Coach embarks on weighty challenge

Shushu has a degree in sports management from the University of the Western Cape and works as a sports coach at the Sandton Afrikaanse Akademie in Sunninghill.

He was born in Cape Town to a single mother who was a factory worker. From a young age he competed in sports such as athletics, gymnastics, soccer and boxing because he found that being involved in sport was enjoyable and gratifying. In 1997 Shushu decided to try bodybuilding at a community centre in the Cape Flats. Thombson Mangaliso, who was the weightlifting manager and coach at Manenberg at the time noticed Shushu and convinced him to try Olympic weightlifting.

Shushu thought that weightlifting would condition and prepare him for bodybuilding training, yet to his surprise he was told by Mangaliso that he would be competing in an upcoming weightlifting competition. In the competition, which was for all novice athletes in the Western Cape, Shushu placed first.

In 1997 when gang violence on the Cape Flats became so bad that Shushu could no longer train, the South African Weightlifting Foundation stepped in and enrolled him in a new school which allowed Shushu to pursue both his sporting and academic dreams.

Shushu said representing South Africa at the Commonwealth Games was more than competing for him, it was giving back to the communities of South Africa and honouring those who assisted him in achieving his goals.