- Philanthropist and real estate entrepreneur TT Mbha will be honouring caddies and the role they play at the Caddy Golf Day.
- Through this event, he also aims to help the caddies gain financial literacy and improve the township economy.
- He speaks to us about the second annual TT Mbha Caddy Golf Day.
Real estate entrepreneur and TV producer TT Mbha will be hosting his second annual Caddy Golf Day event in Soweto.
On 6 September 2022, the property mogul will be hosting the second TT Mbha Caddy Golf Day at the Soweto Country Club, which was initially set to take place in 2021 but had to be postponed due to protests in the area.
He says Caddy Golf Day was inspired by the first golf day he hosted in 2021 called the Soweto Youth Golf Day, which was designed to commemorate the 1976 Soweto Uprising. However, due to protests in the area, the caddies that were meant to work that day were unable to and that’s when he had the idea of creating an event strictly for caddies.
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Speaking to TRUELOVE about the event, TT breaks down what a caddy does and why it was important for him to have this event.
“A caddy is basically someone who guides the golfer on the course, they also carry the bags with the clubs and take care of them on the day - they’re a critical part of the sport. So, for a change, I’m creating an event that’s about them, celebrating them, honouring them as well. It’s about creating a platform for them to also be stars on the day,” he explains.
“We’ve had social golfers sponsor them because it's 200 for each caddy to enter but what we do is that with that R200, we take R100 and we pay for their fees of the golf course and the other R100 we are going to open bank accounts for the 100 caddies with Nedbank. So, it’s also an empowerment thing where we encourage them to have an account and to have a cashless business that will help them not get robbed on their way home or end up drinking that money,” he adds.
On why he thought to host the event in the township, the TV host says it's because golf is not popular in the township, he wanted to educate “abantu baseKasi (people from the township)” that there is a sport that you can make a career out of.
“We can’t all play soccer, we can’t all play netball but golf also affords you the opportunity to network and do business on the course. So, I want a lot of township people to be exposed to that, you know. It’s a sport that is traditionally white so we’re trying to break that, and for me to break that, I want to start with the very basic members of the sport, which are the caddies and expose them to the world,” he says.
The event will boast a guest list of celebrities who are golfers such as Tbo Touch, OG Molefe, Stanton Fredericks, Brian Baloyi, Jimmy Tau and industry business leaders such as Sunshine tour, Three Oh and Happy Ntshingila.
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The TT Mbha Caddy Golf Day will also be sponsored by big corporates such as Sanlam, Hollywood Bets, Local beverages, Drip and Soweto TV as the media partner.
“We’ve got some nice brands that have decided that 'you know what, this is really different, it's really about empowering the caddies and also bringing the money back into the township economy' because remember we are going to pay the country club for the day, we re going to pay the caterer to provide us with food. So, it’s about the local economy as well. Everyone gets to benefit in the end,” says TT.
The businessman adds that what he’s looking forward to on the day is, “seeing caddies actually being treated like VIPs, them competing, them being educated about financial literacy but most importantly, I’m looking forward to them networking amongst themselves and getting to know each other because its caddies from different parts of Gauteng- Alex, Vosloorus, Soweto, Kagiso, Pretoria. All over”.
Additionally, the winning caddy will walk away with the grand prize of playing at the Nedbank Golf Challenge Pro-Am hosted in Sun City in November.
“So, some of these caddies don’t know each other so it’s about seeing who is the best out of the 100, and of course, the best caddy will be the caddy of the year for 2022. They’re going to be the champ, be taken to Sun City and be chauffeur-driven,” he says.
TT, who says he didn’t expect the uptake to be so high, says he is truly humbled by this and shares what is next for the Caddy Golf Day.
“I want to make it a bi-annual thing where I host it in March and September. March is my birthday month and I’ll host another one in September”.
The event is open to the public, free of charge and begins at 10:00. Those who are looking to enter for the 2023 Caddy Golf Day can follow the TTMBHAcaddygolfday page on Instagram for more information.
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