From stable hand to red-coated national rider, Enos Mafokate cleared apartheid's hurdles and built a Soweto school that keeps his dream galloping.
South Africa has lost a true trailblazer. Enos Mafokate, the country's first Black showjumper, died in Johannesburg in September 2026 at the age of 80. He leaves behind a Soweto riding school that is still turning out new generations of equestrians.
Mafokate started out as a stable hand. He worked his way up in a sport that was historically expensive, dominated by the white elite and shaped by colonial rule. During apartheid, that path was almost unthinkable for a Black South African. Yet he became a world-class athlete and rode for his nation in the red coat, a sight few at the time would have imagined.
His biggest win may have come after the competitions. Mafokate built the Soweto Equestrian Centre so that young people from the township could access a sport that had been closed to them. Among its facilities is a shipping container converted into an equipment store, where rows of riding saddles are on display and within reach of the students who train there.
The centre's pupils carry his work forward every time they mount up. Mafokate's story shows that talent and determination can break down barriers that were built to keep people out. In Soweto, that story is still being ridden into the future.
