Rashied Isaacs from Mitchells Plain started a Safer Sports Fields campaign after seeing too many deaths of young children on the Cape Flats sports fields due to a lack of skilled first aiders at hand during community sports matches.
The most recent incident being a 16-year-old soccer player, Imtieyaaz Wagiet, who collapsed during a match. He was the captain of Bayview FC’s Under-17 team, who played against Strandfontein AFC in Mitchells Plain.
"We all crying saying we want the kids off the street where it's a dangerous environment, but we bring them onto the sports field which is not a safe environment," said Isaacs.
"We as officials and mother bodies need to make it safe for them on the sports field.
"Because of all my work on the sports fields I realised there is a lack of first aid and emergency planning on community sports fields," he said.
Video: Shifaan Ryklief/SAPA+
Isaacs started his campaign four years ago where he trained coaches with the skills so that they could do duty at the weekends on the sports fields and save lives. He's trained over 150 coaches in the last four years and he says this number is not enough.
"Part of my research in 2007 is that Ryan Rasool died on the community sports fields and in 2010 Reza Salie died on the sports fields.
"Basically what I'm trying to inculcate with this programme, to get all the coaches on the same page with regards to first aid.