It is noisy and crowded at the 155th birthday of Dale College in King William’s Town. Everyone, even people who never went to school here, are dressed in red and black school colours. The school army cadets march through the crowds with a clatter of boots. All, from toddlers to old men leaning on sticks, head for the CB Jennings rugby field; a sacred place at this school, affectionately known as ‘The Graveyard’ for it is where opposition teams are buried.
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The noise around the field is deafening as the lean and lithe players jog slowly out onto the green grass. This weekend revolves around rugby and this pitch is a cradle of champions. Some of the biggest names in rugby cut their teeth – and probably a bit of flesh – on this ground: All Black Greg Somerville; Springbok wing Bjorn Basson; former Springbok and Blue Bulls hooker Bandise Maku; the first black captain of the Sharks Lubabalo Mtembu; former Proteas bowler Monde Zondeki; Sharks looseforward Keegan Daniel. Makhaya Ntini – the record holding South African test cricket player – also sprinted down the wing on this ground.
Steve Biko – the Black Consciousness Movement leader who grew up in Ginsberg a few kilometres down the road – would have been proud. Biko, who died in police custody just over 40 years ago, was also a rugby player as well as an idealist and activist.
It is likely even Biko would have been surprised by the slow, but sure transformation at this former whites-only elite school.
As the first team prepares for the kick off, Hennie Otto is the only white player. The other 14 are all black. Even the heaving stands that rise up around the pitch are a sign of the times. Each group of reunited former pupils sits together in the same row according to school year. The stands used to be all white. With every passing year a white row is replaced by a black one.
“Out of 550 odd learners, there are about 25 white, colored, Indian and other races. The rest of the learners are all African black, which is a fair representation of the town they come from and the country as a whole,” says Dale College Headmaster, Mike Eddy.
According to Eddy, Dale College took the lead in accepting black African learners in former Model C schools during the early 90s. While the school’s racial demographics may have changed over the years, the first team coach, Grant Griffiths, maintains that the school’s traditions and values have not.
“We’ve kept all our traditions when it comes to sports, especially rugby. The jersey hand out, the sing-songs, the slapping, initiation, and all those things. The learners and players want to keep it from A to Z,” says Griffiths.
Griffiths too was at Dale College. He captained the last unbeaten rugby team in 1993.
This year’s team has beaten all their rivals in the province, and is number one in the Eastern Cape and sixth in the country.
Dale’s coach says while not much has changed in the style of play, compared to the team he captained, the biggest challenge comes with culture.
As a predominantly Xhosa province, the boys have to undergo a month long initiation in the mountain, as part of their rite of passage to manhood.
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“It’s always difficult with the boys having to go to the mountain for initiation school but we’re working around that. The six weeks straight after coming back is the most important. Diet wise, nutrition, gym. We’re never going to be the biggest side in the world but as long as we’re strong and fit, we’ll be able to keep up with the big boys,” says Griffiths.
“People go, they come back and they change. For example, if you are a new cap, when you come back from the mountain you’ll have that mentality of ndingu bhuti ngoku [I’m a man now] so I can’t go around picking up cones. We always manage to work around that though,” says Kwanda Dimaza, who has also been to the mountain and is set to go to one of the country’s top rugby unions, the Sharks, next year. He made the SA Schools under-18 team last year when he was still in grade 11.
Another hindrance to Dale College’s abilities is students choosing more prestigious high schools after primary school. South Africa’s 200-meter national record holder and one of the fastest men in Africa, Anaso Jobodwana, is one of the many who left for the college’s fierce rival, Selborne College in East London. Stormers hooker, Siyabonga ‘Scarra’ Ntubeni, is another who left for King Edward VII School in Johannesburg.
“It’s been difficult over the years but we’ve managed to hold on to more now,” says Griffiths.
Dale Junior headmistress, Patricia Thatcher, the first woman to head Dale’s primary school, says the learners are taught to be the best.
“It is about the commitment and the passion of the staff first of all. With them on your side, you start instilling the discipline and commitment in the kids from grade ‘R’ and once they’ve got it, it’s there,” says Thatcher.
Interestingly, Thatcher doesn’t even know the racial demographics of Dale Junior.
“It’s not even an issue of transformation anymore, it just is. A lot of people ask ‘how do you get it right?’ It’s not a case of getting it right, it’s what comes natural to us,” says Thatcher.
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While transformation remains a thorn in the side of South African rugby, Dale’s first team coach says it has hampered the future of some players he has coached. Griffiths says rugby unions often take players from Dale College and those players, more often than not, spend their time at those unions on the bench.
“A player like Ace Joe for example got lost in the Blue Bulls set up for two years, which is a hell of an important two years for him. I think he got 20 minutes of game time that whole season which basically cost him his career,” says Griffiths.
He says the unions now guarantee the players game time when signing the youngsters.
He hopes to see players like Aphelele Fassi, who has already been offered a contract by the Sharks while in grade 11, Dimaza, who is also set to join the Sharks, and many others with offers at various unions, one day don the Springbok jersey.
“I’ve never seen that being hard. I think the players that come through, if they get looked after, after school like we do at Dale College, with the rugby and the players managed well, as well as given opportunities, I don’t see that ever being a problem.”
So while South African sport struggles against the twin problems of transformation and creating excellence, it could perhaps learn something from Dale College.
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Red, Black  And Covered In Glory

