Siya Kolisi’s hometown celebrates
The celebrated Bok captain is the pride and joy of Zwide, the township where he was born and raised
WOOD fires are burning in Zwide, the township between Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage along the R75, as they do ever y Sunday morning. The smell of dozens of braais wafts on the wind and traders are doing a brisk trade selling meat and pap to passersby.
But this morning is a special one – a very special one. Zwide’s most celebrated son is returning to the place of his birth and the residents are out in full force to welcome him.
Nine-year-old Elam Silinga waits at the fence of his parents’ home in Njoli Way to catch a glimpse of captain Siyamthanda Kolisi and his fellow Boks in their open-top double-decker bus.
The little boy is wearing a Bok jersey and is crazy about soccer and rugby, his dad, Temba, a taxi driver, says.
“It means a lot to us that the Springboks won with Siya as their leader,” Temba adds. “To those of us who were born and grew up here, it means opportunity. It means Elam can be anything be wants to be.”
Next door is A c e’s Tavern, where people have been hanging around with quarts of cider or zam
‘I hope he comes to say hi’
alek – Black Label beer – since around 11am. Church services have ended early this Sunday. Waves of people flow through the narrow streets to the bigger roads the Springboks will be travelling along during this especially poignant leg of their victory tour. “I’m looking after the visitors here today,” Siza Galama tells us in front of Ace’s. He introduces us to Ntombenani Ndzini and her fiveyear-old twins, Lungiswa and Indiphilile. The trio had to take three taxis from Uitenhage to see their hero on his home ground. Another family, the Altings, have come from Kragga Kamma near the road to Humansdorp as a kind of pilgrimage. “We were exactly in this spot when we came to see the Boks in their bus after they won the world cup in 2007,” Haley Alting says.
“My daughter was five, now she’s 17. The vibe here is fantastic – and Siya’s home is just around the corner.”
We visit one of Siya’s favourite taverns, where he watched the 2007 World Cup final as a 16-year-old, an overwhelming passion for rugby coursing through his veins and dreams of success crowding his teenage head.
“I hope he comes to say hi,” says Lungisa Madikana, one of the tavern’s patrons. He looks around him. “I’ve never seen so many people from the townships wearing Bok jerseys.”
Everyone’s following the Bok bus’ progress on TV and the atmosphere is electric. The sound of sirens and security guards clearing the way for the bus mark the champions’ imminent arrival. And then the moment is finally here: Siya standing on the top deck, holding the
Webb Ellis Cup, surrounded by jubilant teammates and officials. He lifts it high and blows kisses at the crowd. Everyone goes mad.
“The champs are here!” someone yells. Others sing an isiXhosa song which roughly translates to, “This is Siya. Those who know him didn’t know, but now they know what he can do.” The crowd surges forward, young and old stretch out their arms towards the Bok captain.
Little Elam hangs over the fence, his eyes as big as saucers as he stares up at his icon. A woman in a kitchen uniform from a nearby restaurant trots past. “I want to see Siya and Erasmus,” she shouts over her shoulder.
Rassie Erasmus, the triumphant Bok coach, is also from around here and the bus will be visiting his nearby hometown of Despatch soon.
THE day before the victory tour we visit the home in Mthembu Street where Siya (28) grew up. His uncle, Vukile Kolisi (46), and his kids, Liyama (11) and Alive (5), are the only family members at home when we stop by. Siya’s father, Fezakele (49), now lives in Cape Town – he moved there for work shortly after Siya’s birth and still does odd jobs in the Mother City. Siya’s mom, Phakama Qasana, was only 44 when she died. Vukile was a mentor to Siya, who was 15 when his mom passed away. He encouraged him to play rugby and helped him get scholarships to attend Grey College primary and high school in Port Elizabeth.
“He was so small but he played rugby well,” says Vukile, who works as a cleaner for a local company. “He was a good boy but did naughty things sometimes – like jumping over the wall and into the neighbours’ duck pond,” he says with a chuckle.
