INSIDER: Joseph Dweba

When Joseph Dweba took the field last weekend to make his debut for the Springboks, it was a culmination of a dream that he never thought one day he would fulfill. 

And while Dweba will now be dreaming of wearing the Green and Gold for a long time to come, the road to this point has been filled with obstacles, as a humble kid from a shack outside Carltonville overcame much more than just a few selection issues to make it to the national side.

Dweba’s story is not unique in a South African context, but it is still a story of hope triumphing over adversity. Of a kid with a dream chasing it down until he gets it. 

And a long, somewhat detoured road to find his way to the top.

Much like his captain Siya Kolisi, Dweba has overcome so much to escape poverty and to find his way past so many obstacles, that it deserves a decent telling.

“It’s strange what rugby has given me,” he smiles at the thought, “Most of my friends ended up either in drugs or on the mines. Some of them turned to crime, many of them are dead now.”

Life in a shack in Carletonville wasn’t easy, as it isn’t for many South Africans who face the same challenges every day.

Dweba remembers those days well, days where Bekkersdal was his only home. And there seemed little escape.

BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE

The son of a miner - Sam Dweba - and a domestic worker - Nomaca - growing up wasn’t easy.  Dweba’s mother had three other children. His father had “many” - as the hooker tells it.

And life in the shack was tough. Dweba even suffered the misfortune of burning down his own mother’s shack. It was a moment he never forgot.

“I’ve never told this story before – I don’t even think my Mrs knows,” Dweba  told Rugbypass in a recent article. “I came back from primary school and there were a lot of insects in the house, so I took a candle, lit it up and wanted to kill them.

“But I was right next to the fridge – I was stupid, I didn’t know. The fridge started sparking and burned the whole house down. I had to go and stay with another woman while they rebuilt the house.

“Yes, my mum was angry with me, but she understood I was a kid and I knew nothing. She was the person who always looked after me. She always supported me.”

From there he moved into the back room of the family his mother worked for. And slowly the rugby dream was borne.

“There was a time where we stayed in the back room of a house where my mother worked. It is what sparked everything for me. I learnt Afrikaans from the kids in the house, we played touch rugby together.”

HATRED FOR RUGBY

But Dweba wasn’t sold on the idea of the game straight away. In fact, he readily admits he hated it at the start.

At Laerskool Gerrit Maritz in Westonaria he was first introduced to the sport. And it wasn’t his favourite.

“I actually hated it,” he said. “In fact, I never really liked sport at all. I was more inclined to athletics and soccer. Athletics was something I really enjoyed.

At the school he met a teacher, Rauten Breytenbach, who said he should give rugby a try. 

“But after the first training session I had to walk home, and it started raining hard. So I decided this wasn’t for me. I was finished with rugby.”

But Breytenbach egged him on to return. And he did. And suddenly the neighbourhood kid that was bullied by others, found his calling.

“I first played wing and then centre. I was bigger than the other kids. I was a bit of a bully. Mr Breytenbach told me ``You're a big kid, but use that aggression on the field.”

And so a rugby career started to flourish. Dweba enjoyed the physicality on the field, the camaraderie off it. And others began to notice.

MOVING AROUND

Still, there weren’t too many opportunities for a kid from the far West Rand.

“I was in four different high schools,” he laughs,  “The first was Westonaria High School. But then a friend who was at Cravenweek with me at Primary school suggested me and I was offered a bursary to Hoërskool Jan Viljoen. That bursary paid the school fees.”

Dweba had to repeat a year to cope with the change to Afrikaans, but his game flourished. A move to Hoërskool Florida helped his rugby, but was tough. Dweba would get lifts to training, but would be left to find his own way back home from Florida, a good 40km away.

He remembers the long days trying to get back home after practice, the long nights doing schoolwork and how exhausted he was.  Eventually he was offered a place in the dormitory, and he made the Lions under-16 side. And from there the SA Schools side.

The day he left for the “koshuis”, his mother broke down and cried. She asked him to reconsider and stay with her.

“I told here I have to go. I have to master Afrikaans and I need to complete my education. I told her I want to follow my rugby dream. I told her if I wasn’t happy, I’d phone her and come home,” Dweba recalls.

TURNING DOWN GREY COLLEGE

There are few players who would turn down the prestigious Grey College when they came calling, but the time wasn’t right.

Dweba was struggling with school and was in Grade 11. He would have had to move provinces and feared he wouldn’t pass the end of the year. So he said no. 

And with that opportunity knocked. And his now Springbok team-mate Ox Nche came onto the scene.

“I told Ox I had some interest from the Free State. I was writing my exams and an agent told me Grey wanted me. I said no, because I knew there was no way I would pass if I moved.”

Nche was at HTS Louis Botha, and spoke to a teacher there, and Dweba was offered a bursary.  From there the two were inseparable and graduated into the Cheetahs junior programme.

But still, things weren’t easy.  While Bloemfontein wasn’t the biggest, he never had wheels. Instead, he asked Franco Smith if he could borrow a bicycle. And these became his go-to wheels around the Free State capital, riding the 10km to and from practices every day.

Dweba’s rise in the Cheetahs caught the eye of Bordeaux and he moved abroad. And every day he reminds himself what rugby has given him.

“I’ve seen what happened to my friends. They ended up on the mines, or on drugs, or began to steal. Some of them are dead, and others in jail. Rugby gave me an out - it kept me away from all of that. It gave me the chance to become someone better.”

KHANYONE NKOSI DWEBA

Dweba met his partner Nomonde, and they have a son - Khanyone Nkosi Dweba - who is everything to him.

“The day he arrived it changed everything for me. He is my motivation. He is the reason I do all of this. He drives me to be better. I’m doing it all for him.

“Before I was playing rugby just to jol. But now I’ve got a family, I’ve got a responsibility. I’ve got a reason to play rugby. I know if I don’t play well, there isn’t food on my family’s table. 

“If I don’t play well, nobody eats at home. That’s more than enough motivation to keep me going.”

Dweba adds how he never wants his son to struggle the way he did, and for that he will play harder and be more motivated than ever.

And his non-stop attitude, his zest for the physical stuff and his heart for the Green and Gold has already made him a favourite in the Bok camp. 

There are others ahead of him, and he knows he has to fight his way to the top with two World Cup winning hookers in the side at the moment.

But fighting has never been a problem. Overcoming obstacles has never been a problem. Long days and heavy workloads, commitment has never been a problem.

The only thing that Dweba has ever wanted was opportunity.

Last Saturday against Argentina, he became a full Springbok with his debut cap and had a solid, impressive outing.

It was the type of performance that hinted there are a lot more performances like this in him.

It was the type of performance that made the long journeys, the late nights, the struggles and the hard times worth it all.

And more than all of it, it was a performance that made his son Khanyone proud.