Former prisoner finds purpose in life
Ernesto Love is using sports to uplift youth in his community
APAROLEE who served more than a decade in prison for killing two people, is using sport as a tool for transformation after he found his purpose in life while incarcerated in Drakenstein Correctional Centre.
Ernesto Love, of Vredendal, was granted parole on September 21 last year after serving 12 years of his 28-year sentence.
In 2003, Love and two co-accused were found guilty of a double murder and armed robbery by the Vredendal Magistrate’s Court. He was 17 with a bright future in diesel mechanics when he was convicted of the crimes.
“I was studying at West Coast College. On the night of the murder, I just wrote mathematics – the last of my exams – and I believed we had something to celebrate. My two friends and I decided to go clubbing to celebrate. The night was planned for enjoyment, but it took a turn for tragedy. Before we went to the club, we were drinking at a quiet place,” he said.
It was then that the three friends spotted a Toyota Corolla pulling into a driveway at a house nearby. “We decided we wanted that car. We went to the house and demanded the key, we eventually got it,” he said.
As the trio left, they realised the owners of the car, two women, had seen their faces. “That evening I was part of the group that took the lives of two innocent people.”
The women were stabbed to death with a kitchen knife. “In my mind I processed what had happened. My whole life flashed before my eyes. The first thing I thought to myself was my parents never raised me to take the lives of people,” Love said.
The three friends were arrested by police after they fled the scene of the crime and tried to sell the stolen Toyota Corolla in Cape Town. Now 30, Love said his prison sentence had given him more opportunity and self-purpose than he could have imagined. He joined rehabilitation programmes which taught him life skills that he now shares with underprivileged youth in his rural community in Ebenhaeser.
“I am using the limited resources I have at my disposal to equip the youngsters. I bring in a lot of elements and help them physically, mentally and spiritually.”
Sport Implementation Foundation chief executive, Samuel Theron, said Love had grown from the young offender who joined the foundation in 2013 to a motivated man who has transformed his community through sport. “The problem is that parolees, like Love, struggle to find employment because of their criminal record. What we have discovered is, in sport, no one worries about criminal records.
“Everyone interested in the game is watching the skill on the field and that is why we use sport as a means to reintegrate parolees into society.”