After Siya’s rugby career started taking off and his financial situation improved, he installed an intricately carved front door at his family homestead and kitted the kitchen out with a washing machine, microwave oven and a fancy new fridge.
But the home is still humble. A few kitchen drawers are missing and elsewhere in the house is an empty room with a cement floor where Siya used to sleep as a boy.
Siya built a granny flat in the backyard where he sleeps when he visits his family. It holds only a bare bed and the outside toilet is a few metres away.
Vukile has been inundated with visitors and well-wishers since Siya lifted the Webb Ellis Cup in Yokohama, Japan, on that glorious 2 November.
“People are always coming around to talk about Siya but at some point I have to go to work,” Vukile says. “Luckily Siya is coming here with the cup this weekend.”
Siya’s best friend, Tamsanqa Ncwana (30), was in the stadium with Siya’s dad to watch the match – Siya’s landmark 50th Test. “I can’t describe that feeling,” Tamsanqa says, chatting to us on the hard gravel rugby field where he and Siya used to play as youngsters for the local African Bombers club.
“The Japanese were so nice to us South Africans. They wanted to take pictures with us, even if we weren’t players,” he recalls. “When I got home, the people in Zwide told me they saw me on TV and everyone wanted to know what Japan was like.”
Before the final, he’d asked Siya if he was nervous. “He said, ‘I’m not nervous or scared. I’m ready to do my job’.”
Tamsanqa recalls the days of training he and Siya put in here in Zwide, day in and day out, come rain or shine. “We are and will always be like family to each other. Many little boys play for the club these days. I think there are about 100 junior and senior players.”
Eric Songwiqi (47), Siya’s first rugby coach, says boys usually start showing
‘Luckily Siya is coming here with the cup’
their real talent around the age of 12 – which is exactly what the Bok captain did.
TRUE to form, Siya hasn’t forgotten his old childhood coach. Eric fetches a picture of himself with Siya as a boy and the rest of the junior team. “He gave me a warm hug this morning at the hotel,” he says, staring at the photograph. “He was very emotional and so was I.” The last time he saw Siya was in Japan before the final – Eric too made the trek to Japan. Did he have any words of advice for his former charge? “I told him, ‘Stay cool, calm and collected’,” Eric recalls. “I said, ‘Learn from the mistakes you made against New Zealand [when the Boks lost their first game in the tournament] and don’t unnecessarily concede tries. Use your leadership to organise the team. Keep talking to them.’” As a youngster, Siya was full of energy. “But he was respectful and soft-spoken. His discipline, both on and off the field, showed me he’d get far. “He was optimistic and positive and if any of his teammates laughed at someone for making a mistake, he was quick to tell them that’s the only way to learn.” Returning home as the Bok captain – and a Rugby World Cup-winning one at that – will inspire hope in generations to come.
THE Bok tour starts early in Happy Valley Way, Summerstrand, at the hotel where the players and their entourage are staying. By 8.30am there’s a sea of supporters from all over, honking vuvuzelas and strains of Shosholoza reviving the spirit of the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
A group of women sing the traditional wedding song masambe nono siyolala – a feel-good song often sung at times of celebration.
At 9.15am the players have boarded the bus and the cavalcade of buses, motorbikes and cars starts moving, supporters following on foot, toward Port Elizabeth’s beautiful old city hall, where speeches and more songs follow.
Groups of supporters line the route. On one of the traffic islands, a group of guys are wearing tiny swimsuits and blond wigs in imitation of Faf de Klerk’s now famous near-naked moment with Prince Harry in the dressing room shortly after the final.
From the PE city centre the procession winds its way slowly to Zwide – which to Siya is the most important stop on the whistle-stop tour.
“It’ll be so nice to see the friends and family members I grew up with again,” he tells at an early morning press conference before the bus head off.
For the residents of Zwide, it’s more than nice. Siya is proof that if you work hard and believe in the seemingly impossible, dreams can come true.