FACE 2 FACE /
Odwa Ntamo with
Q Tell us about your role in Nemato Change a Life (NCAL).
ATogether with the members, I get to create and run the programme. As a mentor, I help NCAL members in every aspect of their lives.
What is the most fulfilling aspect of the work you do?
Being a role model – helping young people look forward to life and creating opportunities for them. Seeing NCAL members develop is like seeing myself growing up: I used to rush back from school, rush to rowing, rush to maths. So this is like my whole life being replayed every day. It reminds me that life happens now, in the moment.
What Sunshine Coast tourism must-see would you recommend to a visitor?
In two to three years, NCAL plans to open a youth centre, where children receive international-level coaching in gymnastics, fencing, handball and rowing. Along with this, the plan is to open a meditation centre, and a restaurant. This will be a good way for tourists to visit Nemato.
What’s on your bucket list?
To make Nemato Change a Life a welcoming space so every kid in the community can come and feel safe. And to help older people get jobs through helping them write CVs and finding synergies – matching skills and energies - to create their own work. To create athletes who are not only competitive but can win international competitions. To make sure every member gets the best maths marks they possibly can. Through meditation, to help everyone connect more deeply with their true selves.
What is your motto in life?
Be the best at everything you do.
What keeps you motivated?
It’s just my breath that keeps me going
What do you think could be done to address high unemployment in South Africa?
Not to give people jobs but rather give youth platforms from where they can create their own work. For banks to give loans for young people to try their own thing. Every young person has their own dreams - but instead, society forces them to focus on what’s out there on offer. Most youth fear doing what they really want: they make decisions based on fear, not love. They should be given the chance to express themselves and opportunities to express the creativity inside them. That will free entrepreneurship.
Ndlambe is a beautiful environment - what can we do to look after it?
Recycle, reuse, reduce. Take action by growing your own veggies, planting more trees, enriching the soil rather than covering it in chemicals. Be kind to Mother Nature.
What is your favourite music?
I listen to Om mantra chants and the ‘African relaxing music’ category on YouTube. Oh and I really like Kendrick Lamar’s new album.
What is your favourite meal?
Samp and lentils – normally a meal I cook for myself. I fry onions, then put the lentils in with Indian spices and mushrooms. I put it on top of white samp.
If you could be president of South Africa?
Invest more in manufacturing – inside South Africa, so we use our own resources to create more work instead of sending our raw materials overseas. Create centres where people can heal. If you look around South Africa, there is a lot of trauma. People don’t act out of conscious mind; instead, they react out of pain. Parents pass the same traumas on to youth.
We need to heal older South Africans so the next generation can be productive, and live without fear. Use the land to create more farm jobs – use fewer chemicals to create a better environment and better food, your energy changes.
- Ntamo joined Nemato Change A Life in 2013, aged 12. Two years later, he was selected for the SAU16 rowing squad and travelled with them to compete in London. A scholarship to Grey High School was followed by offers from several universities, but, “At that time I was only physically fit: emotionally and spiritually, I was not balanced. That changed last year when I joined the Kowie Breeze wellness programme and learned meditation.”