WeeklySA_AdminGOLF FAN: Vincent Tshabalala became South Africa’s champion despite the country’s apartheid policies
By Thuli Zungu
The narrative of The Unfair novel is to reverse the poor history of a black golfer. To achieve this, the author, Jerry Dlepu, the golfer who started as a caddie, in his 164 – page book, reflects on the political, social and economic aspects among non-whites, and blacks in particular.
He also depicts the joy and pain of those who doggedly struggled against all odds to emerge as professional golfers. He tells the story of Norman Mashaba, the world beater who started as a caddie and Vincent Tshabalala, who was South Africa’s champion golfer, Gary Player’s caddie.
The author tells the stories of a selected few individual golfers who permeated the barriers to prevent them from success.
These individual golfers share related stories and commonality they experienced to show the struggle against injustice even though golf is an individual sport.
Dlepu tells about the whereabouts of most African golfers, especially the majority that came from being caddies. In his novel he also surveys the development of golf in the townships, the treatment by the apartheid regime and the discrimination of Africans from all sporting codes.
He dedicates the book to Simon ‘’Cox’’ Hlapo, the founding father of black golf, and men who in spite of their challenges that they faced, paved their way and later followed their brevity and courageousness.
Dlepu singles out Hlapo as the face of the struggle of a black golfer. Hlapo was a product of Alexander township’s great golfer, Jari “Mangena” Dyasi and also a mentee of Sam Mnisi.
Before his untimely death Hlapo, a humble and modest man, ferried many golfers to tournaments and mentored youth about the game. He died peacefully in his sleep on September 27, 1986.
His sudden death made newspaper headlines with one reading “Hlapo would be missed’’ and the other “Cox never made enemies’’.
The book talks about how a caddie graduated to a golfer. Another interesting figure featuring in the book is Bheki Mlangeni, a former member of the ANC’s Umkhonto We Sizwe who was a keen golfer and whose skills he acquired when he was a caddie in the then Orange Free State in 1937.
Dlepu tells the story of how the apartheid policy of forced removals interrupted the golf sport. He also tells the story of the Bambata Rebellion being named after Ramnath “Bambata” Boodham -the real golf warrior after his return from competing in the British Open in the 19th Century.
The book also ventures into how Black caddies were arrested for watching white females playing tennis while en-route to buy food at nearby shops leaving the white male golfers without caddies. It also tells the story of the year in which Black women entered the golf sport.
Betty Langa and Mrs S Tau pioneered the women in golf in 1958 and the Moses sisters, Amelia and Leticia, started their golfing careers after being caddies for their father and uncle.
Amelia later represented South Africa in the World Junior Championship in Belgium. Her sister, Leticia was later to become the first African to play golf for the University of MissouriColombo golf team between 1995 and 1999 before returning home to South Africa.
Not to be outdone, Amelia followed in Leticia’s footsteps and earned her full golf scholarship at the same university in 1997. Post apartheid, Nobuhle Dlamini, became the first black professional golfer from Swaziland and was now based in South Africa.
Dlepu also tells of the role Gary Player played in promoting golf in the country which gave birth to the Gary Player Country Club at Sun City . The author encourages South Africans to play the sport in order to demystify and discard the belief that golf is the sport for the rich.
The Unfair Way narrates the untold story of Black South African golfers and is a must read to enlighten sport lovers, most importantly, the young golfers.
The novel was launched at Just Badela in Orlando West on the 22nd July, 2023. You will get your copy at amazon.com for R500.
MYSTERY OF TWO TEENAGERS WHO DISAPPEARed
Arrest: Drama continues when suspects are arrested but the girls are still missing
By Amanda Ngudle
Flipped- Tracy Hawthorne-Modjadji Books (280) Do not read this book if you do not appreciate the art of storytelling.
In this debut book, newcomer, Tracy Hawthorne, weaves a beautiful tale of lost teenagers with mothers who are friends too. On a rainy night, the two girls, Jess and Annie, set out to drive to an evening party. The author then ventures into dissecting the personalities and demeanors of the four and the similarities are amazing with shockingly stark differences. It is soon discovered that the girls could be missing and then begins the voracious reading. You cannot put this book down because regardless of the most undesirable traits by one of the girls, the other is but a sacrificial lamb in the whole thing. It is through the first 24 hours that we learn just how a missing person’s incident changes everything. Sadly, no search party joins the families.
Thankfully, unexpected discoveries are made which help both the police and the parents widen their search horizon. Three months later, although with some arrests, the teenagers are not found. Two years later the case gets cold.
Out of the blue, a new character is introduced. Imelda Uys, juggles two jobs which means she hardly sees the news and has missed an important public announcement. After knocking off from her second job at the municipality offices, Imelda uses a closed road and ends up with her car upside down totally camouflaged by the Eucalyptus trees. This is another eye-opener as the writer takes the reader through the chronology of the thought processes and survival stages of car crash victims. The entire time, as a reader, I kept thinking why am I reading this? I want to know the fate of the teens. My patience was on its reserves by the time I was able to remember the title of the book-Flipped. Uneasily I went back to the pace with which I started the book. Thankfully, right in the end. The discovery of the fate of teenagers shares insight into the whereabouts of Imelda.
Typically, by her husband, as she had prophesied upon the first realisation, she was a crash survivor. It’s a great book. The author’s style is quite tasteful.
A must-read!
