Gogos have eyes on the goals
|Published
“Woza, woza” adds to the sounds of constant cock crowing and the odd dog bark.
Encouraged by Banyana Banyana’s successes at the Women’s World Cup in New Zealand but a world away, deep in the Valley of 1 000 Hills, a group of gogos are as focussed on football as they are on grandchild-rearing, vegetable gardening, housekeeping and cooking during their daily grind.
Only, the former is an escape from the latter.
“I used to have a problem with my knee but this has helped it,” Nantobheko Ngubane, 43, told the Independent on Saturday. “It also helps with my blood pressure.”
Gertrude Mngwengwe, 21 years her senior, added that playing football themselves was a wonderful substitute for going to watch sport in Durban when they could not afford to pay for transport to get there.
The gogos’ foray into football is a venture of the Hillcrest Aids Centre Trust (Hact) and is part of the build up to the Gogo Olympics, to be held on Friday, August 25, at the nearby KwaXimba sports grounds. It will be the 10th annual Gogo Olympics, and the first since 2019, after which the Covid pandemic forced it to stop.
Along with football there will be athletic events, not to mention a massive gathering of gogos.
Team Nzalabauntu coach Benjamin Hlengwa, from a generation below them, has high hopes for his team when they challenge the other seven. Hlengwa was born and raised in the area and honed his football skills on the same field.
Some teams are for older gogos; other are for younger gogos and there’s one for the omkhulu – the grandfathers.
“They are fast learners,” Hlengwa said in between instructing them during exercises in dribbling and throwing a ball through hoops.
Phindiwe Mashiloane, co-ordinator of the Hact Gogo Sports Group Programme, said football was a brief escape for gogos living lonely, hard lives.
“Today’s grandchildren don’t have time for the grannies who feel very lonely because the children are talking to their cell phones, talking to their TVs. They don’t have enough time to talk to their gogos. The gogos are lonely in their households.”
The generation in between is often dependent on the gogos too.
“Unemployment is the biggest problem. Most of their grandchildren have passed their matrics. Some have been to university but they are unemployed. They are staying at home, still dependent on their grannies with their very small pensions.
“And the cost of living has become so high.”
Hact is tackling these hardships, exacerbated by those caused by Aids, by helping with food gardening and guiding them with 21st Century parenting.
“We challenge them to have food gardens in their homes,” said Mashiloane.
“Some are not fenced, so Hillcrest Aids has supported them with the fencing material.”
The availability of land restricts the development of bigger gardens, she said.
On parenting, Mashiloane said gogos often found the generation gap made it difficult to parent the young.
“These days the law is that one mustn’t smack kids, but the grannies grew up in the days when they just smacked kids and no one said anything.
“Now, communication is difficult. The grannies don’t have the skills to discuss issues with their grandchildren. We have programmes to help the grannies to talk and build that relationship between them and their grandchildren.”
Heavy stuff, all made lighter kicking a ball around the field.
Hact has appealed for some of these items (or donations towards the items) needed to make the day special:
Gas cylinder and stove (3)
Preferably, but not exclusively biodegradable, bowls, cups and spoons for 1 000 gogos
Nine portaloos
20L buckets (2)
Ladle spoons (4)
Lunch for 1 000 gogos.
They also need volunteers to help with set-up, serving the gogos, cleaning and maintaining the grounds, security, and clean-up at the end of the day.
All financial contributions are welcome and appreciated by Hact.
Please contact Mashiloane via email at grannies@hillaids.org.za for more information on how you can get involved in creating an awesome day for these phenomenal women within our Valley communities.
The Independent on Saturday