SA's Olympic torchbearers
14 June 2004
One hundred and twenty-five remarkeble South Africans from all walks of life took to the streets of Cape Town on Saturday 12 June to help the Olympic flame on its journey around the world to Athens.
South Africa's Olympic torchbearers joined an estimated 10 000 torchbearers around the world in a relay that started in Sydney, Australia on 4 June and culminates with the lighting of the cauldron in the Olympic Stadium of Athens, marking the start of the 28th Olympic Games, on 13 August.
The SA contingent - selected by the City of Cape Town, and through competitions run by sponsors Samsung and Coca-Cola - included a former world boxing champion, a double Olympic gold medallist, the first black Paralympic gold medallist, a man who's run 157 marathons, the oldest competitive walker in the world ... as well as former anti-apartheid activists turned community workers, aids activists, artists, disabled sports men and women, and a number of South Africa's
sporting celebrities.
The youngest torchbearer was 16-year-old Capetonian Nomathemba Kontyo, one of 16 student astronauts from around the world chosen to work with the Mars Exploration Rover mission team at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California earlier this year.
The oldest was 100-year-old Philip Rabinowitz from Hout Bay, who is down in the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest competitive walker in the world.
Others included Natalie du Toit, the first disabled athlete to make an able-bodied final at the Commonwealth Games; Gail Johnson, the mother of child Aids activist Nkosi Johnson; singer Miriam Makeba; Dullah Omar's son Kemal; Nelson Mandela's lawyer, George Bizos; former Bafana Bafana captain Lucas Radebe; and former Springbok rugby player and seven-a-side coach Chester Williams
This was the first time that the Olympic flame - an icon of both the ancient and modern Games - has come to Africa. The 2004 torch relay includes all five land masses represented by the Olympic rings, in line with the theme for the event, "pass the flame, unite the world".
Cape Town, and just a handful of other international cities, were added to a global relay route that includes each host city for the summer Games since their revival in 1896.
The Olympic flame, as per tradition, was ignited by the sun's rays in the ancient Greek city of Olympia before setting off on a 35-day world tour taking in 34 cities in 26 countries.
The international journey kicked off in Sydney, Australia on 4 June, and
will pass through every city that has hosted the summer Games, as well as Beijing, China (the 2008 Games host); Brussels, Belgium; Cairo, Egypt; Cape Town, South Africa; Geneva, Switzerland; Istanbul, Turkey; Kiev, Ukraine; Lausanne, Switzerland; New Delhi, India; New York; Nicosia, Cyprus; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Sofia, Bulgaria.
The flame will travel from city to city by plane, automobile, train, ship, bicycle, camel and other modes of transport. Within each city, the relay will be conducted on foot for one day.
The South African leg of the event also celebrated 10 years of democracy in South Africa, with the route - starting in Delft on the Cape Flats and ending on the Grand Parade in the city centre - taking into account areas of political significance.
Torchbearers: 53 of SA's finest
Note: this is not the full list of torchbearers. Not included here are those selected in a parallel competition by
Coca-Cola, those chosen separately by the City of Cape Town, or those who are employees of Samsung or its clients.
Fundile Baloyi
Khayelitsha
Fundile has been playing club soccer for a number of years and is making his mark on the soccer field. In his spare time, he encourages children from the community to participate in the 5km and 10km races run through the township to introduce them to the sport.
George Bizos
Parktown North
A distinguished human rights advocate who has dedicated his working life to fighting for basic human rights under apartheid. Since the collapse of apartheid, he has fought to ensure that those rights, guaranteed under the Constitution, are accorded to all South Africans.
Beatty Braaf
Grassy Park
Beatty has been an active member of the Retreat Swimming Club for the past 25 years of the club's 29-year history and it is her love to teach the children in the community how to swim.
Edries
Burton
Plumstead
Often referred to as the "inspirational" Santos caption, Edries has made his mark on the soccer field.
