Name: Alfred “ ali alfy” Makhubela
Age : 21
Born: Mpumalanga, Bushbuckridge
Studies at: Tshwane University of Technology
Studying: Journalism
Likes: Music
Hates: “I hate people who look down on others”
Text and Picture by Sarin Drew
The issue of race in sports is not new to the South
Africa, least of all to upcoming journalist, Alfy Makhubela, 21, who believes
race and sports can be mesh through development and fairness. Makhubela, a
journalism student at Tshwane University of Technology, has a passion for
sports journalism and insists that his style can readily encourage sports
development among disadvantaged communities.
Makhubela was forced to acknowledge the racial lines
drawn clearly on South African sports fields. He drew from his own experience
with cricket. He had a passion for the game and was involved in playing in an all-black
cricket team despite it being a stereotypically Indian sport.
“There is no problem with identifying that certain
races are involved in certain sports,” he said, “Soccer is known as a black
sport because most of the players are black. However, the inclusion of most
races in sport will be able to change that perspective.”
“Living in a diverse country, it is important for
black journalists to be a part of all types of sports. Sports are all about
talent, not about the colour of your skin.”
Unlike the idealistic banter of most authorities on
sports, Makhubela is against the quota system established to ensure equality in
sports. “Instead, I would like to see the introduction of rugby and cricket
into [black] schools,” he says. “When this opportunity is given to a range of
people, equality can happen”
He wants to specialise in profiling athletes in
order to encourage equality and insists that, “readers have to know something
about players so that they can be encouraged by their role models who have come
from unprivileged backgrounds”
1 comment:
Great article Sarin. I'm excited to know that Alfy wants to be a sports journalist! He's one of the only two students ever in FJP who want to cover sports.
Racial politics has plagued our sports industry, and these divisions perhaps are perpetuated by the fact that we the media do not represent the marginal races in each sport in order to redress the imbalances and attract more young people to explore different sport!
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