Surfers Not Street Children has a leadership team of four
Sandile Mqadi
Director | South Africa
Sandile grew up during the apartheid era in a rural township near Umzumbe on the South Coast of KZN, South Africa. Given a surfboard and encouraged by a local surfboard fin maker, he became one of the first black competitive surfers in South Africa during the 1990’s.
Sandile was instrumental in developing the ‘new South African’ surf crew of black groms in the Umzumbe area. He trained as a Surfing South Africa (SSA) judge and later for the World Surfing League (WSL). This allowed him to travel the world. In 2000, he translated the SSA and WSL rulebook into Zulu. In his spare time, Sandile volunteered as a coach for underprivileged surfers for KZN Surfing in Durban.
Sandile joined the Surfers Not Street Children’s team in 2005 and has since led the surf coaching. In 2015, he won a major national award at the South African National Sports Awards for his contributions to Surfers Not Street Children.
Sandile’s contribution to surfing in South Africa has been absolutely immense. He remains a WSL judge in his spare time and is a true South African surfing legend.
Mini Cho
Director | Mozambique
Mini Cho is a dynamic young surfer from Tofo, Mozambique. He has had a deep connection to Surfers Not Street Children since 2014. At the time, former street children from our Durban program visited Tofo to surf and inspire local children. Mini happened to be one of them.
Mini has an incredible talent for encouraging and inspiring others. He is a natural grom mentor with acute personal experiences of growing up in challenging circumstances. Mini is a sponsored surfer who competes on the World Surfing League WQS and is affectionately known as the Mozambican Surfer.
Slie Ngema
Programs Director | South Africa
Slie is a South African social worker. Her role lies in child engagement and ensuring that our work is done in a professional, compassionate and effective manner. Slie has worked with street children for over 10 years. She has a strong sense of the struggles and needs had by these children. Using a hands-on approach to social working, Slie and her team will venture into the dangerous areas of the Point, Durban. She is respected greatly in these areas.
Slie is specifically passionate about girls. She pioneered the development of our Girls Surf Too program, where she is absolutely adored by the girls.
Tom Hewitt MBE
Founder & Global CEO
Tom Hewitt MBE, is founder and CEO of Surfers Not Street Children. He has worked in the field with street children in Africa for over 28 years. In 1998 he founded the Durban Street Team which went on to be renamed Surfers Not Street Children in 2012. Tom was awarded and MBE by HRH Queen Elizabeth II in 2011 for his work with street children in Africa.
Tom is perhaps most well known for his successful advocacy campaign to end the forced removals of street children in Durban, South Africa. These round-ups used to take place to “clean” the streets ahead of international conferences and events. He called for compassionate responses to street children based on psychosocial care. Tom is also well known for his model of fusing surfing with mentorship to empower street children in Durban. He assisted the national Department of Social Development in South Africa with its development of new policies around working with street children there. Tom has visited and often assisted street children projects in many different parts fo the world.
