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"contents": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Roger Federer always cut a dashing figure on a tennis court and despite being more than two years into his official retirement, the elegant Swiss is unsurprisingly still exceptionally raffish off it.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Federer, now 43, was in Johannesburg and Mpumalanga this week to check on the work of his foundation, which bears his name.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">His great friend and Springbok captain Siya Kolisi came along as he is on his mandatory five-week rest from rugby, which allowed him the time.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Federer and Kolisi became friends after the 20-time Grand Slam winner expressed his support for the Springboks at Rugby World Cup 2019.</span>\r\n\r\n<b>Read more:</b> <a href=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-09-25-roger-federer-brought-beauty-grace-and-lots-of-magic-to-the-tennis-arena/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Roger Federer brought beauty, grace and lots of magic to the tennis arena</span></a>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since then they have not only joined forces in the social media world, but in philanthropy too.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Their mutual respect and warmth was evident, as was their shared passion for uplifting children through education. The bromance has evolved into becoming one of sports’ unintentional power couples.</span>\r\n<h4><b>Sport and education</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kolisi has his own foundation bearing his name that focuses on gender-based violence. The Roger Federer Foundation pours its energy at early childhood development. But they are happy to join forces and share resources.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And while neither of their foundations is primarily focused on promoting sport specifically, they see using sport as a tool, despite limited resources, and as an important aspect of education.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Obviously, the schools we’re talking about are super rural,” Federer said at a media briefing in Parkview.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“This is not where we think about which coach do you go and train and which tennis court do you go to. It is none of that. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“In Switzerland, we do a little bit more sports because we know that sports is good for your brain. It’s good for learning and so forth. But as the foundation, it is very minimal.</span>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2589185\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/ED_546172.jpg\" alt=\"Federer Kolisi\" width=\"8036\" height=\"4992\" /> <em>Roger Federer, Federer Foundation CEO Maya Ziswiler and Siya Kolisi after the breakfast with the private sector at the Four Seasons Hotel in Johannesburg on 12 February 2025. (Photo: Gallo Images / Luba Lesolle)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“But I think we (he and Kolisi) both come from a background that we promote sports as a great thing in life because I think it teaches you all the valuable lessons that we have to go through in life.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Winning, losing, camaraderie, team player like Siya was, or me as an individual, but relying heavily on my team and the path you take, becoming a professional athlete. And just living by those rules, making some sacrifices along the way, but good sacrifices because there’s so much that sports can really teach you.”</span>\r\n<h4><b>Collaboration</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kolisi concurred: “I think this is where collaboration comes into play because the focus of the foundation is obviously sport is important.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“It’s based on early childhood development, but in our foundation, we focus on gender-based violence and poverty and also sports and education.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“So we work with children in school. We help them in school. We get nutrition in them as well in school. And then they do sports after school because we want to give them good options.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Whereas if you’re not doing sports after school, what are you doing with your time? I think that’s where maybe myself and our foundation will start talking and see how we can incorporate all those things and maybe work together going forward. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“And that’s the nice thing about this kind of space. You don’t compete. You find ways. Because you have to try and deal with the whole social situation also. You want to make sure a child gets everything. We can’t always do it by ourselves as a foundation. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Then you go to another foundation who’s doing that. And sometimes we find other foundations who do the work that we can’t do. And I think that’s what Rachel (Siya’s ex-wife) and the team have been working on with the foundation. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“And that’s the most important thing. We are here to do the best for the children. We are here to do the best for South Africa. The people are more important than what my foundation is doing, than what his foundation is doing. And that’s what we’re trying to focus on.”</span>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2589184\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/ED_546171-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1651\" /> <em>Siya Kolisi, Standard Bank chair Nonkululeko Nyembezi and Roger Federer following the breakfast with the private sector at Four Seasons Hotel in Johannesburg on 12 February 2025. (Photo: Gallo Images / Luba Lesolle)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Federer Foundation CEO Maya Ziswiler also highlighted the benefit of sport.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“The foundation focuses on early childhood development and one of the critical domains in early childhood is motor skills (development),” Ziswiler said. “And motor skills are the foundation for being able to be successful in sports later on. How do you throw a ball into a can? How do you walk on a fine line?</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“All those things are elements that are part of the programme to stimulate motor skills so that ultimately they can be successful in sports later on.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Siya told me the story how when he was growing up, how he was happy to go to school, but then also did sports all day for the rest of the day until he came back home tired and then eventually probably went to bed and stayed out of trouble as much as he could.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“And look where he made it.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I think this really shines a light also on if you go just do sports, not in a team yet maybe, but just go do sports, you can really go a really long way. And I think the story of Siya is obviously very compelling. And it’s lovely to see that education and sports can bring you really far in life.”</span>\r\n\r\n<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2589698\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Screenshot-2025-02-13-at-13.52.39.