The Totalsports Safe-Hub, a football-based after-school programme for youth development, was launched earlier this month in the north of Johannesburg as part of the South African Football Association’s (Safa’s) Vision 2022, which aims to build the structures needed for the development of local football talent.
Through sports retailer Totalsports’ R8.5-million investment, the Safa Development Agency (SDA) was able to build an artificial football field in Alexandra township, in northen Joahnnesburg.
Totalsports has committed a further R5.4-million a year over the next five years, which will be used to train more than 600 coaches, 240 referees and 60 administrators.
“Totalsports has always [believed] that sport does change lives,” Totalsports CEO Greg Lamb told Engineering News during the launch.
He added that the company’s support for the project was about more than just sport and football – it was also an important vehicle for youth development in Alexandra.
The City of Johannesburg donated the land on which the Safe-Hub was built.
Safe-Hub is a registered trademark of South African nongovernmental organisation Amandla EduFootball. The youth development model has resulted in significant reductions in crime and violence, improvements in educational results and social skills for its participants through its tutoring programme, and a job-creation pipeline for young people.
To date, three other Safe-Hubs – two in Khayelitsha and Gugulethu, in the Western Cape, and one in Diepsloot, Gauteng – have been launched in South Africa.
Amandla EduFootball CEO Florian Zech noted that the aim of the Safe-Hubs was to “provide young people with the opportunity to escape [the] intergenerational cycle of poverty, inequality and unemployment”.
The Totalsports Safe-Hub in Alexandra marks the first hub implemented in partnership with the SDA. Amandla EduFootball and the SDA have agreed to roll out 100 Safe-Hubs by 2026 through a social franchise model supported by government and corporate institutions.
Zech noted that developing 100 Safe-Hubs would result in more than one-million young South Africans being reached.
SDA CEO Robin Petersen pointed out that the vision of the agency was to change “football at grassroots” level, and developing facilities for communities in need was fundamental to achieving that goal.
He added that there were about 343 local football associations across South Africa that required facilities similar to those of the Safe-Hubs.