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Jeff Moloi
The Emntsalani Junior Tennis Club was started by Mbulelo Lugogwana who grew up in Zwide Township.
A few years ago, he noticed that the tennis courts at the Zwide stadium had not been used and were derelict. He wanted to create opportunities for the children of Zwide to play sport, so he embarked on a mission to arrange tennis coaching for primary school children in the area.
It has been a long and difficult road but with the support of numerous organizations, people and friends he was able to access the right channels and was granted permission by the Metro to use the courts.
In 2016, a small group of children from three primary schools in the area joined to play tennis. The focus is to take the kids off the street and give them hope, focus, support, training, and encouragement. He hoped that by doing this talent could be identified and developed.
Membership now stands at 30 kids, all from the surrounding areas of Zwide and Kwazakhele. They practice on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons and although Mbulelo is not a registered coach, he provides them with coaching at his own expense and time.
In April 2019, a group of 5 promising players from Emntsalani was invited to be coached as part of the Wembley Tennis Club development initiative. This number has now grown to 13 and they all receive 2 hours of coaching every Saturday at Wembley Tennis Club with the Club’s top coaches. The squad is then taken to Virgin Active Greenacres for a ‘learn to swim’ session and fitness training. The aim is to keep increasing the number of this squad by selecting promising players from having a sustainable and growing tennis club in Zwide. Wembley has also secured sponsorship for tennis kit, clothing and rackets for the players.
The two top players are sponsored with additional private lessons on a Wednesday afternoon with dedicated Wembley coaches.
As part of the club’s development is key to get them to participate in the junior schools league against other Model C schools in Port Elizabeth. For this, we also require reliable and dependable transport on Tuesdays and Thursdays for matches.
Our aim is to take the top players to Tennis South Africa tournaments that are played in Cradock and Buffalo city. One of the players, Zinzi Xate, had the opportunity last year and she came top in her section, which shows the level of talent in this group!
We are asking for a 15 seater bus as transport is a major challenge for us continuously and we want to be able to ferry the kids where they need to be seamlessly.
Wembley Tennis Club has entered into a joint development initiative with Emntsalani Junior Tennis Club. The purpose of the initiative is the sourcing of sponsorship, facilities refurbishment and a junior development plan to uplift the Emntsalani Junior Tennis Club. The initiative is a guide to promote sustainable development for the Emntsalani Junior Tennis Club.
Check out our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/EmntsalaniJuniorTennisClubNPC/
Project 1: A 15 seater bus with a driver so that we are able to transport the kids on a weekly basis from Zwide to Wembley for training. To be able to transport the kids for matches on a weekly basis to model C schools as part of the PE Junior Schools Tournament. To take the top-seeded players to TSA tournaments in Cradock and Buffalo City.
Project 2: R15000 per annum for green dot tennis balls, and we use a lot of balls as the kids mostly play with very old balls due to the cost, which is far from ideal. We can never have too many balls as the more we have, the more often the kids can practice and play with decent quality balls, the better. We also need red dot balls for the younger beginners, at another R3000 per annum.
Project 3: Funding of a certified coach to assist with coaching on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Zwide Stadium R25000 per annum
Physical Address :
Street Address: Zwide Stadium, Njoli Street, Zwide, Port Elizabeth
Contact Person: Samantha Flack
Contact Number: 07617 57613
Email address: Samantha@sageandcomarketing.com
You can also find us on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/EmntsalaniJuniorTennisClubNPC/
For Donations :
Account holder: EMNTSALANI JUNIOR TENNIS CLUB NPC
BANK: First National Bank
Branch code: 211417
Account Number: 62839908300