South African cricket legend Makhaya Ntini believes racial quotas in the country’s cricket are “long overdue” and hopes to play the mentor’s role for up-and-coming black players to ease their transition into the international game.
Known as ‘The Mdingi Express’, Ntini was one of the finest fast bowlers of his generation, taking 390 test wickets in 101 matches, behind only Shaun Pollock (421) and Dale Steyn (416 and counting) on South Africa’s all-time list.
But now in a new phase of his life post-retirement, he is searching for ways to give back to the game and feels he has an almost unique role that he can play in the complex South African fold.
“I have always seen cricket as a fun game, something to be enjoyed before anything else,” Ntini tells FORBES AFRICA from Harare, where he has been helping Zimbabwe Cricket as acting coach of their senior national team.
“But it has also become an opportunity for young rural boys like myself to build a career and create opportunities for themselves that they might not find elsewhere. That is something we must take very seriously.”
<div id="attachment_5442" style="width: 213px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-5442" class="size-medium wp-image-5442" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/000_Par3701327-203x300.jpg" alt="" width="203" height="300" />South African cricketer Makhaya Ntini gestures after the Twenty20 match between India and South Africa at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban on January 9, 2011. The match marked the last international appearance of South African fast bowler Ntini, who got a rousing reception from a crowd of about 47,000 but conceded 46 runs off four overs without taking a wicket. AFP PHOTO / ALEXANDER JOE / AFP PHOTO / ALEXANDER JOE</div>
“I used to play Baker’s Mini-Cricket as a boy because it was something new, we never knew the game before it was introduced into the rural areas by [former Cricket South Africa president] Ali Bacher and [administrator] Khaya Majola.”
“The sport was not played in school; we had no television to see it. It was not a game that was part of us. But when given the opportunity to play, it was new, it was exciting.
“There were a few role-models that we could really look up to though. Omar Henry was there when we returned to international cricket in 1991, and he was a wonderful player. Obviously there were wonderful cricketers out there playing, but we did not get to see them.”
Ntini says he feels that had official quotas been introduced at the time he was starting out with the national team, the Proteas would have had a wider pool of players to choose from and been stronger for it.
Cricket South Africa (CSA) has recently announced that an average minimum of six black players, of which two must be black African, will be selected for matches across all three formats of the game over a season.
This is in keeping with a decision years ago to enforce the same quotas at provincial level.
“From my take, it has been long overdue,” says Ntini. “If it had happened at the time of myself, Monde Zondeki, Victor Mpitsang, Garnett Kruger, Geoffrey Toyana, our cricket would have never have gone through the troubles it has.”
“The talent was there, but the quotas were only in the schools and provincial sides.”
“The likes of myself, Herschelle Gibbs, Ashwell Prince and Paul Adams – we had to work harder than anybody else to get recognized. We had to perform in every game to stick around [in the team].”
“We could not have a ‘bad day in the office’ like many other players or suddenly we would be under big pressure. We were looked at in a very different way.”
