By Chris Gilili
Itereleng means “do it for yourself” – and that’s exactly what the young boys gathered every evening on a dusty football field are doing.
Every day before the sun sets the boys of the Kota Sports Academy, aged five to 19, gather to train with dreams of playing for Bafana Bafana one day.
They have no choice but to do it for themselves.
The government has been ignoring sports development in impoverished rural areas like
Itireleng Village which is near Hebron in the North West Province.
The Kota Sports Academy was founded in Itireleng in early 2019 by 23-year-old Oreutlwile Mokonyane.
He had been passionate about sports from a young age, and after school he joined the Balfour Alexandra Academy in Johannesburg. But his career was cut short by an injury.
Moving back to Itireleng, he began training a group of boys with some friends, Nxobile Ratau, 24, Micheal Mogano, 24, and Simnikiwe Belu 27.
“We started this with just one ball and four cones. And that is still our philosophy. With less, we can do more,” Mokonyane told Scrolla.Africa.
They have 65 players on their books, but it is never easy. Mokonyane says the academy lacks resources and often struggles with low morale in their young players.
“Sometimes certain boys just don’t pitch up for training, maybe due to a situation at home. We constantly intervene and resolve their emotional and psychological problems,” he said.
The area is home to over 2,000 households. It is an ignored village, with gravel roads that are impassable.
Recently Itireleng was hit by a serious water outage because the local municipality did not pay its bills.
“We also need financial help; we don’t have durable balls and proper training equipment,” Mokonyane said.
“Our aim is to gain promotion to the bigger leagues, and to compete. Most importantly, though, we want to develop these boys and give them better opportunities in sports and other areas of life,” he said.
One of the players in the academy, Banathi Msezana, 15, said he has been part of the academy since the start.
“I joined because I love football. I know that football can give me a lot of opportunities,” he said.
There is some hope for Itireleng’s group of self-help players. The team is due to compete in the Ga-Rankuwa Local Football Association League from next month.
Pictured above: The boys in training
Image source: Supplied
