Two world champions joined forces this week in a mighty effort to improve the lives and wellbeing of South Africa’s youngest underprivileged people — using their power and goodwill to attract even more support for their causes.
Tennis great Roger Federer — representing the Roger Federer Foundation— and Springbok captain Siya Kolisi — representing the Kolisi Foundation — have spent much of this week together, not only visiting early childhood development (ECD) projects they support but also addressing big business.
Speaking at a media briefing on Wednesday, Federer said he was happy to be in South Africa with his wife, four children and parents as he has deep connections to the country.
“My mom showed me where she took her first tennis lesson,” he said, explaining that his mother had grown up in Kempton Park, east of Johannesburg.
His federation, which he started over 20 years ago, focuses on uplifting children living in poverty through education — in particular access to quality early education. The organisation works on establishing or further developing existing educational programmes in rural areas in a sustainable way.
“I truly believe in the potential of every child. I worked hard to achieve my success, and I believe that if children are given a good grounding and opportunity, they can too. So I see 1.3-million children in need of playgrounds, blocks and books to learn. It’s an ambitious goal, but I think we can do this by 2030. It’s the right goal,” he said.
One of the ways he is making this happen is through collaboration with Kolisi, whose own foundation’s mission and goals fit neatly with those of Federer.
“My foundation also focuses on GBV and poverty and we promote nutrition in schools. When I was growing up I had one meal a day and quickly learnt about ubuntu, where people share what little they have and so you learn to share too. When Rachel and I set up the foundation we designed it so the children get a bit more than one meal a day — we wanted them to have more than I did,” Kolisi said, explaining his mission to take resources to children in their areas.
“When you’re a child and you’re poor, you don’t even know it because everyone around you is the same. We need to give those children choices in the place where they can live with their own culture, speak their own language and then decide from there if they want to leave the township or not,” Kolisi said.
Nonkululeko Nyembezi, chair of Business Leadership South Africa,, said the challenge in building on ECD programmes lay in improving the outcomes for children in just a few years in basic environments where those looking after small children don’t have internet and therefore cannot even access what government resources are available. She said this was “possibly a situation where ECD amounts to a child being given a piece of fruit in a shack and singing songs”.
“So now we are looking at dealing with small things, that in turn enable big things because this is a big issue for our economy,” she said.
“And so we go to the children and we help them believe that there are things beyond their circumstances. It’s important for me to keep pushing and working hard and achieving good things while reminding the children that I come from the same background. They can see me and we work together and I talk to them and I tell them that things might look difficult or impossible. But if they can believe in themselves and take advantage of what is available to them, things will get better,” Kolisi said.
Federer said he too had a humble background in Switzerland, and it was this that led him to develop a passion for strengthening people from a young age and empowering through work on the ground, sustainable projects and collaborations with like-minded partners.
“It was great to go to Mpumalanga and see how clean those spaces are, the food gardens and people cooking for the children. My own children loved it and want to come back. It’s time to give little children a chance through ECD,” he said.
The Roger Federer Foundation’s new initiative in South Africa will focus on the transition phase from preschool to primary school — or grade R to grade 1. It supports the National Development Plan 2030 and through a tracking programme ensures that by 2030 all boys and girls are ready for primary school. The board has approved a budget of more than R145m for it.
Kulula Manona, chief director for Foundations for Learning in the department of basic education, said the current outcomes for children were “not where we want them to be”, so a policy decision was taken to move ECD to the department of social development.
“We’re focusing on nutrition and wellbeing, but only two thirds of children are in early learning programmes. So we developed a fresh strategy in 2024 to pull that access net open further,” she said.
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