Amien Dharsey
Retreat
In his 42 years as a schools sports administrator, Armien has learnt not to take anything for granted. However, he admits, "schoolchildren have much more opportunities today than before, although it will be a long time before the inequalities are finally done away with". According to Armien, one of the driving forces behind the formation of the United Schools Sports Association in 1994 was that it gave all South African children the opportunity to play sport together.
Magdalene Dladla
Kwa Nqetho/Ngcolosi
In the townships around Hillcrest in KwaZulu-Natal, everyone knows - and loves - Mama Magdalene Dladla. In a province devastated by the Aids pandemic, this Checkers Woman of the Year nominee (1999) has given of herself wholeheartedly in the service of her community by helping to raise
funds to build a clinic, a centre for victims of violence and an all-purpose community hall. She also uses her own home to care for Aids orphans.
Natalie du Toit
Southfield
Anything's possible - if you put your mind to it. This is the philosophy that has seen Natalie emerge as one of South Africa's top competitive and endurance swimmers despite having lost a leg in a motor accident in 2001. Natalie's courage and determination has not only seen her achieving her ambition of swimming at the Olympics (Sydney 2000) and the Commonwealth Games (Manchester 2002), but has also inspired thousands of her compatriots.
Desiree Ellis
Hanover Park
For nine years, between 1993 and 2002, Desiree captained South Africa's national women's soccer side, Banyana Banyana. Since retiring from international soccer, Desiree has, among other things, joined the battle against Aids
through her involvement with Sports Heroes Walk Against Aids. She has also served on the National Sports Commission.
Mzonke Fana
Khayelitsha
Over the years, South Africa has produced an impressive line-up of boxers, and Mzonke Fana, a junior lightweight from Khayelitsha, is up there with the best. When he won the national title in 2003, he said to himself: "This is mine - and I'm going to keep it." And keep it he did, successfully seeing off seven challenges, until he was eventually beaten in 2003. He presently holds the World Boxing Council's international junior lightweight title.
Damaris O Fritz
Voorbrug
Any resident from the Western Cape township of Delft who is unhappy about the standard of the health service provided by the state, goes to Damaris Fritz. She has a reputation for getting things done - even if this means trading on the toes of prominent people. "I believe that when promises are made, they ought to be kept", she says.
Damaris, who has a nursing background, has been involved in community work, including opening her house to vulnerable women and children, for the past eight years.
Caroline Gabuza
Ottery
Caroline is a community worker who has been instrumental in the development of community recreation centres in the black townships of Cape Town. Caroline has also been instrumental in the establishment of several youth clubs at the centres.
Gregory Garitsis
Orange Grove
Gregory has packed a whole lot of marathon running into his 61 years. 157 to be exact. He has also found the time and the energy to compete in a number of ultra-marathons, most notably 11 Comrades Marathons. Gregory, who arrived in South Africa from Greece 33 years ago, has participated in 1 000 races (most of them over long distances). "I took up running seriously after retiring from professional soccer", he says.
Dawn Hare
Kalk Bay
Dawn's life changed forever when,
at the age of 15, she broke her neck in a diving accident. Shortly after this, she decided to dedicate her life to the cause of uplifting the lives of others. Sport and other outdoor activity continued to play a large role in her life,and between 1964 and 1988 she won gold and silver medals in paraplegic games for tennis, bowling, swimming and archery. In 1997, she founded the Fish Hoek-Kommetjie-Noordhoek Welfare Association. Since then, she has started and chaired 13 other such organisations.
Llewelyn Herbert
Pretoria
In 1997, Llewellyn delivered a stunning performance in the men' 400m hurdles final at the World Athletics Championships in Athens. Immensely talented, but prone to injury, Llewellyn's next target in his favourite 400m race was Olympic gold at Sydney. He didn' quite make it, but bronze was noteworthy all the same. Unfortunately, injury forced him out of the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England.
Penelope
Heyns
Pretoria
Penny's swimming career was short, but very, very sweet. Few South Africans will forget how Penny, with a Springbok tattooed on her forearm, became the first woman in Olympics history to win both the 100m and 200m breaststroke at the Atlanta Games in 1996. Over a three-month period in 1999, she broke world records 11 times in her favourite breaststroke events.
