It’s a cold Thursday evening in Johannesburg as we brace ourselves for the last kicks of a dying winter. We took the time to speak to Mr. Gideon Sam who is sascoc/" title="Sascoc">Sascoc’s President.
If you are one person that believes the myth that suggests that there’s a vacuum and a lack of inspiration in black leadership. Well you have never heard the story of a noble visionary, who’s zeal and passion for sport has seen him become the incarnation and embodiment of Nelson Mandela’s words when he said:
“Sport has the power to change the world, it has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair. It is more powerful than government in breaking down racial barriers.”
Simply put if sport was a sword, Gideon Sam would have been the sword smith that gave SPORTS its teeth and enabled the struggle stalwarts of the day to fight the good fight. Long before Mandela’s words were uttered on sport Gideon Sam had realised the power of sport and used it as a vehicle to educate black people about the struggle and to give them hope of a brighter future.
Born in the Western Cape and raised by his grandmother in Alice in the Eastern Cape with his two siblings, Mr Sam acknowledges a void he felt as a child created by the absence of his mother. He and his siblings were later moved back to Strand in Cape Town by their mother who at the lived in a two room shack, that used to be a milking stable.
In order to sustain the upkeep of the family his mother worked tirelessly at a tin factory and supplemented her daily income by selling liquor illegally.
Growing up he attended a coloured school in the Strand area which he acknowledges as the source of his love for sport because of the Rugby-school-sport/" title="Rugby">Rugby/school-rugby/" title="School Rugby">School Rugby fields which so happened to be close to where he lived at the time.
The attitude of coloured people in those days towards sports was astounding, as sport was not so big in the school but very big in the Community.
It was when his biology teacher at the time, Doctor Herman (Now Professor Herman) approached him to organise a team for his school (Gordon High), when his passion for administration in sport was realised.
“When we were juniors we had to go to meetings, which is something I don’t see anymore. We had club meetings every Wednesday and we were told to sit at the back and to be quiet.” Explained Mr Sam “We learnt from seniors how to run, organise and to compile reports and this is how we understood things were supposed to be.”
It was when he moved to Lovedale also known as Lovedale Missionary Institute in Eastern Cape in 1967 to study teaching when he got involved in administration and playing sport again. Amongst the sports he participated in were Athletics/" title="Athletics">Athletics in the 1500m and rugby playing alongside prominent names of day in Lovedale namely Ngqondela, Gongxeka, and Mzobs Mboya. Lovedales main rivals were Hilltown, St Johns and Freemantle which used to draw large crowds.
In this the first part of a two part series Gideon Sam gives us an account of his life’s journey from humble beginnings to his efforts in the resistance of apartheid through sport.