to sign up more than 30 senior citizens and received international attention from newspapers such as London’s, The Guardian, and The New York Times and TV news channels such as Al Jazeera.

He said even though the programme had become successful, the gym did face certain challenges. The first was that of transport. “As active as these ladies are they still struggle to move to and from the gym, it would be helpful if we could provide transport for them,” he said. Maphosa does provide transport for those that he can assist.

Another challenge was maintaining and supplying boxing equipment. “We have over 30 grannies and I need to ensure that they have a set of gloves and equipment that they can all use at the same time.” He added that he did not want a situation where he had to turn away grannies that were interested in signing up because he could not accommodate them.

“I would love to expand this programme to other townships so grannies all over Johannesburg can get fit, healthy and active.” He is planning to host a gogo’s boot camp in October where senior citizens will compete in a boxing showcase and businesses will get involved in sponsoring prizes. Maphosa said all proceeds from the event would go towards buying boxing gloves.

He is appealing for help to grow this initiative and make it sustainable.

Details: Claude Maphosa 082 395 5115, info@ateamfoundation.co.za

Video by Shayne Robinson