South Africa: A Kick out of Poverty
Fade in:
Eastern Cape, South Africa
00:09
The Eastern Cape in South Africa. Most of the 8 million Xhosa, the tribe of Nelson Mandela, live here. During apartheid this part of the Transkei was primarily an area for black people.
00:28
Lonwabo Singama has a passion for playing football. Every year, in the summer holidays, he visits his grandmother in this part of the Cape.
00:38
To celebrate his arrival his uncle buys a sheep. Most adults of the Singama family earn their money in big cities like Durban and Cape Town. The rare times when they visit their relatives in the countryside, it is something special.
0'56 "
Lonwabo enjoys the meat, which he doesn’t get to eat very often.
1:06
During the holidays, the 15 year old city-dweller has a very different lifestyle. In the morning he helps his cousin with milking.
After that, he must guard the cattle. There is no electricity here and only recently a water source.
1:25
O-Ton in Off
Lonwabo Singama (Julius)
I’m not really used to this place. There is no electricity for example. The grass is thick, you can’t even kick the ball forward. So it’s hard….
1:37
No electricity means no television, but the worst thing for Lonwabo is that he cannot train. When it rains, there is nothing to do. It's boring here.
His mother Winifred works in Cape Town as a nurse. Where she can, she supports the dreams of her son.
2:04
O-Ton
Lonwabo Singama (Julius)
My favorite football club in South Africa is Kaizer Chiefs, but overseas it is the Liverpool FC.
2:15
But I wouldn’t like to start off my career, if I have a career, by playing for Liverpool. I would like to play for AC Milan, because they play brilliant football.
2:26
QUESTION: (Noemi)
Why do you think you can have a football career?
2:31
ANSWER: (Julius)
Me having a career is because…I think I'm good. I think I’m good.
2:40
MUSIC
2:46
Flash: Manenberg, South Africa
2:53
This is where the 15-year-old plays football - in a township, 25 kilometres outside of Cape Town.
3:08
It is mainly mixed race, or ‘coloured’ people, who live in Manenburg. Although Lonwabo is black, he feels at home here.
3:21
For some time Lonwabo’s mother has lived in the Cape Flats - in the shanty area in the vicinity of Cape Town. She found work here, which she could not find in the Eastern Cape.
3:35
Text at 3:38
Roughly 70,000-80,000 people live in the shanty towns of Manenberg. Nobody can know exactly how many.
Manenberg was created by the mass expulsion in the 60's of 3.5 million people from the white areas. The apartheid government tore down whole settlements, to separate white, black and coloured. In the new housing estates there was little infrastructure, few shops and bad schools.
4:02
Since 1999 Lonwabo has lived here with his family in a two-room apartment. His mother shares Longwabo’s enthusiasm for football. This poster hangs in her bedroom. Lonwabo does all his homework in here. There is no other quiet room.
Lonwabo and his sister sleep on mattresses in the living room.
4:45
O-Ton
Winifred Singama (Claudia)
Mother
Living here is another life, a difficult life. As you see there are a lot of gangsters, and this business of drugs, of youngsters smoking drugs. So I’m very glad really, because this football thing is going to keep him out of these troubles.
5:09
Release
5:18
Orient FC - Football Club Orient. It is a second home for many children from the township. All their spare time is spent on the football field. Here they are accepted, whether black or coloured. All that counts is how many goals they shoot. The coaches often act as a substitute for the fathers who haven’t stayed with their families.
5:41
O-Ton
Fadiel Gasant (Viktor)
Football club founder
If you don’t support the kids after school they will go back to the streets with the gangsters and do drugs. In the area where we live there is a new drug TIK, and if any kid gets involved with that drug then we’ve got a big problem. The drug lords, what they can give you, do something for them and then you will get some salary on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. So for any kid, they can stay at home, they will get some free bucks, and just do what they’ve been asked to do.
I’m prepared to take you where the gangsters come together.
6:13
Fadiel Gasant takes us on a ride through his neighbourhood.
