The mission of the Soweto Rowing Club is to encourage the youth from the surrounding communities to get in a boat and start rowing.
Members of the club enjoyed an off-season training session at the Orlando Dam in Soweto recently.
While the response from the residents have been positive with more than a 100 youngsters joining the club this year their efforts have been crippled by numerous challenges, most notably a lack of resources and funding.
Jacob Phela, is the man almost single-handedly behind the Soweto Rowing Club. The nephew of a boatman, Phela took over the management of the club in 2008 and he’s been the life line of the children who row here, ever since.
Not only is he the head coach and mentor, he also performs all the other duties required to keep the club running, including personally transporting the kids and their equipment.
“Even though people don’t really know what it takes to be in the township and the life that we live in the township, if you say I’m from Soweto, not everybody will trust that you are a good guy. But trust me there’s not such things here. We are all trying to get things together. We are washing away the wrongs and bringing the dignity back into the community and the world,” says Phela.
There are no facilities available for the rowers at Orlando Dam. There is no boathouse or change room, or even a proper jetty to launch their boats from. The equipment and boats currently being used are hand-me-downs from other clubs. And from donations and it’s becoming increasingly difficult for the talent here to remain competitive.
The Friends of the Soweto Rowing Club was recently formed to help the club become more self-sustainable in the long term. It’s a group of ordinary South Africans offering their time, expertise and sometimes money.
Friends of The Soweto Rowing Club, Praven Govender, says, “Rowing is a sport that develops kids in terms of team work, teaching them respect for each other and also gives them an opportunity to be competitive and those are very important aspects of a child’s development, this is what rowing does for them and we want to be a part of that to make a difference to help the kids to give them opportunities for me that I never had when I was growing up and to share this experience with other kids it’s great.”
At least a 100 children, from as young at 10 years-old from the surrounding areas, have participated in rowing in Orlando this year including Pimville, Meadowlands and Klipspruit.
Phela is ably assisted by 22-year-old Kagiso Moemise, who’s been part of the club since 2008.
Assistant coach, Moemise says, “Jacob came to our school at Thutolore in Meadowlands then we started there at zone 2 swimming learning swimming and then we just jumped into the Soweto Rowing Club this was in 2008 and ever since Are you going to be Jacob one day? Yes definitely”
Teenager Siyabulela Mebala is one of Soweto’s brightest young rowing stars right now. He won gold at the recent Gauteng Championships in the under 15 division and he has his sight set on a sportsman’s ultimate dream.
“In the next two years I want to see myself rowing at the Olympics rowing as the best second man black man in the history because black men are not participating in sport like these almost all of them go for soccer so as I am I want to represent my nation
Phela also wants his rowers to make the national squad. Another priority for Phela is getting more young women involved in the sport.
“If we can get one of the boys in the national squad that will be an achievement and the other thing is if we can get the girls, if I can have a steady crew of girls who rows and no problems because we are really battling to get girls involved,” says Phela.
Despite the challenges, Phela’s joy is seeing these children give their best on the water and he’s appealing to members of his community to get involved.
“So financially, we need help, fleets boats, trailers, and don’t forget we need help from everybody to bring their kids this is their sport this is for Soweto anybody must come and bring their kids doesn’t matter how many we will just divide them into groups and accommodate everybody,” says Phela.
Members of the Soweto Rowing Club will be back in training at the Orlando Dam in early January, ahead of a national regatta at Germiston Lake at the end of the month.
