Saturday's Hero's Parade for the Sanlam Kay Motsepe Cup

The Sanlam Kay Motsepe Schools Cup finishes off this weekend with a parade in Virginia in the Free State. Harmony Academy won the event and are going to get R 1 000 000 to use on legacy projects. Harmony Academy is well known in South Africa for their soccer history but the area is also known for its Gold mining producing one of the world’s richest gold mining regions.

The town’s name comes from 2 railway surveyors from Virginia in the United States who in 1890 etched their names and birthplace on a boulder near the farm Merrispruit. When the railway siding was established the name was adopted. The next significant date was in 1955 when gold was found on the banks of the Sand River.

It is significant to know that, during the apartheid era, black people were not allowed to live in the town and had to commute from Meloding. This is quite fascinating since Harmony Academy is a predominantly black school and they have uplifted the area due to their soccer skills. Another interesting fact is that the town exists due to the various gold mines that are in the area and they have been built on the blood and sweat of their black workers.

Naturally the kids that will be involved in the parade will not be thinking about the history of the area when they drive through on their open bus. They are the future of the area and they will just be thinking about the future that they are about to create for themselves.

About the mine

The Harmony Free State Operations are located on the south-western corner of the Witwatersrand Basin, between the towns of Allanridge, Welkom, Theunissen and Virginia. The basin, situated on the Kaapvaal Craton, has been filled by a 6-kilometre thick succession of sedimentary rocks, which extends laterally for hundreds of kilometers.

The Free State goldfield is divided into two sections, cut by the north-south De Bron Fault. This major structure has a vertical displacement of about 1 500m in the region of Bambanani, as well as a lateral shift of 4km. This lateral shift can allow a reconstruction of the orebodies of Unisel to the west of the De Bron and Merriespruit to the east. A number of other major faults (Stuirmanspan, Dagbreek, Arrarat and Eureka) lie parallel to the De Bron Fault.

The western margin area is bound by synclines and reverse thrust faults and is structurally complex. Towards the south and east, reefs sub-crop against overlying strata, eventually cutting out against the Karoo to the east of the lease area.

Mining that has taken place is mostly deep-level underground mining, exploiting the narrow, generally shallow dipping tabular reefs.

The Basal Reef is the most common reef and is mined at nearly all the shafts. It varies from a single pebble lag to channels of more than 2m in thickness. It is commonly overlain by shale, which gets thicker further North.

The second major reef is the Leader Reef, located 15-20m above the Basal Reef. This is mostly mined by the shafts in the South. The reef consists of multiple conglomerate units, separated by thin quartzitic zones, often getting up to 4 m thick.

Sanlam Kay Motsepe Schools Cup Street Parade

On Saturday I was fortunate enough to be invited to the street parade for Jet Nteo, the winners of the Sanlam Key Motsepe Schools Cup. The event was held in the streets of Boipatong in Vanderbjilpark, south of Johannesburg. Boipatong is not well known (I had never heard of the place) but they are building a little bit of a soccer tradition with Jet Neteo being the Sanlam Kay Motsepe Schools Cup champions and with, Bafana Bafana captain Aaron Mokoena, coming from the area.

This area of Vanderbjilpark has also got a political history since it borders Sharpeville and for those of you that have not heard of Sharpeville you should Google the Sharpeville Massacre . There is a museum that pays tribute to those who gave their lives on the 21^st March 1960 in the fight against apartheid and pass laws.

Tucked away between an industrial area, a huge power plant and Leeuwkuil Pan; between Vanderbjilpark and Vereeneging is the little township of Boipatong. It is not the healthiest place to grow up and I would hate to know what rubbish the industrial areas spew out but it is where these kids call home.  

I was invited to the school where I got to meet the local Sanlam representative, the national Sanlam representatives, the Headmaster of Jet Nteo, the regional counsellor (who unlike most counsellors that I have met, actually seems to be liked by the community), the chief of police, etc. In other words I was treated like someone important.

After a couple of speeches and loads of pictures we were allowed onto the Bus where we were joined by some of the Sundowns players and the soccer academy trainers. The Sundowns players spoke to the kids and once everyone settled we started a tour of Boipatong and Sharpeville. I was amazed to see how many people came out of their houses to cheer on the kids. We even had about 30 kids that ran after the bus laughing and chatting to the kids on the bus.

The bus tour finished at a local stadium where the kids were once again treated to speeches by their headmaster, and Alex Shakoane and Yogesh Singh from Sundowns. They were also introduced to Sundowns legends Daniel Nadau, Joas Lupi Malego, Isaac Shai and Eric Ramatsiki.

Once the speeches finished the fun started. We were entertained by various school dance groups, two freestyle footballers and a soccer clinic that everyone in the stands was invited to. The field was a buzz of activity with male and female kids of all ages trying to impress the Sundowns development coaches instead of listening to them. As a matter of fact, what I heard most from the coaches was “concentrate” and “listen to me”. It was brilliant to watch. The kids learned some skills but they also found out that they need a lot more work before they can imitate their school hero’s.

All in all I had a blast and so did all the people involved. One of the Jet Nteo team members came to me and told me that it was the best day of his life and he wished that it would last for ever.