Dikeledi Radebe gears up to climb Kilimanjaro in honour of Mandela's 107th birthday
The Imbumba Foundation, in partnership with Big Save Group, hosted a send-off event for the 2025 Trek4Mandela team. Football legend Lucas Radebe’s sister Dikeledi is among the climbers.
Image: Oupa Mokoena / Independent Newspapers
Dikeledi Radebe is part of a group of mountain climbers and hikers planning to summit Africa’s highest mountain to celebrate late former president Nelson Mandela’s 107th birthday and for a good cause later this month.
The sister of South African football legend and retired Bafana Bafana captain Lucas Radebe is excited to be climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in this year’s Trek4Mandela on behalf of the ET (Emily Tlaleng) Radebe Foundation, which was established in honour of their late mother.
This year’s Trek4Mandela team at their end-off hosted by Imbumba Foundation in partnership with Big Save Group in Waterkloof, Tshwane.
Image: Oupa Mokoena / Independent Newspapers
As the ET Radebe Foundation supports mostly sports, it decided to be involved in more initiatives.
“I got in touch with someone from Trek4Mandela and decided it is a great opportunity for us to collaborate with them and support this great initiative for young girls,” Radebe explained.
She said the ET Radebe Foundation also works with school children.
“So this was a great opportunity for us to collaborate with them,” she added.
She is a climber and has climbed several mountains, but it will be different because Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania is at a high altitude, and she has yet to attempt.
“I have spent five days climbing the Fish River Canyon in Namibia. I have also done the toughest trail in South Africa, which is Amathole in the Eastern Cape, so I am an experienced hiker, just not an experienced high-altitude climber,” Radebe said.
She said she is looking forward journey as the preparations have been good with great support from the organisers, Imbumba Foundation, which she also stated she trains the group very well.
The foundation was founded by social entrepreneur Richard Mabaso in 2010 and is behind the Trek4Mandela annual expeditions to honour the global icon’s birthday on July 18, as well as another to celebrate Women’s Day on August 9.
It supports the Caring4Girls programme, which Mabaso established in 2012, to provide access to sanitary pads and the corresponding reproductive health education.
Radebe said she was also grateful to the foundation for the awesome work it did to train the group for the whole year.
“It was a good journey, it was tough, but we all made it up until today. We are looking forward to the trip next week and to summiting and coming back and speaking about our beautiful journey and stories. Good luck to all the 2025 climbers.”
Dikeledi continued: “I am a bit anxious, but it’s good for me because it’s building my strength and I tell myself that we will do this. We will summit and we will come back and tell our stories. I’m looking forward to it.”
She added that her brother had a lengthy football career and his knees may no longer be able to carry him in another equally gruelling adventure for now, but he remains hopeful.
“I took him actually on a fundraiser hike last Saturday, and he enjoyed it, and indicated this is something he can do. I will help him to get him to climb, he will climb one day,” an optimistic Radebe said.
Big Save chief executive Tony Ferreira, who completed the Trek4Mandela summit last year, assured this year’s climbers that they will have a memorable journey.