One on one with Zakes Dlamini

Elaine Rodway

HE’S as tough as they come on the sports field, but that’s certainly not all there is to Zakes Dlamini.

25-year-old Zakes Dlamini is currently employed as a sports coach at NRS and is studying to be a teacher. Behind his alluring smile, there is a softness in his eyes that emanates when he speaks of his passions in life and his unwavering love for what he does.

He describes himself as a “self-groomed person who is very much into sports and technology.”

“I am not just into watching or coaching sports,” he says. “Playing sports is one of my biggest hobbies. I don’t believe in not being able do something, which is why I coach children. I want them to be able to achieve anything they want to in life.”

VH: When and how did you realise that teaching was your calling?

ZD: “I realised it when I coached my first rugby and soccer teams. It is a great feeling seeing what you planned and trained in work on someone else.”

VH: How did the opportunity to coach arise?

ZD: “I was going with a friend who was supposed to coach a junior team at the school. I met up with one of my rugby team mates who was already teaching and coaching there and he asked me to help him coach the backline, since he plays forwards. He liked how I coached, so I guess that’s where it all began…”

VH: You attended Vryheid High School. Which of your teachers do you feel had the greatest impact on you?

ZD: “As far as sports goes, definitely Mr Moolman. Personality wise, it was Mrs Nieuwenhuizen and it was Mr van Wyk who had the greatest impact on me mentally.”

VH: How would you describe your high school career?

ZD: “It was a great platform for finding myself, but I would like to think of it as only a platform. I got to see the real world when I started varsity. That’s where I got to be independent without my parents. I got a stipend amount and had to survive with that for the month. It was very challenging for me.”

VH: What do you enjoy most about your job?

ZD: “The travelling for sports and the fact that I do what I love.”

VH: What are you most proud of?

ZD: “2016 is my first team of soccer boys. They only lost one game throughout the soccer season this year.”

VH: What is your main aspiration in life?

ZD: “It’s to be the best in what I do and earning and giving respect to people.”

VH: Lastly, if they had to make a movie about your life, who would play you and what kind of movie would it be?

ZD: “Will Smith,” he says with a smile. “It would be a thriller type of movie with a bit of comedy…”