Former Tshandama Try Together and Venda National Football squad dribbling wizard Thihanedzwi "Kwena" Maemu is now teaching the disabled in different sporting codes at Vhembe TVET College's Makwarela campus.
In the 1990s, Maemu regularly featured on Mirror's sports pages. In his heydays, he used to dribble past defenders like a knife through butter. One of the defenders, who used to spend sleepless nights planning on how to mark the dribbling wizard from Tshandama, is the former tough-as-nails Tshiozwi Dynamos FC's Kaizer "Khamba" Nengovhela. He and Luki Manyuha from Madombidzha Try Again were the only two defenders in the then Venda Football Association (VEFA) who were able to contain the lethal former striker.
Nengovhela, who is now an award-winning journalist for Limpopo Mirror, said they used to spend the whole week planning how to stop Maemu, but he admitted that doing so had been very difficult. "We would stick to him like glue, but if he got only a little breathing space, he would move past you in a flash," he said.
After graduating from the Venda College of Education (VECO) in 1993, Maemu moved to Gauteng, where he taught at many private schools for disabled children. He later studied sign language at Wits University for three years, and upon graduating, was offered a part-time job teaching sign language at the same university on weekends.
He started teaching table tennis and football to the hearing impaired (deaf) students, and goalball for the visually impaired (blind) students and those living with albinism. In 2007, he was recruited by Tshilidzini Special School and relocated back to Venda that same year.
During his time at Tshilidzini Special School, he was elected as the general secretary of the Limpopo Deaf Sports Association and became a national umpire for table tennis for disabled children.
In 2019, Maemu joined Vhembe TVET College as a sign-language interpreter. The former football magician now spends his weekends teaching disabled children at the college in different sports. "In July (next month) my goalball team will be participating in the National Goalball Competition in Bloemfontein, and I am optimistic that we are going to win and put Vhembe TVET College on the map," he said.