WITH only a few pieces of gym equipment, Xolisile Ngantweni, from Sea Vista in St Francis Bay, has opened his home and has created a safe space for young people in his area to exercise and stay away from all the negative aspects that plague their community.
To keep fit and to stay healthy, Ngantweni began exercising at his friend and fitness partner, Chumani Mpemva’s house, in December last year.
He said while he was exercising, many young people who walked by were interested in what they were doing and wanted to join.
With a desire to help young people in the area stay away from drug and alcohol abuse, Ngantweni began to realise that establishing a gym at his house would be a positive contribution to his community.
“It makes me so sad that so many young people in my community are wasting their lives with drugs and alcohol. It is so painful that our future leaders are destroying their lives,” Ngantweni said.
“There are so many taverns in my area, and I thought that it would be a good change of scenery for young people to see that they have a gym to go to, instead of spending their time at taverns. I hope that the gym will unite our community.”
Apart from daily exercises with his nine active members, aged between 10 and 42, Ngantweni also uses the opportunity to speak to young people about the dangers of stealing and the negative effects of drug and alcohol abuse.
Ngantweni has established a daily fitness programme for his members, but said that they were not obligated to partake in the programme; instead they could exercise on their own using the gym equipment, if they preferred to do so.
Despite not having an official gym facility, Ngantweni is currently accumulating enough material and roof sheets to extend his home to create a bigger space for more young people to exercise.
Ngantweni has posted an appeal on his Facebook page to seek gym equipment donations or second-hand items for sale.
Since placing his post on Facebook, Ngantweni has received quite a few pieces of gym equipment from people throughout the Kouga region.
“Even though our exercising space is small, and we only have a few pieces of gym equipment, the young people who have been exercising at my house are very excited and are looking forward to improving their health,” said Ngantweni.
“Once I have a bigger space, I hope that more young people will join my gym and spend their time learning about fitness which will help them stay away from criminal activities.”
According to Ngantweni, to ensure that they adhere to COVID-19 protocols, all members have to wear masks; they have to maintain social distancing, and all gym equipment is sanitised before and after each use.
