Dubai for Simphiwe
His interest in wheelchair basketball developed rapidly from an early age, and he began playing this sport at school when he was in Grade Seven.
Simphiwe Mntambo is more than a switchboard operator for the Netcare group.
He is also a talented local wheelchair basketball star with international sporting experience.
Simphiwe was also recently appointed as the assistant coach of South Africa’s national u-23 men’s wheelchair basketball team.
The team practises at Mandeville Indoor Sports Centre.
His interest in wheelchair basketball developed rapidly from an early age, and he began playing this sport at school when he was in Grade Seven.
“In 2005, I was awarded KwaZulu-Natal colours. The following year, at the age of 18, I was selected for the KwaZulu-Natal u-23 men’s team.”
The promising young sportsman also excelled at athletics and had to make a choice between focusing on shot put and javelin, or pursuing basketball.
“One of the things I love about basketball is that it is a team sport, whereas in athletics you play for yourself only. In wheelchair basketball you get to know your teammates, and you have to understand and support each other’s strengths,” he said.
Simphiwe was selected for the South African u-23 men’s wheelchair basketball team in 2007, and in 2008 he was a member of the team that qualified for the 2009 men’s u-23 Wheelchair Basketball World Cup held in Paris, which he described as a great experience.
He has since reached new heights in his chosen sport, and was appointed captain of the KZN Seniors team in 2019.
He gained further experience coaching school wheelchair basketball and the u-23 KwaZulu-Natal women’s team, known as the KZN Warriors, before recently accepting the appointment from Wheelchair Basketball South Africa (WBSA) as assistant coach of the national u-23 men’s team.
“In March I will be going with the team to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, where we will be competing in the Fazza International Wheelchair Basketball Tournament.
“I’ve been working towards this coaching goal for a long time, and I want to give back to Netcare by sharing my coaching skills to hopefully help motivate differently abled persons as part of their physical rehabilitation programme,” he said.
Simphiwe joined the Netcare Group through Netcare’s Sinako Learnership project at Netcare Parklands Hospital in Durban before transferring to Netcare Clinton Hospital, south of Johannesburg.
Netcare’s Sinako Project was launched in 2012 to assist unemployed young differently abled South Africans to enter the mainstream economy.
The project offers structured internships and learnerships in a number of fields to provide opportunities for them to develop skills that will afford them real opportunities in the workplace.
For the 2020 intake year, Netcare is offering Sinako learnership placements for 50 youths as part of the group’s commitment to the Youth Employment Service (YES) initiative.
