Founders of Oki Gaming in Bekkersdal, which is a non-profit company, want the youth to explore e-gaming as a career.

Nkululeko Mthembu, 26, who has been a fanatic video game player from a young age said the old days of limiting people to only conventional jobs are long gone.

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Through his centre that he established in 2018, Nkululeko and his team offer beginners and amateur players lessons on a wider variety of e-games.

We’re now a registered non-profit company and there’s a lot we’d like to do across Rand West City, and possibly he entire Gauteng,” Nkululeko said. He added that they were once operating from a shack, until he saved up money to get more equipment and rented a house for a bigger space to accommodate everyone.

“We teach gamers from scratch, starting with the functioning of a joystick and building everything from there,” he said.

He added that there are certain types of games that form part of the foundation phase, and as soon as players gain skills, they graduate to more advanced games.

“The idea is to ease them into the entire arena of different games, and what options they can choose from. We also want to debunk the stereotype that township guys only play FIFA.” He said he and his team want local youngsters, who love the industry, to turn gaming into something bigger than just a hobby.

They want them to stand a chance to become professional players and make a career out of it, even travelling the world.

We want guys to get as many opportunities as possible. If they can’t become professional players, they can be trainers. If not a trainer, at least you can be someone who can explain scenes to the beginners.

“We ultimately want to create a pool of competitive players across Gauteng so that we build more teams that can compete in a wide range of games. People can use this to change their lives,” Nkululeko added.