“I had to wait four years to play in England. I kept being told by [former captain] Hansie Cronje and [ex-coach] Bob Woolmer, ‘you are on a learning curve, you must wait for your chance’.”
“It seemed impossible that I could take the place of an Allan Donald, Jacques Kallis, Brian McMillan, Shaun Pollock or Lance Klusener. These were great players, but I think if I was born seven years later I would have achieved a lot more in the game.”
“Because of that I think we had a responsibility to perform. We had a responsibility in how we trained, how we played, how we gathered ourselves off the field. We needed to make sure that when we went on that field, we had the tools to give our best.”
No-one in their right mind would suggest that new young firebrand fast bowler Kagiso Rabada has benefitted from the recently introduced quota system, he has let his prodigious talent do the talking. The son of a doctor and schooled at the prestigious St Stithians College, Rabada did not have any of the early disadvantages that Ntini endured as a young boy.
But the latter insists he still needs to be mentored and guided along the way.
“He has chosen a narrow road as a career, but he has a wonderful family around him to ensure he does not get big-headed and to offer guidance. He keeps himself grounded,” says Ntini.
“But I can see he is hungry to achieve more than what I did and is not satisfied with what he has done already. He looks as though he is challenging himself all the time.”
But Ntini cautions that international sport is an unforgiving place and says he will always be a sympathetic shoulder for Rabada or any other cricketers making their way in the game, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
“Sometimes they need people to sit them down and talk to them as brothers,” Ntini says. “I have realized that we lack that in our coaches. They can teach everything about cricket, but our brothers do not have someone that they can easily open up to with their struggles off the pitch.”
“I feel like I can offer advice, because these things can have a major impact on your career. We have coaches to teach cricket, but when the player is off the pitch and in his hotel room, they don’t have people to knock on the door to see how they are doing.”
“Can I open up to an [captain] AB de Villiers as a black cricketer and say, ‘I am struggling with this or that, my girlfriend has just left me, I am going through a divorce’, things like that which have a huge impact on a person?”
“AB will not be able to guide them, I don’t think, but I feel like I can be that person with all that I have been through. If I had the opportunity to be involved on that level, I would jump at it because I see it as a way of giving back to the game and to South African cricket.”
Ntini says he has enjoyed his stint with Zimbabwe Cricket, even if the side did receive some criticism during his tenure for crushing losses to India and New Zealand.
It is, perhaps, unfair to lay the blame for those defeats at the door of Ntini given how little cricket the Zimbabwe national teams plays. Whatever the result, he continues to flash his trademark smile.
“Enjoyment is an understatement, I am loving it [coaching],” he says. “I put my whole heart into it. Look at Zimbabwe cricket and cricketers, how much they have changed from where they were since I got here.”
“They tend to enjoy themselves now, they open up to us, they have the freedom of being able to be you, not the restriction of trying to impress me.”
But he says his heart remains in South Africa and if the right opportunity came to return home, he would jump at it.
“South Africa is my country, I will never run away,” he says.

