Hard Work Pays Off
Pitso in his matric year (Grade 12).
“Pitso! Pitso!” Young boys call his name when he walks around the community in Masiphumelele. They want to be like him when they grow up because of who he is and his place at Ubuntu. Yibanathi “Pitso” Dubula was a matric student on our U18 team in 2019 who has been a part of Ubuntu since 2013. Since then, this shy but confident young man has taken our growth mindset to heart and come into his own.
For Pitso, a defining moment occurred in 2018 when he began playing for a team in Ocean View while still being a part of the Ubuntu team. In Ocean View, he didn’t get much playing time at all. Consequently, he felt inadequate and it affected the way that he played. He remembers how he felt like his teammates didn’t trust him and that he was useless to the team. Rather than give up, Pitso made a personal resolution.
“I decided to tell myself ‘no man, I’m good enough to be here and I believe I can make it.’ I just needed to work harder. Besides the fact that they weren’t going to play me, I just needed to put in the hard work. Then, whatever happens, I will know that I’m satisfied because I’ve worked hard and I’m prepared.”
Pitso faces off against a player from Cape Umoya FC.
At Ubuntu, Pitso seeks to follow the resolution he made. He says earnestly, “I always look to grow in everything I do, I always seek improvement. I like to challenge myself and take the next step.” The midfielder? pushes himself to grow on and off the field. He takes his training seriously, but he also recognizes the opportunity he has as a part of the Ubuntu family to become a man of character. When asked, Dubula elaborates on how Ubuntu is different than other football clubs or schools. For him, Ubuntu is a lifetime opportunity that others in his home community only dream of, and he’s not taking it for granted.
“We go to school, we get to go to training in the morning, and lots of other stuff. We get taught about life also and how to behave and look at life differently, seeing life as an opportunity,” he explains.
At the academy school, he’s learned that great opportunities require hard work. He laughs when he relates that he doesn’t love school, but then he grows serious as he talks about the life lessons he’s learned while facing the challenge of online learning. He admits that not having teachers to listen to is really hard, and so is being consistent with work. Continuing, Pitso declares, “I’ve learned about being responsible for my own work, how to behave and treat situations like this where it’s all about you being responsible for yourself. If you don’t do it, no one else is going to do it for you.”
Going in for a header and the Engen Knockout Challenge.
Pitso is driven, but not only for his own benefit. When asked what sort of example he wants to be for his peers, he says with enthusiasm, “I want to be the motivator, to motivate them and push them towards their own goals. I want to stand out with what I do, leading off the field and on the field.”
Of course, Pitso wants to pursue a career as a footballer in the future, preferably in Europe where there are “lots of bucks.” However, if he’s unable to become a professional, then he would like to go to drama school. He used to act when he was younger and he says, “people told me that I was good at what I did. I’m good at impressions and fake characters. It gives me another option!”
Pitso still lives where he grew up in Masi with his parents and three sisters. According to him, his proudest accomplishment in life is not a football feat but the connection he’s established with his parents. He relates simply: “I make my parents smile. For me, getting my parents to smile, that’s a big achievement for me. In the past, I didn’t have a good relationship with them because of the stuff that I did. I did stuff that made them get angry at me, and when they got angry I would think that they didn’t like me. So now that I see them smiling because of my talent, it’s something great for me because it means that they appreciate me for what I do.”
After a difficult year fighting against all of the challenges that come with being at Ubuntu, Pitso found out in January that he passed his matriculation exams. He is officially a high school graduate, and even more than that Pitso qualified for further technical studies. Everyone at Ubuntu Football is so proud of Pitso and what he’s accomplished, even when it looked grim. He really embodies what we hope all of our Ubuntu players become: a leader focused on excellence. Congratulations Pitso!
