Cacadu goes national at indigenous games

Cacadu district municipality will be represented by 28 participants and three technical officials in this year’s National Indigenous Games to take place in Durban next month.

The 28 participants were selected after participating in the provincial indigenous games in East London last month. Of those 28, 16 are from Grahamstown while the rest hail from Port Alfred.

According to group coordinator Vuyelwa Mbundweni, all the 28 participants will train for two weeks in East London before jetting off to KwaZulu-Natal sometime next month.

Mbundweni said “All 28 of them will be taken to East London where they will be based for two weeks before going to Durban.”

This is to create an opprtunity for a bond to be made between the players before they depart. Mbundweni says that this year will be their third year at the national indigenous games.

“We are very happy to be going to the national games. It doesn’t matter how often one has been there as every year seems to be different from the previous one,” she said.

While this year won’t be different for some who have been there before like Mbundweni, there will be some new faces on the team, like Daphne Scheepers.

Scheepers plays dibeke, a traditional game that is played on a field with a ball which is passed by hand or kicked.
“I am really happy about the games in Durban and can’t wait for the training to begin soon.”

Scheepers, who is 25 yaers old, is also the youngest person on the team. "Tthe veterans are always on my case,” she said, teasing Mbundweni and another veteran, Heather Dude.

The indigenous games which the participants will be participating in are dibeke, kho-kho, jukskei, drie stokkies, intonga, nsuva and kgati.

“We are not just going to Durban to make up numbers or to holiday, we are going there with the knowledge that we are representing our province, and that we’re going to do it with pride,” she concluded.