Ragmat Jaffer
Heathfield
Quietly spoken Raghmat epitomises the inner strength of so many women who drew a line in the sand during the darkest days of apartheid and said: "Strike the woman and you strike a rock!". A member of a well-known family of anti-apartheid activists, she was particularly active in the Wynberg area of the Cape Pensinsula during the 1976 school boycotts, helping to spread political awareness in her community and organising lawyers to represent children who had been detained and
arrested. She was also prominent in the Women's Movement of the 1980s and 1990s.
Jordan Joannisdes
Senderwood
Head Boy at Saheti School, which is the only Greek school in South Africa.
Gail Johnson
Melville
Gail is the foster mother of Nkosi Johnson, who died of Aids in 2001 at the age of 12. Nkosi first came into the limelight in 1997, when Gail challenged a school in Melville, Johannesburg for refusing to enrol him because of his HIV status. Johnson established Nkosi's Haven as a shelter for destitute people living with HIV and Aids in 1999. It currently houses 17 children - between three weeks and 18 years old - and 14 adults. Some of the children are HIV-positive, some are Aids orphans, while others are healthy and live with their HIV-positive mothers.
Donny Jurgens
Crawford
Donny has sought to promote sport on the Cape Flats for most of his adult life. After qualifying as a teacher at the age of 20, he was a
prominent player in anti-apartheid activities in Hanover Park and Mitchell's Plain, heading up youth structures in these areas. He was also the general secretary of the Cape Youth Congress, as well as its sport and culture convenor. Donny left teaching after 10 years to pursue a full time career in sport management. He was a founder member of the National Sports Congress, which unified sport in South Africa after the unbanning of the ANC and other organisations.
Archilles Kallos
Frenaye
At school, Achilles seemed destined for a glittering career in rugby or cricket. But it was later that he discovered his real niche - weightlifting, bodybuilding and amateur wrestling. In fact, in 1959, 1960 and 1964 he won Western Province titles in these codes. In 1954 and 1959 he won the coveted Mr South Africa bodybuilding title, and in 1965 he came fourth in his division in the Mr Universe test. A recognised authority on weight training, he has written hundreds of articles
on the subject.
Alexander Karakallos
Sea Point
Not many people can boast about being related to someone who has won a medal at an Olympic Games. Alexander can. His grandfather, Telemachos Karakalos, won gold for Greece in fencing at the 1896 Games in Athens. "It's a wonderful connection for me", says Alexander. "It will be an honour for me to carry the flame on its first ever journey to the African continent."
Anita Kassel
Thornton
Anita has been involved in competitive Scrabble since 1980, when she formed a Scrabble Club in Thornton. Since 1986, when SANSPA (South African National Scrabble Player's Association) was formed, she has been an instrument in assisting other clubs in Cape Town. She served as chairperson of SANSPA from 1995 to 2000, and currently holds the position of treasurer. SANSPA is currently promoting scrabble in schools. Anita is one of nine players who participated in the inaugural Pan African Scrabble (PANASA) games in
Nairobi in 1994. In 1998, Cape Town hosted the PANASA games.
Marlon Kolbee
Retreat
Marlon has been totally blind since the age of five when an operation to remove a tumour near to one of his eyes damaged his optic nerve. However, that hasn't stopped him from enjoying a game of cricket - as a player. Twenty-three-year-old Marlon is a member of a blind cricket club (there are four in the Western Cape and three in the Boland). He was deemed good enough to gain selection to the Western Province blind cricket team that took part in an inter-provincial tournament in Durban at the end of March.
Nomathemba Kontyo
Cape Town
Earlier this year, a 16-year-old Capetonian, Nomathemba, won the prize of a lifetime: two weeks in the United States with the National Aeronautical Space Agency (Nasa). Nomathemba, a Grade 11 pupil at Fezeka High School in Guguletu, was one of 16 student astronauts from around the world chosen to work with the Mars Exploration
Rover mission team at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. She won the trip on the strength of an excellent entry in an international essay contest run by the world renowned Planetary Society.
