The Game That Saved Him: Sifiso Gininda on Basketball, Belonging and Becoming

As the Basketball National League (BNL) season heads towards its conclusion, Sifiso Gininda finds himself among the league's top scorers, another milestone in a basketball journey built not on instant recognition, but on years of persistence, sacrifice and hard work.

For someone who has spent much of his career being overlooked, it is a fitting place to find himself. Long before the accolades, championships and MVP awards, basketball gave Sifiso something far more important: a sense of belonging.

“Sifiso is a brother, a son, everybody's favourite uncle, a person of the people,” he says when asked how he would introduce himself to someone meeting him for the first time.

But basketball became much more than a sport. “When I was younger, I was a loner and that pushed me into depression,” he says. “Basketball became a space for me to belong, a space for me to contribute and to be seen.”

That sense of community remains at the heart of his relationship with the game. Beyond the scoring, defence and excitement that come with competition, Sifiso says it is the feeling of belonging that he loves most, and one he hopes to share with others.

His journey began at King Edward VII School, where he arrived from a football background. His height and speed gave him the physical attributes to make the transition, but the technical side of basketball proved much more difficult.

The players around him had already been exposed to the sport in primary school, leaving Sifiso with plenty of catching up to do.

At 16, he moved from KES to Northwood School in Durban and went straight into the first team. Northwood was not yet a basketball powerhouse, and the team endured its share of losses, but Sifiso remembers the experience fondly. Despite the results, the team had fun.

His development continued through representative basketball. He spent three years in the U20 district team, winning two gold medals and a silver, before representing the KZN U18 team at the SA Schools Basketball tournament, where they won gold.

It was there that Sifiso experienced one of the first moments that made him believe basketball could become more than just a passion.

In the final against Team Gauteng, coach Letha Zulu gave him a starting role after he had spent much of the tournament on the bench. His assignment was clear: defend Gauteng's best offensive player. Sifiso delivered.

His defensive contribution helped Team KZN secure the victory, and the recognition that followed opened scholarship opportunities. That was when the possibility of a future in basketball began to feel real. “If I can fulfil assignments like these at a higher level then I can go far in this sport,” he recalls thinking.

Yet, in the same year that basketball appeared to be opening doors for him, it also became the source of one of the most difficult periods of his life.

A week before the SA Schools tournament, Sifiso, his mother and a teammate were involved in a near-fatal accident while returning home from a basketball tournament. His mother spent about a month in ICU, while Sifiso was left with an injured knee. Watching his mother in hospital, injured from head to toe, sent him into a mental downward spiral.

He blamed himself for what had happened. “Had I not played that basketball tournament we wouldn't be here,” he remembers thinking. At that point, walking away from basketball felt like a real possibility.

He was young and had not yet developed the understanding that sometimes devastating events happen without anyone being responsible for them. For a sport that had once given him a place to belong, basketball had suddenly become connected to one of the darkest experiences of his life.

But Sifiso continued. 

After his school career, he played alongside friends in a team called Team Buckets, a period he describes as some of the most carefree fun he had ever experienced on a basketball court.

From there came the Marlins, a chapter that would ultimately transform him as a player. Sifiso spent seven years with the team, but his early days were far from the success that would eventually come.

He arrived believing he was ready for big moments and that he was already a very good basketball player. The game quickly humbled him.

The players he faced were stronger and quicker than anything he had encountered before, forcing him to recognise that there was still a significant gap between where he was and where he wanted to be.

The Marlins became the chapter that taught him humility. It also taught him something else: that improvement had to be intentional.

His coach constantly reminded the team to return the following season better than they had been the year before. Sifiso took that message seriously, using every off-season to improve his game. The extra work eventually translated into more playing time.

Then came 2024.

Sifiso helped the Marlins win the BNL championship while collecting some of the biggest individual honours of his career, including All-Star recognition, League MVP and Finals MVP honours. The season also brought multiple Player of the Game nominations and a scoring title.

But perhaps the most important part of that season had happened before any of those awards were announced. The previous year, Sifiso believed he had done enough to deserve an All-Star selection.

He was disappointed when it did not come. He admits that he felt hurt and envious. Instead of allowing that disappointment to consume him, however, he changed his approach. The following season, he stopped chasing recognition and focused on becoming a better athlete for himself.

The recognition followed.  

“It taught me that in life we don't deserve anything, we work for it,” he says. That lesson has become one of the defining principles of his career. For much of his journey, Sifiso has known what it means to be overlooked.

In high school, he barely made the A sides. At college level, he found himself coming up against players from established programmes such as Wits, UJ and VUT. Even during his early BNL seasons, he remembers moments when he struggled to receive the recognition he believed his work deserved.

At one point, he says, even his coach forgot he was on the roster. It would be easy to frame that as a story of rejection. Sifiso sees it differently. “I wasn't the most talented player coming into the scene, but I wanted to be the most hardworking,” he says.

That work ethic became his advantage. He worked on his basketball skills. He worked on his body. He worked on his life. And he kept working when nobody was paying attention. That mentality continues to shape his career today.

As the 2026 BNL season approaches its final stages, Sifiso is once again among the league's leading scorers, now representing the Soweto Panthers. His current form is another reminder of how far he has come from the teenager who was still learning the fundamentals of the game.But despite the progress, Sifiso does not believe the journey ever becomes easy.

One of the hardest parts of reaching this level, he says, has been finding consistency while balancing life, work and basketball. The real challenge is the daily decision to keep pushing yourself, particularly on the days when you do not feel like doing so. “Being your own teammate is the hardest thing about getting to this level,” he says.

Physically, Sifiso believes the player he is today is on a completely different level from the player who first started playing basketball. Mentally, he is also sharper, able to read games and situations faster than he once could.

Yet one thing has remained unchanged. His joy for the game. “The biggest similarity these two players have is their childish joy for the game,” he says. “They both love basketball and all it comes with.” That love is also connected to what basketball gave him away from competition.

His career in therapy has helped him understand how people work, understand himself better and communicate with others. Those skills have translated into his basketball career, helping him become a better teammate, communicator and person.

It has also influenced how he views the development of basketball in South Africa. Sifiso believes the country has an immense pool of talented players, but talent alone is not enough. “It takes a different kind of obsession to be great at this sport,” he says.

For young players trying to make it, he believes they need to become students of the game, remain coachable and be willing to sacrifice.

South Africa, in his view, remains years behind some of the established basketball programmes around the world. That means players cannot simply rely on natural ability. They have to take ownership of their development.

For Sifiso, that has always meant putting in the work. His story is ultimately not about someone who was handed an opportunity and turned it into success. It is about someone who repeatedly had to prove that he belonged.

The overlooked schoolboy became the player fighting for his place. The player fighting for his place became a champion. The champion became an MVP. And now, as another BNL season reaches its conclusion, Sifiso continues to establish himself among the league's leading scorers.

But even with all those achievements, he still sees himself as someone who has more work to do. Because when you have spent much of your career as the underdog, you learn not to depend on recognition.

You depend on yourself. “When you're the underdog all you have is your work ethic and that needs to carry you over,” Sifiso says.

For him, it has.