Meet KwaThema golfers

Meshack Moutloatse is one of many golfers who do not just play golf but believes that he was born to do it.

He says his love for golf started before 1974 when he was still a student.

Thinking back about the days when he was still a young boy Moutloatse remembers that in order to have lunch at school he depended on weekend jobs that he used to do at one of the golf courses in Springs.

“I used to carry a bag full of golf equipment for the players and get paid 25c.

That helped me to buy lunch and also helped buy a few groceries for my family,” he says.

Sam Mnguni says golf is a gentleman’s sport, however, he says buying the equipment is extremely expensive.

He says the one thing that he loves about golf is the fact that not only the dedicated golfers play it but even people who play other sports play it to relax.

“Even the South African first citizen, president Jacob Zuma, plays golf sometimes,” proudly says Mnguni.

He says they do not only play golf for fun but to encourage the youth to be involved in sport and even to make a career out of it.

Mnguni says the challenge that the golfers in KwaThema face is a lack of a proper training facility.

He says because the grass grows fast, unlike the soccer fields at the sports complex, it takes time for their training golf course to be well looked after and be in an acceptable condition.

“Most of the time we are forced to use the soccer field to train while the children are still at school,” says Mnguni.

He concludes by saying that one of their biggest dreams is to see more young people taking responsibility for their future.