George Koumantarakis
Cowies Hill
He is already a popular figure in soccer. His grandfather, Kosta Koumantarakis, was the original Torch Bearer for Greece in the 1936 Olympic Games. His grandfather was the u/17 100m champion at the time of the Berlin Games. George inherited his grandfather's torch, as well as certificates.
Marianne Kriel
Belville
"Anything is possible" is what Olympic swimmer Marianne likes to stress to audiences who come to listen to her motivational talks. The secret, of course, is hard work and self-belief. In the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Kriel was not everyone's favourite to bring home a medal, but she snatched a bronze.
These days, Marianne spends her time working for her church and giving motivational talks aimed at children.
Mpho Lebogo
Rembrandt Park
Mpho introduce the Lobola Contract or agreement, which has been endorsed by the Proudly South African Campaign and the Department of Home Affairs. He is currently doing presentations among the traditional leaders and indigenous people of this country.
Sakhiwo Luthuli
Shukushukuma
Sakhiwo is a scholar athlete and was nominated through a competition in the local neighbourwood for a representative of the area to participate in relay. The entire neighbourwood participated in the process.
Jacqueline Maarohanye
Naturena
She provides assistance to various causes on a voluntary basis in Soweto. Jacqueline has received various accolades as a voluntary worker and provides capacity building programmes in her community.
Miriam Makeba
"Mama Africa", as she is affectionately
known, is a great South African musician who changed the way South African music was seen across the globe.
Thompson Mangaliso
Manenberg
Weightlifter development officer at Silvertree.
Alan Marshall
Constantia
A recipient of the Premier's Commendation Certificate in the 2004 Western Cape Honours Awards and long-standing chairman of the executive committee of the SA Red Cross Air Mercy Service, Alan has been flying mercy flights across South Africa for more than 30 years on a volunteer basis. Whether it is flying a critically ill baby from a regional hospital to a specialised children's ward or transporting a seriously injured miner to a metropolitan hospital, Alan always responds instantly to the call for help - whatever the time of day or night. Under Alan's direction, the SA Red Cross Air Mercy base in Cape Town has expanded from a one-aircraft operation that flew once a week, to an organisation that provides timely, lifesaving care to
thousands annually from its bases in Cape Town, Kimberley and Durban.
Vuyeya Mathebula
Limpopo
Vuyeya was the first black woman from Limpopo Province to become a farmer in 1999. She recently came second in a national competition and has shown that women need not to stay at home, but can also do work previously done exclusively by men.
'Baby Jake' Matlala
Winchester Hills
Apart from being a disciplined boxing world champion, he has continued to be not only a motivation and a source of inspiration to young South Africans, but also a role model who encourages the spirit of "ubuntu".
Shaun Mellors
Gordons Bay
A young man living with Aids and the founder of volunteer-based organisation NAPWA, the National Association of People Living with HIV/Aids. After 1994 NAPWA transformed itself into a non-profit PWA NGO. NAPWA was formed
to deal with the issues of discrimination, care and support for people living with HIV/Aids.
Nomsa Memela
Klippoortie Park
Nomsa always wanted to help people less privileged. So in 2002 she started a job agency. The Umqondo we Sizwe Community Business has developed a two-pronged approach to helping disabled people: the agency either helps them to find employment or tries to set them up with work at home.
Nowabo Eric Mjoli
Nyanga
Eric lost his sight in 1975. "It's not easy to be a runner when you're blind, and it's even harder to be a cyclist when you can't see." Eric is blind, but this hasn't put him off from taking part in his two favourite sports. Eric is a member of the Varsity Old Boys Club and the highlight of his running career, he says, was going to New York in 1999 to participate in a race.
Hamilton Naki
Langa
For more than 20 years, Hamilton's job description at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town said
sweeper, cleaner or gardener. However, as it happens, he was also a pretty good actor. At a time when the apartheid system refused to believe that a black man could do nothing more than menial labour, Naki was, in fact, a surgeon - and an extremely good one.
