Johannesburg - The Spur Soccer Masidlale Programme concluded after 17 weeks instilling essential life skills into young lives and reaching more than 30 000 children within historically disadvantaged areas since its inception in 2005.

Bellavista Creche, an NPO located in Bellavista East was the charity who won the R10 000 prize yesterday at the finals played in Soweto.

What started out as 12 one-day soccer clinics involving 10-12 year olds, has grown into a fully-fledged annual soccer league in the main metropolitan areas of Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth.

One of Spur’s corporate social investment aims is to use sport to uplift communities. The central venues are selected in historically disadvantaged areas where school sport participation is low. The Masidlale Programme fills this gap.

Each one of the cities had 200 players (100 girls and 100 boys) taking part who come from 10 local schools. The teams are given Spur-branded soccer kits which they can keep. Primary schools that have participated per region were as follows:

Kwa-Zulu Natal

• Zandile
• Emthetweni
• Inkonkoni
• Zwelesithembiso
• Thamela
• Isipingo
• Lindelani
• Mzwilili
• Fundakakhle
• Phila

Winning schools were Zandile (boys) and Inkonkoni (girls).

Port Elizabeth

• Enkwenkwezini
• Elundini
• Dumani
• Elufefeni
• Fumisikoma
• Melisizwe
• Zanoxolo
• Ikhwezelihle
• Mpumalanga
• Siyaphambili

Winning schools were Enkwenkweni (boys) and Elufefeni (girls).

Cape Town

• Lwazi
• Luzuko
• Lehlohonolo
• Ilitha
• Mseki
• Vukukhanya
• Sokhanyo
• Sonwabo
• Vuyane
• Xolani

Winning schools were Sonwabo (boys) and Lwazi (girls).

Johannesburg

• JB Marks
• Julius Sebolayi
• Bonamelo
• Braamfischer
• Nkoni Maruping
• Obed Mosiane
• Moses Kotane
• Mayibuye 
• Khulanolwazi
• Kid Maponya

Winning schools were Julius Sebolai (boys) and Obed Mosiane (girls).

According to Khakhi Diala, Brand Activation Manager of the Spur Group, sport teaches us more than just physical skills; sport is a metaphor for life. That is why Spur has included a life skills programme to run alongside the soccer league.

“Spur Steak Ranches is again proud to have completed a very successful Spur Soccer Masidlale program for the 11th Year now, 800 boys and girls from four provinces duly benefited from the skills development and life skills elements that they went through” We are also proud to have donated R10 000 to a needy charity”, added Khakhi.

Fifty mentors per league met with their groups every two weeks to explore essential skills needed to excel in life. The mentors teach self-esteem, positive behaviour changes and wise decision making. They equip the children beyond the sports field into home and school life. 20 girls and 20 boys are then chosen for further mentoring.

The main prize for the winning team is that they become mascots at PSL games.

To ensure the lessons go further into the schools, Spur has a Masidlale Coaching Programme for the school coaches. These are run by accredited coaching facilitators who train 30 coaches from four provinces.

Interactive Sport is involved with the mentoring programme which extends to the coaches and one teacher per school.

Masidlale means “let’s play” in Xhosa. So the programme’s aim is to change lives through play.

For more information about Spur, feel free to visit their website http://www.spur.co.za/

KWAZULU-NATAL, PIETERMARITZBURG, 2 JUNE 2016 – The 2016 Nedbank Green Mile was a magnificent and humbling community event from start to finish, carefully organised to give family, friends and spectators the opportunity to boost runners embarking on the final 26km stretch to the end of the Comrades Marathon on Sunday, 29 May 2016.

Approximately 8 000 spectators occupied the Nedbank Green Mile on Old Main Road in Kloof, lining the street, shouting, dancing and clapping to the music that filled the air across the mile, which was swathed in green and gold. Families and friends picnicked on the lawns and grandstands, with multiple big screen TVs keeping them in tune with live race action.

Like a well-oiled machine, 643 entertainers, all sourced from KZN, knew exactly what to do and when, performing across six zones strategically positioned along the 1.6km Nedbank Green Mile, dressed up in an array of costumes like Ninja Turtles, Batman, Superman, Star Wars storm troopers, and green morph suits, running up the mile encouraging runners to keep moving forward. Groups of traditional Zulu dancers, gumboot dancers, and professional dancers put on shows continuously for 7 hours, plus cheerleaders, larger-than-life giant puppets, lifeguards and more cheered runners on.

