KICKING ON
Jail baby grows up into rugby star
● When Nomonde Scott tied her baby boy to her back and walked into prison to start her sentence for a drug-related crime, the former prosecutor knew she might have let down her community but vowed never to leave her five-month-old’s side.
Five years later, Lubelo Scott took his first steps into the outside world when his mother was released on parole. In jail, she had been his best friend as well as his mother, and the prison courtyard had been his playground.
What she didn’t suspect was that behind bars at Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town she had nurtured a child who would become one of the country’s best young rugby players and have a brilliant mind.
Determined to get her life back on track, Nomonde enrolled at the University of the Western Cape for an LLB degree, and Lubelo’s upbringing took another unconventional turn when he was smuggled into her dormitory room at the Hector Pieterson residence.
Master’s students became his best friends, he would explain legal terms to his mother’s classmates, and some of the institution’s staff became his surrogate parents.
This year Lubelo, who matriculated from Cape Town’s prestigious Bishops Diocesan College, could have taken his pick of topranked universities, but decided to return to the campus in the “bush” to say thank you.
Last week, Nomonde, 57, watched from the stands in Bellville as her son’s UWC rugby team, coached by former Springbok Chester Williams, won promotion for the first time to the Varsity Cup, the top tier of university rugby. Playing centre, Lubelo did not score but inspired his team to a 39-18 victory over the University of Fort Hare.
“Coming back to campus was an emotional experience, especially wearing this rugby jersey,” said the 19year-old first-year law student. “This is where I grew up and for me . . . I am with my people. I feel at home.
“If you come from Bishops and you go to UWC, people think you didn’t do well at school. But I don’t care what people think. It made sense to give back to the people who took care of us.
“I wasn’t allowed to stay there, my mother had to fight and she was helped by the res co-ordinator, Dirk Saal, who would warn us when people would come and inspect the rooms.”
Williams said Lubelo had the vision, speed and attitude to be a rugby star. And the Western Province Under-21 player’s contribution to the team had been one of the keys to their success.
Lubelo wants to specialise in aviation law, possibly because his sister, Ntumeko, is a pilot. She was 12 when their mother was incarcerated. Ntumeko also studied at UWC and moved into the dorm room with her mother and little brother.
Nomonde said: “When we moved into res at UWC, I remember Lubelo saying to me: ‘Mamma, it feels like we are still in prison. I see other children being dropped at home.’ ”
They survived on what is known today as the National Student Financial Aid Scheme and Lubelo went to Excelsior Primary School in Bellville, where his talent as a sprinter and rugby player was unearthed. At 12 he was selected to play Craven Week rugby and he won provincial colours for athletics.
Excelsior coach and teacher Ashley Field said Lubelo was an exemplary captain who had led his team on an unbeatable streak. “He was known as a troublemaker, but rugby turned his life around. As remarkable is his mother, who sacrificed everything for him,” said Field, who was Olympic gold medallist Wayde van Niekerk’s athletics coach.
Bishops offered Lubelo a scholarship and his accolades and images — as well as those of his sister — are plastered throughout his mother’s home in Kuils River. Nomonde considers her children her greatest achievements.
She may have gone back to university at 46, written a book and created a beautiful home for her family, but Nomonde insists she has done nothing to be proud of — she is and always will be a criminal. Instead of upholding the law, she broke it.
“I am not a role model,” she said. “I have
failed many people. I was the first female African prosecutor in the Western Cape. There are people who looked up to me but I failed them. I failed not only myself, I failed my community. I come from Gugulethu. I failed those young children.”
Lubelo watched silently as she spoke. “A lot of people say I am a mommy’s boy,” he said. “But I embrace it. They don’t understand the bond we have. When a person looks at me, I don’t want them to see a boy who was raised in prison, I want them to see a person who was determined to do the right thing to succeed in life.”