Brian O'Connell
University of Western Cape
As the rector of the University of the Western Cape (UWC), Brian has always been passionate about education - as his record shows. Prior to stepping into the hot seat at UWC in October 200, he was the head of the Western Cape Education Department (a position he assumed in 1995). He has studied both in South Africa and the United States (at New York's Columbia University), and his contribution to education has seen him being awarded with a US Fulbright Scholarship, two British Council grants and an Anglo-American Chairman's Fund grant.
Kemel Omar
Rylands
Before being employed by the Office of the Mayor of Cape Town, Kemal was a high school
teacher in Mitchells Plain. It was in this capacity that he contributed immensely to the political and educational struggle that existed in the townships of the Western Cape during the 1980s. He is the son of the late minister of transport in the national government, Dullah Omar.
Jennifer Peers
Pinelands
Jennifer is a leading light in Africape Tours, which describes itself as "township specialists" committed to "combining tourism with transformation". As part of a carefully planned itinerary by Jennifer and her group, tourists who undertake a cultural tour are introduced to Xhosa-speaking residents of a small informal settlement in Guguletu, enjoy a meal at a traditional Xhosa restaurant and finish it all with a trip to Robben Island.
Alban Peterson
Parow Valley
Alban is a well-known Afrikaans Western Cape gospel singer who has appeared in events such as the Klein Karoo Nasional Kunstefees.
Gert Potgieter
Faerie
Glen
Gert is best known for winning the 440 yards hurdles at the 1958 Empire Games held in Cardiff, Wales.
Malcolm Pringle
Newlands
At the 2000 Sydney Paralymics he won a gold medal for the 800m.
Philip Rabinowitz
Hout Bay
A truly inspirational man who, at 100 years of age, is the oldest competitive walker in the world, according to the Guinness Book of Records.
Lucas Radebe
Kinross
A true South African ambassador for the sport of soccer. Not only is he a great South African soccer player, but he made history as the first African-based player to captain an English side (Leeds United).
Fhatuwani Ramabulana
Thohoyandou
Fhatuwani is a successful Limpopo Province poultry farmer, and in 2001 was awarded the title of Farmer of the Year by the province. In 2002 she was named Shoprite/Checker Businesswoman of the Year in
the Business Category, and also received a trophy from the Thulamela Municipality. In 2003, she was acknowledged by the International Marketing Council of South Africa, as well as the Black Management Forum.
Paul Roux
Gardens
It was during his fourth year at UCT's medical school that Paul made up his mind about which branch of medicine he wanted to specialise in. "I enjoyed working with children so much that I decided to become a paediatrician. Paradoxically, of course, this would have meant running the risk of being surrounded by sick and suffering children for most of my working life." One way of avoiding this, he decided, was to look after the health of his patients as well as he possibly could. With much of his time spent with children with HIV/Aids, Paul began looking for ways of treating them with anti-retroviral therapy and creating opportunities for their mothers to earn an income. This is how the Kidzpositive Family Fund came into being.
Zanele
Situ
Zanele became paralysed after an illness. However, this did not stop her from reaching her goal of taking part in the 2000 Paralympics, where she won a gold medal.
Tambo Tolbat
Guguletu
At 18 years of age, Tambo is an avid soccer player and has been playing the game since he was seven. He currently plays for Mother City and recently had the honour of playing in a tournament in Sweden.
Chester Williams
Cape Town
Chester is without a doubt a great South African rugby player and was a member of the South African World Cup winning team in 1995. He coached the South African 7-a-side team to international tournament victory. Chester is a role model for achievement by disadvantaged sports people.
Joy Wilson
Oranjezicht
Joy heads Joy for Life, a non-profit community-based organisation that strives to represent, help and co-ordinate the needs of people living with HIV/Aids through education and information. Joy
for Life runs a day care and educational centre and also offers a community centre-day home to those who would, in the normal course of events, be housebound or isolated.
Natasha Yiannoulie
Senderwood
Head Girl at Saheti School, which is the only Greek school in South Africa.
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