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1514\" height=\"1040\" />\r\n<h4><b>South African connection</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Federer has always been proud of his South African roots, which is why his foundation has a strong presence here. But it also operates across southern Africa and Switzerland.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to its website, the foundation runs school readiness programmes in six countries in Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, as well as Switzerland.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since its start the foundation has spent 77.5 million Swiss francs (R1.6-billion) for its education initiatives in 13,000 primary schools and preschools.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">More than 2.4 million children have benefited from better-quality education owing to the foundation’s engagement for almost 20 years.</span>\r\n\r\nhttps://youtu.be/0uNmAWB-5pA\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This trip was also different for Federer because he was accompanied by his entire family.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Federer’s South African-born mother, Lynette, father Robbie, his four children and wife Mirka enjoyed the trip.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“The foundation does incredible work,” Federer said. “We’ve also opened the South Africa office here in Joburg now, where we have five people working at the office.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I just came back from a field visit, seeing the school readiness initiatives and everything we do in early childhood education. It’s wonderful and I’m very happy that I can give back and hopefully leave a legacy.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“My children also travelled. It’s very important to me as well that my boys (10-year-old twins Leo and Lenny) and my girls (15-year-old twins Myla and Charlene) get to see it first hand and learn from there as well.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“It’s the first time that actually my parents, my wife and my four children all went on one trip together. It was beautiful. Of course, having Siya along with us has been beautiful too.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“He’s got so many stories to tell from his past, from his now, his view, his mindset as well. Obviously, the champion he is. He’s an inspiration for me and for my family.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And when it comes to his favourite South African food?</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I eat what I get,” Federer said with a laugh. “But I need to dive deeper into the food culture. Siya wants to take me out.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kolisi had some ideas, but also some concerns for Federer’s tastes.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I want to take you to my hood for some </span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">chisa nyama</span></i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and </span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">umngqusho</span></i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,” Kolisi said . “I don’t know about offal. I don’t know if you can handle it, but we will take it slow.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“One step at a time,” Federer agreed.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Their philanthropic and personal journey together is well on its way. </span><b>DM</b>",
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"description": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Roger Federer always cut a dashing figure on a tennis court and despite being more than two years into his official retirement, the elegant Swiss is unsurprisingly still exceptionally raffish off it.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Federer, now 43, was in Johannesburg and Mpumalanga this week to check on the work of his foundation, which bears his name.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">His great friend and Springbok captain Siya Kolisi came along as he is on his mandatory five-week rest from rugby, which allowed him the time.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Federer and Kolisi became friends after the 20-time Grand Slam winner expressed his support for the Springboks at Rugby World Cup 2019.</span>\r\n\r\n<b>Read more:</b> <a href=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-09-25-roger-federer-brought-beauty-grace-and-lots-of-magic-to-the-tennis-arena/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Roger Federer brought beauty, grace and lots of magic to the tennis arena</span></a>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since then they have not only joined forces in the social media world, but in philanthropy too.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Their mutual respect and warmth was evident, as was their shared passion for uplifting children through education. The bromance has evolved into becoming one of sports’ unintentional power couples.</span>\r\n<h4><b>Sport and education</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kolisi has his own foundation bearing his name that focuses on gender-based violence. The Roger Federer Foundation pours its energy at early childhood development. But they are happy to join forces and share resources.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And while neither of their foundations is primarily focused on promoting sport specifically, they see using sport as a tool, despite limited resources, and as an important aspect of education.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Obviously, the schools we’re talking about are super rural,” Federer said at a media briefing in Parkview.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“This is not where we think about which coach do you go and train and which tennis court do you go to. It is none of that. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“In Switzerland, we do a little bit more sports because we know that sports is good for your brain. It’s good for learning and so forth. But as the foundation, it is very minimal.</span>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_2589185\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"8036\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-2589185\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/ED_546172.jpg\" alt=\"Federer Kolisi\" width=\"8036\" height=\"4992\" /> <em>Roger Federer, Federer Foundation CEO Maya Ziswiler and Siya Kolisi after the breakfast with the private sector at the Four Seasons Hotel in Johannesburg on 12 February 2025. (Photo: Gallo Images / Luba Lesolle)</em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“But I think we (he and Kolisi) both come from a background that we promote sports as a great thing in life because I think it teaches you all the valuable lessons that we have to go through in life.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Winning, losing, camaraderie, team player like Siya was, or me as an individual, but relying heavily on my team and the path you take, becoming a professional athlete. And just living by those rules, making some sacrifices along the way, but good sacrifices because there’s so much that sports can really teach you.”</span>\r\n<h4><b>Collaboration</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kolisi concurred: “I think this is where collaboration comes into play because the focus of the foundation is obviously sport is important.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“It’s based on early childhood development, but in our foundation, we focus on gender-based violence and poverty and also sports and education.