6:17
MMH QUESTION: (Noemi)
Have you witnessed any gang fights?
6:19
Reply Fadiel (Viktor)
Yes, a lot. It was fights on a daily basis, where you can just like stand on the side and you watch a live movie. So that, that was the accent before.
6:29
QUESTION MMH (Noemi)
What did you see?
6:31
Reply Fadiel: (Viktor)
Oh! A lot of stabbing, a lot of shooting, people being hijacked. In my road people were shot dead, out of cars. Yah, that’s the way.
6:42
QUESTION MMH:
Are you going to meet some people there too? (Marion)
6:45
Reply Fadiel: (Viktor)
Ouais, that’s right. Yeah but they already saw money, so I don’t want to go there.
6:51
Fadiel: (Viktor)
In this area, kids must run around for their lives. Shootings happen on a daily basis.
7:00 Fadiel (Viktor)
So if you ever looked around the wholes to what they write here, the graffiti is all about gangsterism.
7:07 Fadiel (Viktor)
Just hold on!
7:09 Fadiel (Viktor)
It was one of the gang leaders, yeah
7:13 And, this is people that try to get away now from gangsterism and, they just try to support the kids off the street, so they try just to change their lives. And…before they were being involved in, like, people in this area they call it Sevens.
8:14
Without our guide we would have had no chance to meet these gangsters, let alone talk to them.
8:22
Manenberg means drugs and gangs. More and more dangerous drugs promote violence in people without money or work. Crack, TIK, ice - whatever they are called – all make the user aggressive and erratic.
8:42
The gangs fight brutally for their territory. If a young person from another gang enters the wrong neighbourhood, he will be killed.
8:54
Many end up sooner or later in custody.
It is rare to see any young boys behind bars. In the new South Africa they go to so-called safe houses, youth institutions. Previously they were merged with adults. The real prisons are known as "universities" because here they get a ‘higher education’ in crime.
9:18
The gangs’ tags are tattooed or scratched into the skin. When a gang member is killed, the laws of revenge dictate that two members of the opposing gang must be killed.
9:30
“I study those who hate me”: the gang’s mantra. In the prison laws are very strict among the inmates. If one breaks the code of honour he is brutally punished - mostly through rape.
9:53
The confiscated guns at the police station attest to the fact that for many young men, gang membership is the only realistic job prospect.
10:07
Townships are an ideal breeding ground for crime. Most of the boys leave school early. Their home gives them no support. Many people don’t know their fathers.
Inspector Llewellyn Lakay has been working in law enforcement in Manenberg for 19 years. He knows about the problems of young people here.
10:32
O-Ton
Llewellyn Lakay (Waibel)
Policeman
Peer pressure is one of them, and sense of belonging. Due to domestic violence, lots of them don’t want to be, feel that they be needed in their houses, so they move to the street where they get acceptance.
10:47
Broken family structures, violence, drug addiction, alcoholism - the list of problems is long. The boys see how difficult it is for their parents to make ends meet.
Money is always scarce around here. Only the criminals have the money to sit around, and that pulls boys in.
11:19
We visit the family of a former notorious gang leader. No one stood in his way - until he too was assassinated.
11:33
13-year-old Auric is the grandson of the former gangster boss. Auric listens to his aunt practising for a singing competition.
7 family members share the apartment. Each bed is doubled up.
12:12
O-Ton
Latasha Leffule (Claudia, very slowly)
Daughter of gang leader
Sometimes it’s its’ erm…Sometimes it’s it’s well to bring your children up in Manenberg, sometimes it’s not, because it’s not all the children that’s turning out to be gangsters, some of them, they, they, like have talent and then they go, far places like that. But for me, heh, it’s, Manenberg it’s not like a place to raise boys.
12:51
Auric Leffule (Nelson, slow))
Grandson of the band Bosses
Gang members have no future. My grandfather was feared until he was shot three years ago in a car.
They shot two pistols empty - he had no chance. So, I would not like to become a gangster.
13:23
I'd rather play soccer and trumpet in my spare time.
