Page 37 - Award Winning Feature Docs

PEOPLE & CULTURE
surfing soweto

Meet Prince (AKA Bitch Nigga) and Lefa at Merafe Station in Soweto as they
await the arrival of train 9323 en route from Dube and Khwezi to Park Station,
Johannesburg. They target this train every morning because it is so crowded that
the overcommitted security guards are too busy keeping order to worry about
the strange antics of the “cheeseboys” on top of the carriages.

The so-called “cheeseboys” ride for the thrill of it – they’re the poets, the “soul

surfers” of this sport as opposed to the “Mvonqas” who surf in order to rob people
- after all, what better place to hide after picking a pocket than on top of a Definition Episodes
SD
1
moving train! Alcohol is very much a part of the surfers’ daily routine with school Producer YOP
barely getting a look-in. Many head straight for the bars and pool clubs of Sarah Blecher, Cinga 2010
Joubert Park after their early-morning surf across Soweto. Productions

Despite their bravado many of these surfers are desperate to change their lives.
Of the three we feature, all had lost their fathers at an early age and...