Soccer star Lucas Radebe got a chance to give something back to the community that nurtured him when he returned to his old school in Diepkloof, Soweto, on Tuesday as a VIP at the launch of a computer learning centre.
On crutches from a knee injury the Bafana Bafana and Leeds United captain prompted cheerful screams and "jovi-jo" whistles from pupils at Bopasenatla Secondary School.
Promising to return to the school for an informal visit before heading back to Britain, he called on learners to make constructive use of the donation, worth almost R250 000, from a computer company.
"You must take these computers seriously because now the world needs everybody to be computer literate," he said.
"Not everybody will be doctors or teachers," Radebe cautioned. "But as long as you give your 100 percent, there will always be rewards."
Without being specific, he cautioned them on "the risk of diseases in today's world that can switch your life off just like that".
Radebe attended Bopasenatla Secondary School until standard eight in 1987 when his parents removed him from the political turmoil of Soweto and placed him in Ngotwane High School, near Zeerust, in the former Bophuthatswana.
He recalled Bopasenatla as a school which always "hammered" the others in soccer.
Another past pupil, Northern Metropolitan Local Council mayor, Danny Kekana, told the ceremony of another soccer great the school had produced - the late Lazarus Nhleko who had played for Moroka Swallows. - Sapa