Throughout the day, Scottish and military marching bands, Durban Girls High School’s drum majorettes, DJs, live bands including Afritude and Afro Divas, plus the marimba and steel drummers from St Nicholas Primary School, performed on either side of the Mile and across four stages. It was inspiring and electrifying, akin to a magnificent Rio de Janeiro parade party.

“A vital, behind-the-scenes element of the Nedbank Green Mile is its commitment to supporting the local community. In total, 881 local people were employed to work at the 2016 Nedbank Green Mile, sourced from local schools, universities, small businesses and non-profit organisations. This included 643 local entertainers and a support crew of 238. In 2016, we had the best catering zone yet, with eight local SME vendors showcasing KwaZulu-Natal’s incredible flavour,” said Tobie Badenhorst, Head of Sponsorship and Cause Marketing at Nedbank.

For the first time in Nedbank Green Mile history, Comrades Marathon major co-sponsor, Nedbank, gave spectators the chance to send digital motivational messages to their runner heroes. These messages were directly linked to a runner’s number so that when they crossed the timing map heading into the mile, the personal message was broadcast to them on a big screen TV. This proved incredibly popular amongst spectators and runners and will be a feature of future Nedbank Green Miles.

A most magical moment at the 2016 Nedbank Green Mile was double-amputee, Sandile Mbili.

“Four years ago, Sandile, from Diepsloot in Johannesburg, lost both his legs due to a bacterial infection. The Jumping Kids Foundation helped him to get prosthetic legs. Inspired by Sandile’s story, and his dedication to learning to run again using his new legs, Nedbank decided to help Sandile to raise funds to help more children like him get prosthetic legs,” said Badenhorst.

Nedbank challenged Sandile to run the Nedbank Green Mile on a 1.6km Twitter Track made up of motivational tweets from the public. For every Tweet on the track, Nedbank made a donation to the Jumping Kids Foundation to help more paraplegic children get prosthetic legs.

Running the Nedbank Green Mile, was a huge feat for 17-year-old Mbili, who until recently, was wheelchair bound and couldn’t even walk. He ran a social media campaign beforehand called #GoSandile, which encouraged people to raise awareness and donations for the Jumping Kids Foundation.

“This was an immense challenge for Mbili who is still undergoing regular physiotherapy to help him walk, let alone run again. But he ran the entire 1.6km Twitter track with a huge smile on his face, with thousands of supporters and hundreds of Comrades runners cheering him on. Sandile’s journey is what the Comrades Marathon is all about – humbly achieving what once seemed impossible,” said Badenhorst.

“With all your support on Twitter I was motivated to go on and finish the Nedbank Green Mile in 12 minutes! said a humbled Mbili

This is the Nedbank Green Mile – community, passion, challenge and victory, all rolled into one.

“Thank you to everyone involved with the 2016 Nedbank Green Mile – the spectators, the entertainers, the support crew, the charities, the schools, the universities and the Nedbank staff who gave freely of their time to manage our water point. But most importantly, thank you to the real inspirational heroes of the day – the runners who make this the greatest race in the world,” concluded Badenhorst.

You can watch Sandile's story at https://youtu.be/2ZchrUwPico

Watch the 2016 Nedbank Green Mile video here https://youtu.be/MWS14POyCI4

For high-res images of the 2016 Nedbank Green Mile, click on the link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3cpv0d9kegw80ji/AAAU1c7wiaD59htItPMGUZcDa?oref=e&n=281151227

KWAZULU-NATAL, DURBAN, MAY 2016 - KwaZulu-Natal’s sunny Durban is a surfski paradise famous worldwide for its golden beaches, big waves and exhilarating downwind racing conditions. The city is home to some of the world’s greatest surfski paddlers, and hosts the world’s largest surfski series, breaking world records for paddler numbers. It is the number one city in the world to live in if you’re passionate about the sport.

