Siya Kolisi works to protect South Africa’s most vulnerable during COVID-19

  • 4/30/2020
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JOHANNESBURG — In an interview with CNN’s Christina Macfarlane, South African rugby captain Siya Kolisi outlines a potential crisis emerging in the South Africa’s townships and how he’s assisting some of the nation’s most vulnerable citizens. Having grown up in a township near Port Elizabeth, Kolisi and his wife, Rachel Kolisi, have been delivering food parcels and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to the Zwide Township as COVID-19 inflicts its fourth week of lockdown. Speaking as part of CNN Sport’s Time Out series, Macfarlane hears that the Kolisis brought forward the launch of their charity — The Kolisi Foundation — in order to assist on the frontline, which includes the Springboks’ captain delivering messages in Xhosa to encourage people to stay home. With sport shut down in South Africa, Kolisi tells CNN when he believes rugby can return again and how the power of sport can continue to unite the country moving forward. Siya Kolisi on the scale of the impact of COVID-19 on South Africa: “It could be huge. That’s what gets me going and keeps me motivated to work as hard as I can to try and help the frontline workers... I"m not disadvantaged anymore, you know, and I don"t see myself like that. But I know what it feels like. What I"m trying to say is you don"t have to come from there to be able to give back. There"s no better feeling than helping somebody else.” Siya Kolisi on his foundation providing food parcels and protective equipment to South Africa’s Townships: “For me, it"s personal because I know there’s nothing worse than hunger. There"s nothing worse than listening to your stomach before you go to bed. And you just hear grumbling, you have nothing to eat, you"ve got no other choice.” Siya Kolisi on sending community messages in Xhosa: “I’ve been encouraging people to stay home and saying how serious this is. With the food packages that we drop off, we are adding messages in the local dialect of Xhosa... We put in instructions there for the masks - all in Xhosa - on how to put it on... But the most important is this: if you want people to stay home, tell them why. You can’t just tell someone to stay home and not give them anything.” Siya Kolisi on the eventual return of sport once lockdown is over: “That"s going to be amazing, I think sport does a lot of things to people. You know, it makes people happy sometimes. It gives you different emotions, but it speaks to everyone. We’re only going to fight this thing together and we need to stand united together as humanity. The sooner we realize that, the better it’ll be. The sooner we help one another, the better it’s going to be.” — CNN

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