13:30
Fadiel Gasant used to run a professional football club. Today he gives 85 children the chance to escape the vicious circle of gang life. The youngest is five years old. Auric also started to play at the age of 5. Everything is financed by a former gang member who today earns his money as a rugby pro.
13:56
Auric would also like to be a professional - but in football.
14:03
O-Ton
Mother (Claudia)
In our community, there’s nothing else that really keeps the children busy – we don’t have any facilities around us, except making sports on our own. We don’t have swimming pools near here; we don’t have parks or amusement centres and stuff like that. Not like an amusements centre will be… Though, the good one …Africa doing sport with kids.
14:26
Fadiel Gasant is not only the founder of the football clubs, but has also set up the Ashwin Willemse Marching Band.
14:45
As Auric started to learn the trumpet eight years ago, he is the youngest member of the marching band.
15:05
In South Africa it is the most popular band parade. The young members often win prizes in competitions.
15:18
Field recording
Auric Leffule (Nelson)
Soccer player and trumpeter
I am happy that I am not with the gangsters. It is better to be in a band and play in a football club. Then we also get a chance to fly in a plane to other places.
15:38
O-Ton
Mishca Thompson (Claudia)
Parade Band Member
It has many chances can participate in competitions. It is great to have such an experience.
15:47
Once a year, the Cape Malays - a group of so-called 'coloureds' – can forget their often-difficult life.
15:59
At the beginning of the year thousands prepare for the carnival in their neighbourhood.
16:13
In each township the music clubs compete. Who has the best costume, who has the best music and who are the best performers?
16:25
It is hard work - even for Auric.
16:34
The area around Cape Town is considered the most beautiful region of South Africa. In the first days of each year the inhabitants of the townships have only one thing in mind: to put on the best celebrations.
16:55
The carnival is as important here as the carnival in Rio is for the Brazilians.
The Ashwin Willemse band has taken part in the competition for many years and has won the first prize several times.
17:16
Fadiel Gasant wants his marching band to be completely in front this year.
17:33
Flash: Terengganu, Malaysia
17:34
A four-star hotel, palm trees, beach and pool - not in South Africa, but in the north of Malaysia. The wind group has been invited for the fourth time to participate in the world competition of the marching bands.
17:53
The young people are accompanied by parents and teachers ..
17:58
O-Ton
Ashraf Karriem (Mark)
School in Manenberg
The Off and On
Most of them never ever dreamt of going overseas, let alone out of their immediate surroundings. So we can create opportunities, we can create ambassadors for learners in our community. And maybe that can have a spiralling effect so that other learners can look up to them also, and see that yes, there are better life, if we are prepared to work for it, and obviously stay away from all the wrong things that’s happening in our community.
18:21
O-Ton
Auric Leffule (Nelson)
It's nice here, but also hard work. We need to practice a lot. If we have bad grades, we can no longer play in the band. Uncle Fa shouts at us sometimes, and then I get scared.
18:44
Uncle Fa keeps the children busy. He demands a lot because he wants to give them a future.
18:59
O-Ton
Rashida Wyngaard
Mother
I have told my son if you should become a gangster, I would take a gun, and shoot you myself before you even start to become a gangster.
19:08 in the off
I’m not going to raise gangsters. We were raised with discipline, and we have values in our family.
19:16
South Africa versus Malaysia - in the Youth League - for the young boys it is a real challenge.
19:27
13-year-old Auric must prove that he can keep up with the older football players. This is not always easy.
19:36
But the South Africans are better and win.
19:41
In the competition of the best international military musicians the South Africans have to line up four times. It is their first performance in the north of Malaysia. The Indonesians and Malays march more accurately than the participants from the African continent.
Release
20:20
Flash: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
20:22
In the capital city of Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur - the kids have a day off to explore.
20:31
The school accompany Auric and his friends on their tour of the metropolis. A visit to the highest tower of the Petronas Towers of Asia is a must. They don’t see such things at home in South Africa.
