Mr and Mrs Simbine kick off Akani Simbine Foundation for township kids

Sprint king Akani Simbine and his wife Terisa officially launched the Akani Simbine Foundation on Friday night, looking at developing sport in township schools as well as assisting vulnerable children.

“I’m looking to make an impact on the next generation and that’s where my heart has been throughout my whole career,” said the 4x100m relay silver medallist, who registered the foundation in 2022.

He assisted people here and there before launching the foundation in full force with his spouse.

“We came together and we’re like ‘OK, let’s empower new lives, let’s uplift the communities, let’s use sport because sport is my main thing to actually push into the communities to inspire the next generation’,” said Simbine, who grew up in Thembisa.

“When I look back at the township I always see the guys that I grew up with and for me it’s so difficult to understand why the guys never got out of the township or why the guys never got out of the mentality of a township and that’s something that I’ve been so passionate about changing,” he said, adding he was keen to get athletics back into non-fees schools.

Terisa, a nurse who is studying to become a doctor, said the foundation would also look at education and mental health. 

“We want to use sport as a vehicle to get them off the streets, to keep them motivated, to keep them focused and our mission on how we’re going to do that is having different health initiatives, providing educational resources and just building a safety net for the kids that they know that they have somewhere they can turn to.”

An auction of autographed spikes belonging to Simbine, former women’s 800m queen Caster Semenya and 400m world record-holder Wayde van Niekerk raised R108,000 for the foundation.

Simbine’s shoes, which he wore at the Paris Olympics, fetched R52,000 while Semenya’s went for R36,000 and Van Niekerk’s R20,000.