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“So we work with children in school. We help them in school. We get nutrition in them as well in school. And then they do sports after school because we want to give them good options.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Whereas if you’re not doing sports after school, what are you doing with your time? I think that’s where maybe myself and our foundation will start talking and see how we can incorporate all those things and maybe work together going forward. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“And that’s the nice thing about this kind of space. You don’t compete. You find ways. Because you have to try and deal with the whole social situation also. You want to make sure a child gets everything. We can’t always do it by ourselves as a foundation. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Then you go to another foundation who’s doing that. And sometimes we find other foundations who do the work that we can’t do. And I think that’s what Rachel (Siya’s ex-wife) and the team have been working on with the foundation. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“And that’s the most important thing. We are here to do the best for the children. We are here to do the best for South Africa. The people are more important than what my foundation is doing, than what his foundation is doing. And that’s what we’re trying to focus on.”</span>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_2589184\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"2560\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-2589184\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/ED_546171-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1651\" /> <em>Siya Kolisi, Standard Bank chair Nonkululeko Nyembezi and Roger Federer following the breakfast with the private sector at Four Seasons Hotel in Johannesburg on 12 February 2025. (Photo: Gallo Images / Luba Lesolle)</em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Federer Foundation CEO Maya Ziswiler also highlighted the benefit of sport.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“The foundation focuses on early childhood development and one of the critical domains in early childhood is motor skills (development),” Ziswiler said. “And motor skills are the foundation for being able to be successful in sports later on. How do you throw a ball into a can? How do you walk on a fine line?</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“All those things are elements that are part of the programme to stimulate motor skills so that ultimately they can be successful in sports later on.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Siya told me the story how when he was growing up, how he was happy to go to school, but then also did sports all day for the rest of the day until he came back home tired and then eventually probably went to bed and stayed out of trouble as much as he could.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“And look where he made it.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I think this really shines a light also on if you go just do sports, not in a team yet maybe, but just go do sports, you can really go a really long way. And I think the story of Siya is obviously very compelling. And it’s lovely to see that education and sports can bring you really far in life.”</span>\r\n\r\n<img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2589698\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Screenshot-2025-02-13-at-13.52.39.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1514\" height=\"1040\" />\r\n<h4><b>South African connection</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Federer has always been proud of his South African roots, which is why his foundation has a strong presence here. But it also operates across southern Africa and Switzerland.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to its website, the foundation runs school readiness programmes in six countries in Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, as well as Switzerland.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since its start the foundation has spent 77.5 million Swiss francs (R1.6-billion) for its education initiatives in 13,000 primary schools and preschools.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">More than 2.4 million children have benefited from better-quality education owing to the foundation’s engagement for almost 20 years.</span>\r\n\r\nhttps://youtu.be/0uNmAWB-5pA\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This trip was also different for Federer because he was accompanied by his entire family.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Federer’s South African-born mother, Lynette, father Robbie, his four children and wife Mirka enjoyed the trip.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“The foundation does incredible work,” Federer said. “We’ve also opened the South Africa office here in Joburg now, where we have five people working at the office.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I just came back from a field visit, seeing the school readiness initiatives and everything we do in early childhood education. It’s wonderful and I’m very happy that I can give back and hopefully leave a legacy.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“My children also travelled. It’s very important to me as well that my boys (10-year-old twins Leo and Lenny) and my girls (15-year-old twins Myla and Charlene) get to see it first hand and learn from there as well.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“It’s the first time that actually my parents, my wife and my four children all went on one trip together. It was beautiful. Of course, having Siya along with us has been beautiful too.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“He’s got so many stories to tell from his past, from his now, his view, his mindset as well. Obviously, the champion he is. He’s an inspiration for me and for my family.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And when it comes to his favourite South African food?</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I eat what I get,” Federer said with a laugh. “But I need to dive deeper into the food culture. Siya wants to take me out.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kolisi had some ideas, but also some concerns for Federer’s tastes.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I want to take you to my hood for some </span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">chisa nyama</span></i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and </span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">umngqusho</span></i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,” Kolisi said . “I don’t know about offal. I don’t know if you can handle it, but we will take it slow.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“One step at a time,” Federer agreed.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Their philanthropic and personal journey together is well on its way. </span><b>DM</b>",
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Roger Federer, Federer Foundation CEO Maya Ziswiler and Siya Kolisi after the breakfast with the private sector at the Four Seasons Hotel in Johannesburg on 12 February 2025. (Photo: Gallo Images / Luba Lesolle)
Siya Kolisi, Standard Bank chair Nonkululeko Nyembezi and Roger Federer following the breakfast with the private sector at Four Seasons Hotel in Johannesburg on 12 February 2025. (Photo: Gallo Images / Luba Lesolle)