“Durban is the best place in the world to paddle. We have warm water year round and no real winter to speak of. For novice paddlers, the Durban Bay is a sanctuary to kick off learning the sport, and for the hard-core extreme paddler, Durban also provides some of the best downwind surf one can find. It’s this amazing environment that has aided the growth of the sport,” explains Barry Lewin, a Jeep Team-sponsored athlete, who is also one of South Africa’s top surfski paddlers, and organiser for Durban’s Varsity College FNB Marine Surfski Series and the Bay Union Surfski Series.

Describing how it all began, Lewin said the sport first took off in Durban in 2001 when the Winter Surfski Series, run by Billy Harker, hit the scene. Before this, surfski was considered more of a fun hobby than a professional sport.

Says Lewin, “Under Harker’s management, people started taking surfski seriously, with paddler numbers doubling from 100 to 200 in the first year of the series. In 2003, 525 paddlers took part in the series, and saw Durban break the Guinness World Record for the biggest entry for a domestic surfski event.”

Durban-born Lewin is an accomplished river marathon and surfski paddler, with a number of local and international titles to his name. Notable achievements include winning the Liffey Descent in Ireland on his first attempt back in 2007, as well as breaking the 25-year-old K1 record a year later at Australia’s Avon Descent. But it is back home in Durban where his passion and dedication to the development of surfski has really grown the sport in recent years.

Lewin has been instrumental in developing Durban’s young talent, having founded South Africa’s first surfski development programme for underprivileged youth, as well as launching Durban’s first surfski school in 2006. The development programme, now managed by Lewin’s dad, Mark Lewin, has produced a number of the country’s top paddlers, including Sthembiso Mbatha, who represented South Africa at the 2011 Surfski World Cup, and is now a coach at the school.

Says Lewin, “It all started with a small surfski school in Durban to teach people how to paddle in the sea. The joy of sharing my passion for the ocean and sport is extremely rewarding. The school is the perfect way to try out the sport. Coaches include myself as well as some of Durban’s top paddlers, including Wade Krieger and Sthembiso Mbatha. Schools travel from across KwaZulu-Natal to take part in our clinics.”

Lewin’s success with the Surfski School led to him taking over management in 2010 of Durban’s premier summer surfski event – the Varsity College FNB Marine Surfski Series. Under his leadership, the series attracted major sponsorship from Varsity College in 2010, and then from banking giant, FNB in 2015.  Since then, the series has grown into the world’s biggest surfski event, attracting record entries every year.

 “The Varsity College FNB Marine Surfski Series is special because it is also an event aimed at developing young surfski talent in Durban. Every year, the final race in the 10-part series doubles as the Varsity College FNB South African Schools Surfski Championships. This places Durban on the map globally as the premier hotspot for up-and-coming surfski talent.

Other major surfski events now taking place in Durban include the winter Bay Union Surfski Series (April – May 2016), which is also organised by Lewin; the Durban Downwind from 25 – 26 June 2016, which also doubles as a World Surfski Series event; and the Wall and Back Surfski Series (October – December 2016). Surf’s Up Durban!

#JeepTeamSA

Editors’ Notes

For more information please contact Bronwen Blunden on 079 060 1905 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

KWAZULU-NATAL, DURBAN, 5 MAY 2016 – To experience ordinary people conquering the extraordinary, be at the award-winning Comrades Marathon Nedbank Green Mile SPECATOR ZONE in Old Main Road, Kloof, on Sunday, 29 May 2016 from 8am to 3pm.

On the day, a 1.2km stretch of road in Kloof will be converted into an energetic mile-long ‘green & gold’ themed spectator and runner zone, orchestrated by Nedbank, to ensure runners, families and friends feel fully immersed in the awe-inspiring, humbling, life-changing Comrades Marathon along the Comrades Marathon route. Dress to theme and join in with the fun and festivities.

The Comrades Marathon is South Africa’s most inclusive sports event, involving a sports discipline that has no cultural, racial or financial barriers and attracting around 350,000 spectators, 3-million global TV viewers and 4 500 volunteers every year, not to mention the real heroes – the approximately 20 000 runners who take on the ‘Ultimate Human Race’.

