The third annual Bordeaux Street tennis tournament, also affectionately known as the Wimbledon in Westridge, drew large crowds and big names in politics, sport, music and government, serving up all the action for young and old.
On Tuesday 2 July, the street was shut down to feature two street courts and a third grass court in a quest to claim back the streets and open spaces.
Organiser Rodney Brown says: “With the turnout we had, it grows every year. We want to highlight that it is the June school holidays and there is nothing happening in the street.
“When I grew up, the June school holiday was ‘the thing’. With Wimbledon on the horizon, it is about getting kids to be active.”
With safety and security concerns around having children play on the streets or parks and a lack of resources, this initiative was born in partnership with like-minded organisations.
Brown says reclaiming these open spaces means less opportunity for them to be used to field social ills.
“We want to showcase that kids lack the ability to have organised sports. It is about us older folk rolling back the years and highlighting street sports. It is all about the kids, they are having a blast,” says Brown.
Living in the area for decades, Brown says he cannot see these open spaces be occupied by social ills.
“There are a lot of open spaces in Mitchell’s Plain that are unoccupied or used for social ills. And we need to overcome that, but it is a collective effort. Everyone has to come to the party and just own their spaces,” he says.
Brown continues that there are a number of concerns around safety that also impacts play in these parks, which he understands, but that it takes the communities involvement to change that.
Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, who attended the event for the first time, says while he has never played tennis before, he enjoyed putting his beach-ball skills to use.
“I have heard about this wonderful community gees that brings people together, brings people out of their homes to enjoy outdoors,” he says.
“When I heard about how many kids are involved and the good it does for the community, I knew I had to come and enjoy it. It was great fun. I am sweating, it was more than a decent workout,” he jokes.
The tournament also featured TV and Radio personality Aden Thomas, musician Salome, DJ Portia, politicians Reagen Allen and Nazier Paulsen and the Western Cape Minister for Cultural Affairs and Sport, Ricardo Mackenzie.
Mackenzie, who has attended before, but played for the first time this year says it is incredible to see events like these creating relationships between various stakeholders.
“This is critical. We must own our public spaces, because when we don’t own our public spaces, we know the criminal elements, vandals and gangsters take over.
“When we own our public spaces, we own our street, we own our parks and we enhance what is happening in our communities, we give our youth opportunities to excel,” he says.
By hosting street sports, it fosters sport culture in children, producing sporting legends for the country, says Mackenzie.
“Great players have come through from events like these,” he says.
Hill-Lewis agrees.
“If you look around, (sport) brings people together, it brings communities together. There would have been a few thousand people come through here, lots of kids involved and that is exactly what we want in Cape Town.”
