Cricket legend Vintcent van der Bijl turns Masiphumelele township into a field of hope

South African cricket legend Vintcent van der Bijl, a right-arm fast-medium bowler with 767 wickets in 156 first-class matches and a record 458 wickets for Natal, has become a beacon of hope in Masiphumelele near Cape Town, creating a space where schoolchildren can thrive through sport.

Van der Bijl spoke to Daily Maverick about the love and passion he has for South African township communities, dating back to when he was a member of the only white stokvel in South Africa in 1981, attending stokvels in many townships. 

“Our vision is that we will produce a Rainbow Nation in the South Peninsula, and we will do that by generational change. In townships you have crime, drugs, gangs, sexual harassment, schools that are not properly facilitated and unemployment. If you’re a teenager in that environment, it’s very difficult to navigate unless you have the draw of something to go to school for. That attracts you, and this is where sport and cultural and post-school activities help,” said Van der Bijl.

After his cricket career, van der Bijl worked as a teacher because of his love for children and education. He later became the high-performance director for Cricket South Africa and, in 2008, was appointed the International Cricket Council’s umpires and referees manager, a position he held until his retirement in 2015.

Creating hope in Masiphumelele

As a former teacher and cricket player, it was a natural step in his retirement to develop a holistic education programme in Masiphumelele, named MasiSports NPC. He has led the NPC since its inception in 2017. Speaking about how he got involved in the Masiphumelele community, Van der Bijl said he phoned Brad Bing from Sporting Chance, and said he would be happy to do pro bono work with him. Bing said Ukhanyo Primary School in Masiphumelele wanted someone to start cricket there. 

“So I went there and sat on a bench; a kid came skipping and singing on the way to school across the only netball court they had, and having been involved in townships, I realised and felt this was a special school,” said Van der Bijl. 

He managed to get sponsors and was able to start building a field where schoolchildren would be able to play sports. 

“I managed to get some seed money of about R300,000 a month for at least a year, for three years, to be able to start a sports programme. We started netball, cricket and rugby, but not soccer because soccer was a community sport. We got involved in life skills. 

“We believe sport education, cultural activities and life skills will empower young people to become self-sufficient, resilient and positively engaged as South African citizens,” said Van der Bijl. 

MasiSports has offices in Ukhanyo School, where there are 1,910 schoolchildren, and at the Masiphumelele High School, where there are 1,580 schoolchildren. 

“We aren’t interventionists; we are trying to create an environment to allow kids to feel full, to feel confident. To go out of school knowing that they have a future, to live a fulfilled life,” said Van der Bijl.

A mother and community member of Masiphumelele, Liso Madikane, said Van der Bijl was doing a lot for the community. 

“My child was at Ukhanyo and not participating much in sports. Vintcent came to the school and built the netball fields and soccer courts at Masiphumelele High School. My child was cycling in Ukhanyo, and Vintcent sponsored that. She was the only girl participating in the Western Cape provincial championship, and Vintcent bought her a bicycle and T-shirts and paid for transportation.

‘He created job opportunities’

“I engaged with him (Van der Bijl) a lot, and then he changed a lot of things because I would say we also created job opportunities for our young people. Now we’ve got offices for the coaches who are working,” said Madikane.

The head of Masi Christian, reverend Ronald Cronje, also spoke highly of the work Van der Bijl has done for the community. 

“He’s a great visionary. He’s somebody who understands the brokenness of the community, and he also understands the racial tensions that exist between black and white. He brought transformation to schools because there was nothing at the schools,” said Cronje.

Sharing his hopes, Van der Bijl said the goal was to grow so that government departments could get involved and repeat the initiative in schools outside Masiphumelele. 

“We want to replicate this model throughout the country. Through the support of municipalities or the education department, give us the opportunity to workshop it. The other thing is to make South Peninsula a vibrant, thriving economy and community to prove we can live as one nation,” said Van der Bijl. DM