She is from a family of swimmers. When her uncles introduced her to the sport, she found purpose in it.
It became a sport of belonging for her.
Being from Soweto never stopped her from hitting a stroke or two in the water.
“Swimming saved my life, it was one of the sports that gave me a sense of belonging and it really saved me from the streets as nowadays we are introduced to things that are not okay or things that break a person, so I found healing and life in swimming. It really gave me a character of being a winner and never giving up,” Lumka Menye tells Drum.
When she was only 13 years old, the multi-award-winning swimmer lost her mother who had been supporting her in her journey.
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“My mother was so supportive with everything I was doing, especially swimming. When she passed away 2009 December, my life changed and it affected my life because things changed due to circumstances, I even changed my environment then I lost interest in doing it professionally. But now I have found the strength to help and educate the community about swimming,” she says.
Lumka is a social media sensation well known as Sihlobo especially to her Facebook followers.
Now with over one million followers across her social media platforms, she wants to use her influence to bring back her first love of swimming to her township, White City Jabavu.
Growing up, there was little to no water safety knowledge and as a result, there were drowning risks among children.
Even with that, she won several medals as a swimmer in her primary and high school years representing her region in a number of tournaments. The 28-year-old believes swimming has the potential to change young people’s lives like it did hers.
For her, now is the time to change all of that with her swimming tournaments.
Through her efforts, “The community will be more educated on the importance of water safety, and they’ll understand the fundamentals and elements of swimming not just as a sport but a life skill that one can benefit for a lifetime. Swimming is a very necessary skill and almost everyone should be educated and learn to swim.”
Leading to the first tournament on 07 October at the White City Jabavu swimming pool, Lumka is doing school tours to educate children about water safety and encourage children to join the swimming sport as an effort to help them stay away from “toxic things in the communities”.
“[The Soweto Swimming Tour] is not just about competing; it's a lively celebration of the growing community of water enthusiasts embracing swimming as a beloved aquatic lifestyle,” she adds.
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The tournament will be taking place twice every year but for this year, she has gone big with Boohle booked to perform at the tournament.
“For this Soweto Swimming Tournament I have booked the amazing Amapiano artist Boohle to perform at the event because I believe that sport and music is one to me, and they merge beautifully so.”
Lumka is also an artist herself with a musical background dating back to her primary and secondary school days when she used to be in the school choir.
In 2022, she released her single Jika Majika which was received positively by her supporters.
The Afrobeats track will be followed by another musical project which she describes as “something magical” next year.
Telling Drum about it, she says it is something that people should be on the lookout for.
