A government school that transformed itself into a centre of excellence for budding young runners — among them the “fastest teenager in the world” Bayanda Walaza — may have to close down its athletics programme after sponsors pulled out
Vorentoe High School in western Johannesburg has produced some of South Africa’s top young athletes, including Johannes Morepe and Naledi Makgatha, who took part at the World Athletics U20 Championships in Lima, Peru, last month.
But if the school does not find a new sponsor by the end of October, the programme, which has been operating since 2000, will fold.
We had some big companies who helped us, but, one after the other, they fell away. Now Vorentoe, as a government school, must foot the bill if we want our programme to survive
— Oupa Maruping, head of athletics at Vorentoe High School
Vorentoe’s head of athletics, Oupa Maruping, told the Sunday Times they had their backs against the wall. “Our programme is exactly what South African athletics needs,” he said.
“We specialise in scouting the four provinces north of the Vaal for new talent in areas where there is little to no financial stability. But we are not limited to those areas. We’ve had kids from everywhere, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, you name it.
“We had some big companies who helped us, but, one after the other, they fell away. Now Vorentoe, as a government school, must foot the bill if we want our programme to survive.”
SA middle-distance legend Hezekiél Sepeng — who took silver in the Olympic 800m final in Atlanta 1996, and won the World Championships final in Seville 1999 — is a fan of Maruping and his programme.
“Oupa is doing incredible work. No matter what rural village you go to in South Africa, you will find that Oupa has already been there scouting,” he said.
“In the early years, I helped with identifying talent, but for several years now it has all been Oupa. He has an incredible instinct for spotting talent that can be developed further. How can we allow a programme that produced people like Bayanda Walaza to fall on its face?
“And, though I am aware Bayanda is not with the school any more, I still credit them for his discovery and coaching. He is also a product of their programme. I have reached out to a few people and companies asking them to help Vorentoe. I really hope there will be a light at the end of this tunnel.”
Maruping is proud of Vorentoe’s approach to talent development. “We are not one of those schools who are only interested in the final product. We want someone with the right body shape, attributes, attitude and talent, and then we coach them to the point where they become stars,” he said.
“We will hear from our network about a talented child, for example in Limpopo, Mpumalanga or Eastern Cape. Then I will drive there and see the athlete in action. If there is talent, I will engage the parents and tell them what Vorentoe is all about. If they are on board, their child will be invited to our annual four-day camp in January.
“At the camp we assess them in everything from 100m to high jump. After the camp we make the cut and form a shortlist of athletes we will invite to come to Vorentoe.”
“We started in 2000 with five athletes. Since then we have grown to 30 athletes — 15 boys and 15 girls. One of our first sponsorships was about R3m made possible by the late Makhenkesi Stofile [who became minister of sport in 2004].”
“We recruit pupils mostly from disadvantaged areas and we house them in our hostels. [A total of] 90% of the athletes in our programme finished matric and went on to study at UJ, or enter the work market with a real job.”
Some of his former athletes still warm the coach’s heart.
“People like Mapaseka Makhanya, who was crowned South Africa’s sports woman of the year in 2013, Tebogo Mashela, the current South African 3,000m steeple chase record holder, and South African champ for the last year, both attended our programme.”
Walaza, the nation’s favourite running schoolboy — who won a silver medal in the 4x100 relay at the Olympic Games, then added the 100m and 200m titles in Lima — is also a former Vorentoe pupil. He was poached by Curro last year.
“We discovered him in Katlehong on the East Rand and trained him. His explosiveness was what attracted me immediately. If you go rewatch his recent performances, you will see he still explodes out of the blocks. He left us last year for Curro, but we know our work on him counted. There is only so much training an athlete can get in less than a year,” Maruping said.
Vorentoe specialises in middle and longer distances.
“Our boys team has been the North Vaal — made up out of Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Northwest and Limpopo — champs for the past 15 years. Our girls team has been the North Vaal champs for 13 of the last 15 years. Over the last few years we produced on average between nine and 18 athletes per year who were included in the Gauteng schools team.” But for now, he is number crunching and hoping.
But now, they are really feeling the financial pinch.
“We need about R120,000 per month for the kids. About R45,000 to R48,000 of that will be spent on food for them. We also need to do some work on our hostel residence. At the moment it is very basic and especially the girls hostel needs upgrades when it comes to security and sanitation.”
Morepe told the Sunday Times this week Maruping and Vorentoe were “lifesavers”.
“They specialise in finding talent in areas where there is no money. Then they shape and coach that talent into world beaters. They identify impoverished talent and then save lives,” Morepe said.
“They also saved my life. I grew up in Ga-Moloi, a small Limpopo village near Lebowakgomo. If it wasn’t for coach Oupa and Vorentoe, I would still have been in Ga-Moloi and my life would have been completely different.”
Approached for comment, sports, arts & culture minister Gayton McKenzie’s office said he would “engage with the school and help them to keep doing the good work”.
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