The Role Model Waiting For A Role

The cricket ball made fast bowler Mfuneko Ngam a star. The first time he got hold of one, he was in short trousers and was not allowed to bowl with it. The future South African bowling sensation used to retrieve balls for seniors in the nets at Motherwell Cricket Club, near Port Elizabeth, one of the many township clubs in the country’s cricket mad Eastern Cape.
Ngam served a tough apprenticeship in the gentleman’s game. From the age of seven, he was out in the townships on rough ground, with a tennis ball, trying to dismiss batsmen leg before oil drum.
<div id="attachment_2495" style="width: 211px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-2495" class="size-medium wp-image-2495" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/TL_508959-201x300.jpg" alt="" width="201" height="300" />PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA &#8211; 28 October 2004, Mfuneko Ngam during the Supersport match between Titans and Dolphins at Supersport Pack in Pretoria, South Africa. Photo Credit : © Lee Warren Gallo Images</div>
At Christmas, he would represent his village, near Middledrift, in the annual five-day tournament in King William’s Town. The competition was tough and the prize was half a sheep. This was also where South African fast bowling great Makhaya Ntini delivered his first bouncer.
Many saw Ngam as the next Ntini and in many ways he was. He made the South African team at the age of 21 and took 11 wickets in three test matches. Ngam had big shoes to fill when he replaced his role model, Allan Donald, who was sidelined by injury. Donald was the world’s leading fast bowler at the time.
A young Ngam had the ability to swing the ball at searing pace and took three wickets for just 26 runs against Sri Lanka, on his debut, in 2001. In the same year, Ngam was voted the national cricketer of the year, the first black player to earn the honor.
Ngam may have overcome humble beginnings, but he could not beat the injuries that snuffed out his career in 2006. Now, he runs his own cricket school in Port Elizabeth and works for Cricket South Africa (CSA) as a coach at the University of Fort Hare in the Eastern Cape.
“The project is a feeder to the Border and Eastern Province cricket unions. Since we started we have seen at least nine players contracted to the teams,” he says.
Softly-spoken Ngam, whose voice belies his nickname, Black Thunder, lived a short fairy tale followed by a rapid fall into obscurity. Does he feel the system has failed talented young black cricketers like him?
“I don’t think the system failed me as a cricketer, I had a choice to continue playing or become a coach. I opted for the latter because I felt obliged to plough back where I come from,” says Ngam.
“After I quit playing, I observed things were not looking right with development; hence I decided to play my role in the development of players from underprivileged communities. Initially I was critical of Cricket South Africa,” he says.
Ntini, known as the Mdingi Express, was the first black cricketer to play for South Africa. He does not think CSA is doing enough.
Upon retirement in 2010, Ntini tried to open a cricket school at an estimated cost of $2 million. Old Mutual helped Ntini draw up a plan, but the money did not materialize.
“That’s my frustration with cricket in South Africa. Every day, I cry my lungs out to every department for the support of my academy but no-one seems to care or to listen,” says Ntini.
So far, Ntini managed to raise a mere $1,900 for the school.
Ngam agrees, grassroots cricket in South Africa is not where it should be, but he acknowledges attempts to improve the situation.
“For cricket to be a success in the country, we need all parties involved to work diligently. This is a battle CSA cannot achieve alone. Teachers and coaches, as agents of the game, have to rise to the occasion,” says Ngam.
“We are still going to struggle as black people to break into professional cricket if things continue like this. I am still struggling with my cricket academy plan, but I am not going to get discouraged. I am hoping someone will come up and fund the project,” says Ntini.
“God will punish me if I don’t do anything to develop cricket because I had been helped to get where I am. God will say, ‘You have forsaken your call to help others,’” he says.
The sport’s governing body in South Africa, CSA, is struggling to correct the imbalances of the past.
“I understand the frustration of Ntini and Ngam that we are not quick enough in responding to many challenges in the sport. It is a moral right to give people fair opportunities. But the playing field is not equal because of our political past,” says Corrie van Zyl, CSA’s general manager and the manager of the High Performance Centre.
Van Zyl, a former national bowler and coach, says they have plans to involve Ntini as a high performance consultant in the Eastern Cape. They already have Edward Khoza as a development consultant at the Northern Cricket Union, which caters for northern parts of South Africa.
“It is a no brainer that we need the services of Makhaya in our high performance program. He proved himself to be the most popular across racial lines and was the best cricketer in his day. We are looking at how we can partner with our associates in assisting Makhaya’s indoor center getting off the ground. On our side there’s willingness to assist a guy like him,” says van Zyl.
CSA’s Talent Acceleration Programme (Tap) was established in 2006 to turn teenagers into professionals. The program targets excelling under-17s and 19s.
“Since its inception, this program delivered players like Wayne Parnell, Reeza Hendricks, Mangaliso Mosehle, Rilee Rossouw, Marchant de Lange, Jonathan Vandiar,” says Altaaf Kazi, CSA’s public relations and communications manager.
Van Zyl says they are spending $9.6 million a year getting more than two million youngsters to play the game.
“Research was conducted because there are a lot of black cricket players in the schools but we didn’t understand how they got lost in the system,” says van Zyl.
“A mistake we have done is we have not been telling the good stories about what is happening on the development front. It is unbelievable what is happening at Fort Hare. The world should know about the progress we are making there. We are building on it. The University of Johannesburg is next in line and then Limpopo province.”
Van Zyl admits, despite these programs, the look of the national team is worrying. Whites dominate with 17 players in the squad, while there are nine colored players, two blacks and two Indians.
South Africa may currently have the best team in the world but it has yet to reach the end of the great rainbow debate.

Tag: Makhaya Ntini

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

Red, Black And Covered In Glory

The Role Model Waiting For A Role

God Will Punish Me If I Don’t Help Cricket