Stellenbosch Football Club’s Open Play Foundation recently launched its third community infrastructure project, in Cloetesville.

Thanks to a collaborative effort between Open Play, Stellenbosch FC, Germany-based Global United Football Club, and a Swiss corporate donor, Pieter Langeveldt Primary School in Cloetesville now boasts two artificial multi-purpose courts. These Courts of Hope, as they’ve appropriately been christened, include one five-a-side football pitch and one multi-purpose court with netball and volleyball markings.

Before the installation, the school had to make do with a derelict concrete slab with faded netball markings. Despite their former lack of physical resources, Pieter Langeveldt offered 16 official sports codes, believing that passion, dedication, and the audacity to aspire to greater heights would enable their students to excel.

The new facility advances that mission. The old concrete slab was refurbished with reinforced concrete before the two artificial courts, new fencing, high catch and divider nets, and goalposts were installed, catering for at least football, hockey, netball, volleyball, tennis, mini-cricket, and general physical education.

Stellenbosch FC’s slogan is “more than football”, and this is evident in this new project. Its potential impact goes beyond football and even beyond the other sports codes that can be accommodated on the Courts of Hope.

Marco Botha, CEO of the Open Play Foundation, remarked: “Our community investments are informed by the Building Blocks of HOPE framework, HOPE being an acronym for ‘Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences’.

Cloetesville is a tight-knit community that has to deal with numerous social challenges, daily. At Open Play and SFC, we believe sports and recreation – and access to safe facilities – will advance the following building blocks of HOPE: improving relationships within the family and with other children and adults through interpersonal activities; driving social and civic engagement to develop a sense of belonging and connectedness; establishing safe and equitable environments for living, playing, and learning at home and in school; and lastly, supporting emotional growth through playing and interacting with peers for self-awareness and self-regulation.

Related | Stellenbosch FC & Open Play open first GreenSource synthetic turf in Kayamandi

When children are constructively engaged in sports and other school-and community-based activities, these goals can be achieved, and that’s why we got involved at Pieter Langeveldt.

He emphasised that prerequisites for Open Play’s involvement include strong and passionate leadership among the beneficiary community, as well as involvement and support from the immediate surrounding community.

“It comes down to a community’s capacity and willingness to take ownership of the facilities and what could be achieved by constructively activating these spaces. These qualities were evident immediately when we met Mr Shafiek Jacobs, principal of PLP. It’s not only him. His leadership group, teachers, and support staff all exemplify the skills and passion needed for infrastructure to translate into social impact.”

Jacobs quipped that PLP is slowly turning into a private school. “Honestly, the potential of our children and school will be realised, and sport is an effective way to do that: Happy learners, happy teachers, happy school … that’s what we’re aiming for, and the Courts of Hope supports that mission,” said Jacobs.

Open Play, Stellenbosch FC, and Global United have previously collaborated on other projects in Ida’s Valley and Kayamandi, where they continue to support programmes. Open Play was founded by Stellenbosch FC and Remgro in January 2023 and has completed three projects during the past year: the GreenSource Sports for Water facility (Kayamandi Primary), Pinkie’s Promise multi-purpose court (Ikaya Primary), and Fiekie’s Courts of Hope (Pieter Langeveldt Primary School).

Visit www.openplayfoundation.com for more information.

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