For millions of South Africans, showing their support for the Comrades Marathon has become an important, unmissable and iconic tradition. Families, friends and colleagues make plans to support competitors, getting up at the crack of dawn, packing picnic baskets, deck chairs and umbrellas, and donning their supporter outfits, to stake out at the Nedbank Green Mile official spectator zone, where they provide encouragement to runners as they take on this immense challenge, whilst being entertained by movement and sound.

“The only place to catch all the 2016 Comrades action is at the only official spectator point along the route, the Nedbank Green Mile. The Nedbank Green Mile has been designed to celebrate the essence of what it means to take part in the Comrades Marathon - courage, selflessness, humbling, dedication and perseverance. In 2016, the Nedbank Green Mile is themed ‘Green and Gold’, and will see Kloof’s Old Main Road transformed into a rejuvenating, eco-friendly, celebratory, community-orientated space alive in green and gold. It is the real story of triumph over adversity,” says Tobie Badenhorst, Head of Sponsorship and Cause Marketing at Nedbank.

The 2016 Nedbank Green Mile will be bringing in a host of KwaZulu-Natal-based entertainment acts, including DJs, bands, professional dancers, drummies, cheerleaders, and local sports personalities and more. They’ll be performing from 8am to 3pm on race day, entertaining supporters throughout the spectator-friendly zone, and most importantly, encouraging runners as they embark on the final 26km stretch home to the finish at Kingsmead Stadium in Durban.

For children, the secure Kids Entertainment Zone is open from 8am and will feature fun-filled activities and entertainment acts like jumping castles, magicians, clowns, stilt walkers, balloon artists, puppet shows and face painting and sand art.

Throughout the day, spectators can watch all the Comrades Marathon action live via big screen TVs in the Nedbank Green Mile zone, with live commentary, picnic spots and grand stands located right alongside the route.

On site, there will also be food and drinks stands to replenish hungry and thirsty spectators. All food and drinks in the Nedbank Green Mile are sold by local schools, churches and charities, with all profits retained by these organisations.

In line with Nedbank’s commitment to greening the environment, all food and beverage packaging along the Nedbank Green Mile will be recycled.

“A major feature of the Nedbank Green Mile is its goal to involve and uplift the community. This is why all entertainment acts, support crews, food and beverage vendors are sourced from KwaZulu-Natal. This year, the Nedbank Green Mile will also be supporting two local children’s charities, the Star Fish Foundation and The Sports Trust,” says Badenhorst.

The Nedbank Green Mile is open from 8am to 3pm on Sunday, 29 May 2016. Entry is free and easy access can be gained from the M13 Hillcrest - Pinetown alternative highway travelling east towards Durban at the Pioneer off ramp. Follow the sign boards or follow www.facebook.com/nedbanksport/ or www.twitter.com/nedbanksport on Twitter for more information.

Use the hashtag #NedbankGreenMile to join the conversation.

Editors’ Notes

Nedbank is an official major sponsor of the 2016 Comrades Marathon.

The first Comrades Marathon took place on 24th May 1921, Empire Day, starting outside the City Hall in Pietermaritzburg with 34 runners. It has continued since then every year with the exception of the war years 1941-1945, with the direction alternating each year between Pietermaritzburg and Durban, the so called up & down runs.

The Nedbank Green Mile is the only official spectator point along the marathon route, offering Comrades supporters a perfect vantage point to view all the race action. It is located along Old Main Road in Kloof and is just 26km from the finish line in Kingsmead, Durban.

Entry into the Nedbank Green Mile Spectator Zone is free and festivities start at 8am.

This year the 89-km marathon starts in Pietermaritzburg and ends in Durban on 29 May 2016.

KWAZULU-NATAL, DURBAN, 5 MAY 2016 – To experience ordinary people conquering the extraordinary, be at the award-winning Comrades Marathon Nedbank Green Mile SPECATOR ZONE in Old Main Road, Kloof, on Sunday, 29 May 2016 from 8am to 3pm.

On the day, a 1.2km stretch of road in Kloof will be converted into an energetic mile-long ‘green & gold’ themed spectator and runner zone, orchestrated by Nedbank, to ensure runners, families and friends feel fully immersed in the awe-inspiring, humbling, life-changing Comrades Marathon along the Comrades Marathon route. Dress to theme and join in with the fun and festivities.