Cape Cobras’ Mahima a proud product of the Lowveld
Siyabonga Mahima, a born-and-bred Lowvelder, recently made his List A debut for the Six Gun Grill Cape Cobras in the 2020/21 Momentum One Day Cup.
Mahima (24) is a former pupil of Nelspruit Primary School (NPS) and Lowveld High, scored 10* runs off 16 balls (not out) against the Highveld Lions. In the position he was chosen for (bowler), he had the best bowling figures of all the Cobra players with 1/32 in 8,2 overs, with a 3,84 economy rate. He attended NPS from 2003 to 2009 before matriculating at Lowveld High in 2014.
“He has always been very talented at cricket, tennis and rugby, but cricket was always his first love,” said head of cricket at NPS, Albert van Putten, who coached Mahima with Otto Frauenstein. Mahima was the brother of well-known cricket coach at Hoërskool Nelspruit, Sifiso Mahima, who passed away last year.
“Siya always put in that extra work and effort. I used to coach him during breaktimes, in his PT periods and even during some assemblies. He played for the Pumas since he was 10 years old and in his u/13 year he made the Pumas u/13 A team,” said Van Putten. “Siya was always humble and he was never bigger than the game. When he was u/10 we played against a very strong academy team from Pretoria, and Siya scored 100 and took five wickets.
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That day I realised that he has the ability to play senior provincial cricket,” he said. After grade seven, Siya went to Lowveld High where he also played for the Pumas u/15 A, u/17A and u/19A.
“When he finished grade 12 he started playing cricket for the Mpumalanga senior side. He performed so well, Boland offered him a contract. He played a few games in 2020 for Boland and Ashwill Prince, coach of the Cobras, was so impressed with him that he included him in the Cobras squad,” said Van Putten. “We at Nelspruit Primary are extremely proud of Siyabonga and we wish you all of the best with your career,” he said.
