As part of the Youth Day celebrations around the country, the Northern Cape initiated Skateboarding for Hope road show teamed up with radio station, 5FM.
They will host a massive community outreach activation at Walter Sisulu Square in Kliptown, Soweto, today.
This is one of the main skateboarding competitions the young athletes use to prepare for the Kimberley Diamond Cup (KDC) skateboarding world championship in early October.
Every year the Northern Cape presents Skateboarding for Hope events in 15 locations across SA.
“This forms part of our mission to have the Northern Cape and Kimberley embraced as an important skateboarding and adventure sports destination,” said Patrick Seboko, head of the department for economic development and tourism in the province.
Over the past three years, the Skateboarding for Hope initiative has issued more than 5000 skateboards to aspiring skateboarders.
It has also engaged with thousands of young people around the country from urban areas such as Johannesburg and Durban to deep rural villages such as Kathu and Postmasburg in the Northern Cape.
“The Northern Cape has become synonymous with skateboarding and the capital city of Kimberley is the proud home to the world-class Kumba Skate Plaza as well as the Kimberley Diamond Cup skateboarding world championship, which sees the top skaters in the world converging on South Africa’s largest province to battle it out for a prize purse of over R5m,” he said.
This year, the KDC has been extended to a week-long celebration of skateboarding and action sport running from September 28 to October 5.
“KDC Week will not only be about the world championship but also include the professional street and vert world championships, male and female South African amateur contests as well as a team street challenge.”
Seboko said the positive social impact of Skateboarding for Hope, is that the Kimberley Diamond Cup has also become a significant economic role player in the Northern Cape.
“Studies conducted during the 2013 event revealed that the event made a major contribution to job creation, community beneficiation and destination marketing.”
More than 39% of the event attendees and spectators came from outside of the province and spent an average of three nights in and around Kimberley.