Councillor Samantha Jankovich recently handed over a donation of 31 soccer balls from the Unogwaja 2011 team to the clubs in Aberdeen. This donation was the result of a chance meeting at the Two Oceans expo in Cape Town, where Jankovich was helping on a stand for Pink Drive, an NGO supporting breast cancer.
The Unogwaja team of four young men was created to commemorate war soldier and Comrades winner Phil Masterton Smith (also known as Unogwaja- meaning the hare) who in 1933 could not afford the train fare from Cape Town to Pietermaritzburg to take part in the Comrades. He then put himself in the history books by cycling a distance of 1,730km to get to Pietermaritzburg and then raced the Comrades and placed tenth. The group raised funds for the Amabeadibeadi charities, one of which is Pink Drive.
The team left Cape Town on May 19th and spent ten days cycling to the start of the Comrades, staying in Aberdeen on May 22nd. Jankovich arranged accommodation for them at The Homestead, and whilst in Aberdeen the team offered a donation of thirty one soccer balls, sponsored by Toyota and Spur.
Jankovich collected the balls when in Cape Town recently, and in conjunction with the Local Organising Committee for soccer, it was decided that each of the six clubs should receive five balls, with the extra ball being kept for tournaments. Three of these balls were given to the clubs as practice balls, and the others have been kept by the LOC for tournament use.
The clubs are particularly excited about the balls for practices, as apparently on many occasions they have been unable to practise due to having no ball available. They are very grateful to Unogwaja, Pink Drive, Toyota and Spur for the donation, and to Cllr Jankovich for coordinating the arrangements.
The Local Organising Committee for soccer in Aberdeen with cllr Samantha Jankovich
Fltr Hermanus Minnaar(chairman), Samantha Jankovich, Steven Minnie, Daniel Pieterse
Absent: Mike May