20:55
After two weeks of practicing daily in preparation, it begins: the final display for the international competition in Kuala Lumpur.
21:08
The South Africans don’t win, but they get a prize for their extravagant show.
21:15
Flash: Manenberg, South Africa
21:17
And at home in Manenberg there is one more award for them: medals and trophies in recognition of the most dedicated players of the past year.
21:30
The first prize for the best player of the Orient FC goes to:
(pause)
21:40
... The 15 year old .. Lonwabo.
21:47
The award goes to a black South African. Lonwabo hadn’t expected that. He has managed to secure his place amongst the mixed race team members.
22:08
There may no longer be official segregation in South Africa, but it still exists in the minds of the people. The various groups, black, coloured and white, still live separately. But here in the football club all that counts is how good you are.
22:21
O-Ton (Julius)
Lonwabo Singama
They accept that I’m an African. We get along, pretty good yeah
22:28
I am a responsible, my input to the club is good.
Good, good behaviour as well and maybe, maybe not, my football little bit good yeah.
22:43
O-Ton
Fadiel Gasant (Viktor)
Football Director
About 85 percent got the chance. And especially, if I can point out, Lonwabo. He is one of our African kids. And I mean, I will assist him also, in future, to become one of the Bafana Bafana players.
22:55
Bafana Bafana is the South African national team, who will attempt to prove themselves here, before the eyes of the world, in Cape Town's new World Cup stadium.
23:12
The stadium was designed by German architects. The boys from Manenberg visit the football temple in the months before its completion. They cannot afford tickets to the World Cup itself.
23:30
Anyone who comes from the Manenberg township comes from a poorer background. A difficult childhood is the norm. Drugs offer the easiest escape. Boys like Auric and Lonwabo are exceptional phenomena in the school.
23:49
They should be role models – like this young man from Manenberg in the photo, who is now a professional rugby player in South Africa, as the headmaster explains to them both.
24:04
Field recording
Ashraf Karriem (Mark)
Headmaster
(In the Off and On)
There are prejudices. People think if one comes from Manenberg, one is a gangster and has no manners. But there are many good people in Manenberg. We must open up possibilities of youth so that they can change their lives.
24:24
70 percent of the residents of Cape Town's townships are Muslim - the rest are Christians. The gangster bosses have no religion. To them what counts is who can assert themselves the most brutally. The younger residents have to try to grow up differently, finish school and avoid the spiral of violence.
24:41
O-Ton
Ashraf Karriem (Mark)
Headmaster
(Introduces Lonwabo)
He would like to become one day a professional soccer player, but before he’s going to become a soccer player, he must first help us here today, ok? Off you go, youngster.
24:53
Auric and Lonwabo are examples for the younger generation. They show them that you can have dreams, which can come true if one exerts himself.
25:12
, Proudly Manenberg 'is such a project. Its message is: "Be proud of Manenberg." In the past, this place was a dump. Volunteers have made it into a park.
25:27
O-Ton
Mario Wanza (Viktor)
Project Manager
Manenberg is a place where there’s social decay, where the youth are school dropouts. Out of every 300 youth who enter high school, only 15 will complete this school. So there are 285 who have to hope for the future, where kids get caught up in gangsterism and violence. Where adults don’t have job opportunities, where people are sitting around on the street. Therefore, we’ve decided to take ownership of the situation and ensure that the youth, the kids that grow up in Manenberg grow up in a new environment, in a new society.
26:09
Around 100 people are involved here for their community.
26:16
Lonwabo and his friend take part for the first time. Every year a party is organised to get money in the cash box. The association "Proudly Manenberg” is dependent on sponsors. All the musicians appear without a fee.
26:38
Youngsters from the townships rarely see this part of the Cape. Admission to the National Park “Cape Point” costs the equivalent of 7 Euros. For this, a large family in Manenberg can eat for a day. For them Cape Point is another world.
27:03
The headmaster shows the beauty of the southernmost point of Africa to his promising stars. Often it needs only one adult who believes in a child to show him what is possible in life.
End at 27:30