Atlantis Swimming Club: Lenasia's pride

UNLIKE soccer and cricket, swimming is not a popular, mass-based sporting code in Lenasia. Nonetheless, historically it has been an important component in the community in the struggle for non-racial sports under the banner of the South African Council on Sport (Sacos).

In 1976, the Atlantis Swimming Club was founded locally by Yusuf “Joe” Cassim (chairman), Rafik Badat, Ashok Odhav and Shariffa Cassim (wecretary) to provide coaching and competition opportunities for black swimmers from the wider Lenasia area. The well-known Natal swimmer, Thambi Naicker, who was previously coached by veteran anti-apartheid campaigner, Sam Ramsamy, was appointed as the team coach.

Interestingly, the name of the club came from the then popular TV series, Man from Atlantis. Atlantis was a community club at the forefront of the campaign to promote non-racial swimming under the banner of Sacos, which followed the dictum, “No Normal Sport in an Abnormal Society”.

Atlantis Swimming Club affiliated to the Southern Transvaal Amateur Swimming Association (STASA) led by sport activist and teacher, Mike Davis. Through STASA it participated in numerous national and provincial non-racial swimming championships, including one held at the Orlando Swimming Pool in Soweto.

In those days, Sacos athletes would stay with family, friends and volunteer hosts from the schools and clubs in provinces. This was a reciprocal relationship as the athletes competed in different centres across the country and helped facilitate a bond and network of young swimmers, many who keep good relations to this day. Atlantis endured the harsh realities of racial segregation and harassment under apartheid.

Many of its promising swimmers were denied some of the simple opportunities to excel in the sport. For instance, Atlantis’ talented swimmers could not enter Ellis Park Stadium, where its premier 50m Olympic size pool was located as the facility was reserved for “whites only”.

More than this, officials from the racist Johannesburg City Council would periodically lock them out of their only available training facility at Lenasia’s Greyville Swimming Pool and overdose the water with chemicals because of the oppositional stance of the club.

Sadly, with “Swimming Unity Talks” in the late 1980s faltering and political wrangling dominating the process, the immediate and actual interests of swimmers were neglected and swimming among the black communities all but disappeared.

Atlantis resurgence

The latent enthusiasm and passion for swimming in Lenasia still existed and in 1996 Dolphins Swim School started with a handful of neighbourhood kids. Soon the demand for quality teaching and coaching grew and in 1998, Atlantis Swimming Club was re-established under the visionary leadership of Rashid Bhayat and a committed younger executive committee.

Atlantis Swimming Club positioned itself as a community club that focussed on competitive swimming. It affiliated to Central Gauteng Aquatics (CGA) and Swim South Africa (SSA). It supports Open Water Swimming and actively encouraged its swimmers to compete in the annual Midmar Mile and Germiston Lake Mile.

Atlantis currently has 60 swimmers across all age groups with a handful who complete at the SA Junior National and SA National levels. Two of its elite swimmers have moved over to swim for the University of Pretoria and train with the likes of Olympic Gold medallist, Tatyana Schoenmaker.

Juleigha “Julie” Cassim, a former Atlantis swimmer, took on the role of team coach and was supported by club alumni, Denin Naidoo and Yaseen Cassim. Tagged as a "Development Club", Atlantis struggled its way up and broke through barriers in a sport that is dominated by whites. The club has always dreamt big and for a long time its members were uncomfortable with the “development programme tag”, believing that the label placed a glass ceiling and limited the potential of its swimmers.

Through sheer dedication and hard work Atlantis swimmers have broken the invisible ceiling and a good number of its swimmers and coaches have been selected to represent South Africa at regional, national and international competitions.

“Julie” Cassim has served as South Africa’s team manager to the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and SA Paralympics Games in Paris. She also led the SA Junior Swimming Team in the World Championships in Brazil, Mexico and Germany. This week she leads the SA World Para Swimming Championship Team in Singapore.

Credit should also go to the founders of the Lenasia Amateur Swimming Academy led by the late Farid Waja, Nazir Essop, Aswin Vallabh, Hansa Morar, Sundra Moodley and Baboo Jairam, which played an instrumental role in promoting swimming locally. Established in 1986, it has quietly promoted the sport in the community.

Its motto, “Make Every Child a Swimmer”, led to the development of several lifeguards and in stimulating competitive swimming in the community. In 1991, it was renamed the Lenasia Aquatics and Sports Academy with Mukhtar Ally as its chairperson.

Struggle for pool facilities

The biggest challenge for Atlantis over the years has been access to swimming facilities. The Greyville Swimming Pool has been the home of the club since the mid-1970s. Sadly, due to inadequate and unequal budgeting by council, and a lack of maintenance and upgrading of the facility, the pool was shut down in 2007 and an alternative training facility was arranged at the local Virgin Active.

At a meeting with the Mayor of Johannesburg in 2010, an agreement was reached for a special budget to refurbish and re-open the facility. In April 2011, the Greyville Pool was re-opened and in November 2012, Atlantis hosted a successful CGA Gala at the pool, with 17 swimming clubs from across Johannesburg participating. This gala has been hosted annually since then.

With financial support from the community Atlantis had fitted heat pumps at the facility and were looking forward to start training post-Covid-19. Unfortunately, due to poor maintenance and the squandering of resources by council the facility was closed once again to the public. This is also the case with the Lenasia Extension 5 Swimming Pool, which has been closed for the past three years.

Consequently, in December last year, Atlantis and several other community action groups and leaders were forced to mount the “Save the Pool Campaign”. Community swimming is being compromised by the local government’s failure to upkeep its swimming pools. One can only hope that the legacy of Lenasia sport will give rise to a new way of managing and operating such facilities so that competitive swimmers and social bathers can once again benefit from the use of local swimming pools.

Dr Ismail Vadi is a former ANC MP and MEC for Roads and Transport in Gauteng. Interested persons can contact him at 082 772 3119.

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