Joe Machaba is venerated among the pioneers of basketball in the province.
Basketball in a “godforsaken” rural community sounds more like a polar bear at the Equator.
Due to the game’s demanding nature and its complexities, it just can’t happen, hey?
But this is not the case in Mabokelele village in the Moletjie area, where the celebrated American Slam Dunk ballgame is breaking the glass ceiling.
When the history of basketball began with its invention in 1891 in Springfield, Massachuetts by Canadian physical education instructor James Naismith, a local pioneer Joe Machaba was yet to be born to concoct a splendid invention of basketball in Moletjie.
Machaba, a retired high school principal, is still regarded as the David Livingstone of the game in Moletjie and beyond.
Machaba’s grand exploration effectively took myriad of young children from the dusty streets and integrated some of them into a system that turned them into class acts of the modern game.
Situated at the heart of Boetse High School, Machaba’s former workplace, the team systematically became the catalyst for comprehensive club and school sport development.
The local (basketball) court became the ideal hatchery of talent for both the school and the local club, Knicks.
In an interview with the club’s current secretary, Kolobe Lebepe, he took a journey down memory lane, reminiscing on how “approximately 120 young boys and girls between the ages 12 and 18 as well as senior men and women honed their skills on a makeshift court”.
It was Machaba’ sense of basketball purpose that became the springboard from which the game’s revolution and transformation agenda were launched.
Musing over the road travelled thus far, Lebepe said, “The foundation of our team might sounds like a fairytale of some sort, but the reality of the matter is that we started without standardised training facilities. However, Knicks produced a number of players who participated in the provincial teams. With the help of a dedicated school principal Machaba whose basketball nous was unsurpassable, we also managed to conquer many school tournaments. A wealthy basketball history has already been written over the past years despite financial constraints and lack of facilities in our neighbour.”
In 2006, there was an ounce of panic that Knicks will “die” when the team was hit by a mass exodus of players leaving the village to pursue academic and employment endeavours.
The situation went on the deteriorated following Machaba’s retirement from the school.
But like Phoenix, the mythical bird that allegedly burnt itself on the funeral pyre and rise majestically from the ashes, Knicks staged a memorable comeback.
The spirit of the game was revived through campaigns like #Bring Back Our BasketBall and #Donate a Basketball.
The campaigns caught the attention of Midrand company, Adcock Ingram that generously donated goodies, including water bottles, sports bags, t-shirts, blankets, arm bands and torches.
The company went on to inject a R20 000, which the team allocated for the erection of a standardized court.
The basketball spirit in Moletjie remains alive with mass participation by learners from Boetse High School and local youngsters from Mabokelele village.