Meet Coach Errol


Allow me to introduce you to Coach Errol. He is the coach of a fledgling little soccer team in the place called Blikkiesdorp known as Blikkiesdorp United FC.

For those that do not know "Blikkiesdorp", so named by the people who live there actually has a much fancier name. It was known as the "Symphony Way TEMPORARY Relocation Site", with the emphasis on "temporary". People that were taken off the streets by than DA queen Helen and than city mayor Dan were moved to this site in 2007. They built neat little single room corrugated iron shacks, placed them in neat rows with nothing inside. Every fourth shack had to share a toilet and there were no bathrooms. No foundations were laid for the structures and there were no floors laid for the shacks. They were simply put down on an open piece of rocky ground. After all. It was just a "temporary solution" to a growing housing crisis in the city. Now, sixteen years later "houses" are been built under a cloud of corruption by the city at a cost of nearly R500 million smackers.
Anyway, back to coach Errol. As you can see. Errol is not a young man. His weathered face tells a story. But what he, his wife Joyce and a group of very dedicated individuals are doing is nothing short of a miracle. They are trying the level best to change the lives of the children of Blikkies through a soccer club. The odds are horribly stacked here. Crime, extreme cases of GBV, corruption and gangsterism is extreme there. Poverty and hunger is at another level that's difficult to comprehend and understand. Stories of children raising children, children not having food for days, children been sent to their door by parents with notes in their hands asking for food. It's like the rest of the world has washed it's hands of Blikkies.
There are a good people that have taken it upon themselves to help Coach Errol and his family. They prefer to stay under the radar. Reality is there is no help coming from the powers that be in the city. Maybe they've eased there collective conscience by building "houses" on a dust bowl piece of land close to Cape Town International airport, the tourist gate way to the city.
Next time you drive down the Stellenbosch Arterial road, spare a thought for Coach Errol.

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