Ex-SA netball star finds a way to give back

To fulfil her dream of giving back to her community, former SA netball player Zandile Njeza’s foundation, Asibaphuncumo, collects playing shoes and donates them to young netball players who cannot afford to buy their own.

Born in Mdantsane, Njeza played netball from Grade 5 until she retired at the age of 40. Her resumé included playing for the national U21 team in 1996 and for the national senior team in 2000 and 2001.

Now she is part of the Eastern Cape Aloes coaching staff, but maintains a large presence within the Eastern Cape netball community in her spare time. 

While heading coaching clinics in Mdantsane, she realised “the reason why we don’t have that vibrancy [among the young players] is because some kids are playing barefoot, some kids are playing with flip flops, and some are not playing because of the embarrassment of not being able to afford playing shoes”.

In 2023 she was put on bed rest due to an operation.

She said: “As I was sitting there, I was doing nothing, and I was watching our youth do nothing.

“They dip into alcohol, they dip into drugs, they are making babies. I got so sad.”

As a result, she asked herself: “I am a role model to some, but what am I doing about it?”

This led to her decision to help and last year she was able to donate 70 shoes to the community.

This year word spread and, as a result, she has had community members, who are active in different sporting codes, knocking on the door asking for shoes.

Her initiative is solely reliant on donations and her personal financial backing.

“If someone donates R500, I will add R200 so that I can buy two pairs of shoes at least,” Njeza said.

In an effort to create a formal platform to get funding and sponsors, she started a foundation called Asibaphuncumo.

The name of the foundation is a combination of her two children’s names and loosely translates to “let’s give them a smile”.

“For me it had a meaning because when I am dishing out those shoes, the smiles of those kids’ faces warms my heart,” she said. 

She hopes to grow her initiative’s reach.

“I intend to cover the whole of the Eastern Cape. I don’t want it to start and stop with Mdantsane.”

She believes that providing players with the basic equipment to play, you can boost their self-confidence and take away the disadvantage they experience when playing other provinces.

“The Eastern Cape has got huge talent and it needs to be identified and nurtured,” she said.

DispatchLIVE