Wednesday, 29 November, was a special day for the community of Kayamandi and Stellenbosch as a whole, as Stellenbosch FC in partnership with Open Play Foundation opened the first GreenSource synthetic turf at Kayamandi Primary School.

Open Play Foundation was established earlier this year in collaboration with Stellenbosch FC to create safe environments for the youth to play, and the Foundation’s first project took place in Kayamandi last week where an innovative GreenSource synthetic turf was officially opened at the Kayamandi Primary School.

The surface is more than just a playing field for the children of the community as the multipurpose court offers a system whereby a synthetic turf sports pitch transforms into a rainwater catchment, storage, distribution, and water supply system.

CEO of Stellenbosch FC, Rob Benadie elaborated on the club’s involvement in this project; “We are proud to be part of the founders of the Open Play Foundation and we couldn’t have wished for a better first project. This is such a wonderful facility to showcase that it’s about more than football, and this is our slogan.

“It’s not just a field, any sport can be played there, and more than that it serves as a water filtration system as well. We cannot say we are more than football and then not do it, we want to do it and we have always done it since we founded the club, and this is another great example of us giving something back to the community.”

The project, sponsored by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Remgro, and Global United FC, is the first of its kind in Stellenbosch and Stellenbosch FC and Open Play Foundation plan to create more of these safe environments for the youth in the communities comprising Stellenbosch.

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