Throughout the world of sports, the word “talented” is often used to describe any sportsman or woman who seems a cut above the rest on the field of play.
But when it comes to Mthatha pensioner Nokuzola Gadla-Magoda, this would be a gross understatement.
At the age of 60, when most elderly women prefer to spend their time taking care of grandchildren, Gadla-Magoda spends hours on a golf course honing her skills.
And when she is not teeing off, she can be found dictating play or making a killer pass to one of the strikers at Mthatha’s famous Gogo Novoti Elderly Centre’s soccer team.
On other days, she can be found leaving the competition dead in her wake as she bears down the racetrack. After all, she is an accomplished 100m sprinter.
She says she gets her abilities from her mother, who worked as a domestic worker in Cape Town while she was growing up, and also her father, who worked for a big company in Cape Town for more than 30 years.
“They gave their all in their jobs and I am a fast learner myself,” she told the Saturday Dispatch.
“Just like them, whatever I do, I make sure that I do it to the best of my ability.”
Her achievements are remarkable given the fact that she was diagnosed with high blood pressure more than five years ago.
But her versatility is not only limited to the world of sport, as she has worked as a bookkeeper, advisor and as a receptionist for several companies before retiring.
She has also left an indelible mark on the political front, having served as UDM’s secretary in the district of King Sabata Dalindyebo and later as chairwoman.
After leaving the party, she rejoined the ANC and served three terms as secretary in her ward.
Zoe, as Gadla-Magoda is known, will be jetting off to Sun City in Johannesburg this weekend, where she hopes to fly the Eastern Cape’s flag high during the Sanlam Cancer Golf Challenge on Monday and Tuesday.
She hopes it will be third time lucky as she failed to win in her two previous attempts. In 2013, she won the C Division of the provincial version of the event, a feat which she also repeated last year and in August.
“I want to bring back something this time around,” she said.
Next month, she will also be taking part in the national Golden Games after she was part of a local team that blazed the trail during the 4x100m relay district finals in Tsolo earlier this year.
While many people might marvel at her athletic prowess, she is not the least surprised as even as a young girl back in the 1970s, she played netball and participated in other disciplines including the 100 and 200m sprints as well as javelin.
Although she comes from a sporting background, she said she only took up golf in 2010 after previously serving as a caddie for her cousin.
She then started playing herself and is now a proud member of the Mthatha Country Club.
“Back in the 1980s, they used to show golf on television around 12 midnight and I would stay and watch it. Little did I know that years later I would be madly in love with the sport myself.”
She describes the sport as her first love because it has so many health benefits, as players have to walk up to 7km on the green from hole to hole.
However, she wants to see more and more women in black communities taking up golf.
Her daughter and granddaughter have taken up golf thanks to her, although much like her they are also accomplished players in other sporting codes.
“Everywhere I go I tell people they must take up golf as a sport. It is a sport for people to socialise and, contrary to popular belief, is not even expensive at all,” she said. — sikhon@dispatch.co.za