Kaizer Chiefs, along with the Department of Correctional Services and the FIFA Foundation, held a successful second edition of the Twinning Project graduation ceremony at Sun City prison on Wednesday.
The programme is aimed at rehabilitating female inmates by taking them through football coaching lessons and empowering them for reintegration into society upon release. This will be for a period of approximately eight months.
Lifechanging experience for inmate
One of the 16 inmates who profited and made the most of the programme is 42-year-old Lindokuhle Ndaba. She expressed how the Twinning Project had an impact on her life.
“This programme has helped me with a lot of things, and I can’t wait to pass the knowledge I have gained to youth,” Ndaba said on the sidelines shortly after the graduation ceremony.
“I have been trained to be a football coach, so when I get out, I want to coach a team. I want to visit schools to raise awareness about crime. And this is because I don’t want to see youngsters repeating the mistakes I made.
“I was a soccer player when I was growing up. So football has always been my passion; hence, I now want to coach.”
Ndaba, who hails from Bergville in KwaZulu-Natal, also briefly shared her story about how she got arrested. She landed in prison in 2013.
Nation building project
“I got arrested in 2013 for murder,” she opened up.
“It was a robbery, and we shot a security guard dead, and I was sentenced to 25 years. I have served 10 years and nine months, meaning I am going home in 2027.”
In attendance at the graduation ceremony at the Correctional Centre were winning Project CEO, Hilton Freund. SA Football Association deputy president, Linda Zwane, former Banyana Banyana coach Fran Hilton-Smith, and Chiefs’ head of Marketing and Commercial, Jessica Motaung were also present.
“We are very proud to be back and form part of this programme. This is another way for us to give back. But this time, in a space that might be seen as a dark space. Where people might not have hope,” Motaung told Sunday World.
“So, for us to partner with the Twinning Project, FIFA, and the Department of Correctional Services is very fulfilling.”
Amakhosi reserve league coaches, Dillon Sheppard, Aubrey Mathibe, and the Club’s sports scientist, Muzi Maluleke, were also present. They facilitated coaching clinics throughout the Twinning Project.
