Zizi's impact
Zizi Mkhize, the Schools SA20 season 2 Player of the Tournament, knows how to make an impact
“I was fortunate. I had people who guided me, challenged me, and opened doors for me. And because of that, I carry a responsibility not to just play the game well but to grow the game where I come from,” Zizi Mkhize said.
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Zizi Mkhize knows how to make an impact.
In 2022, Mkhize had to be rushed to the hospital after he was struck in the face while trying to field a ball off his own bowling during a Sunfoil Hub Tournament match. He suffered a broken nose and cuts on the face. He begged his father and then the organisers to let him return to the game. He arrived in time to score an unbeaten 78 to carry his team to victory. He was 11.
Last year, I followed a match where a 16-year-old left-hander, Zizi Mkhize, played an outstanding innings for Jeppe High. He scored a brilliant 112 from 98 balls to guide Jeppe to safety before capturing two wickets for 26 runs in six overs to help his school secure a victory over South African College High School (SACS) in Cape Town.
When he is on one, Mkhize makes the scorecards looked like something a 10-year-old would create for their favourite player. Earlier this year, Kagiso CC’s premier league side scored 251/9 and Mkhize made 127 of those runs. His tally came off 123 balls. None of the other Kagiso CC players got past 25. The next best batter scored a laboured 50-ball 24. Mkhize also captured a five-wicket haul in the match.
Mkhize first took guard in his family’s lounge. He wore pads so oversized he could hide behind them, which was probably handy, because he needed as much protection protection as possible from his brother’s deliveries. Nkanyiso, Mkhize’s older brother, was six years older and had all the makings of a pacer.
It wasn’t long before the siblings took their sparring to their cramped backyard. Facing his brother helped to turn him into a competent batter. His skill also benefited from his father’s instruction.
“As his father and coach, I could tell that he could do things other kids of his age couldn’t do,” Thokozani Malinga, Mkhize’s father shared.
It is a statement one can expect from a father. All parents think their kids are God’s gift to mankind. But, Malinga, or Zikode as he is popularly known, wasn’t biased. Mkhize proved it by collecting a raft of best batter and best player awards at almost every tournament he participated in.
That aside, Zikode is an outstanding coach. In fact, he is something of an institution in their little corner of the world. He has coached Kagiso CC to a premier league title. Kagiso CC is the home to generations of players who picked up a bat and a ball because they had a dream of playing professional cricket.
Three of the players he has coached, Richard Seletswane, Thami Repelego, Tshepang Dithole, have the lived that dream. Seletswane is a Lions player. Repelego played for the Limpopo Impalas before he retired at an early age. Dithole made a name for himself at the Dolphins and is now with the Titans.
During the weekends Mkhize accompanied his father to Kagiso CC, where he mimicked what the adults did from the sidelines. When he was old enough, Mkhize didn’t need his father to be around to make the 45-minute walk to the ground for net sessions. The brothers strapped their gear on their backs and legged it.
The long walks led to a scholarship to Jeppe High School for Boys. He tallied three centuries and several half-centuries for their u15 team before he was called up to the first team to stand-in for an injured first team player. Mkhize took the opportunity and refused to relinquish his position in the top three.
It wasn’t long before the teenager showed the Jeppe coaches that he was more than just a top order batter and was a miniature version of Donovan Ferreira, who bats, bowls, and keeps wicket. Like the Proteas star, Mkhize is competent in all three disciplines.
“He is one of the most talented players I have ever seen. He can impact the game with batting, bowling and fielding. The impact he can have in all three spheres is incredible, and that makes him special,” Casey Arnold, the Jeppe coach, shared.
Zizi Mkhize knows how to make an impact.
His unbeaten half-century from 2022 will go down in Kagiso lore as their version of Graeme Smith’s 2009 SCG broken hand knock. His 127 against NWU Vaal will go down as the most transformative knock for Kagiso CC.
However, his most important outing for Kagiso, both the club and community, was not a single innings but five outings. Mkhize performed brilliantly on both sides of the ball for the Lions’ u16 team at the 2025 CSA u16 National Week in Boland. He helped the Lions to the title and was named Player of the Tournament for his all-round abilities.
The accolade came with a cricket net installation voucher sponsored by Sports Construct. Instead of choosing to cram the installation in their backyard, Mkhize opted to have the net installed at Thembile Primary School. Not only will it mean that he no longer has to walk for up to 45 minutes to Kagiso Stadium for a session, but also, other kids in the neighbourhood won’t have to make the same trek.
The net will not just be a place for cricket loving youngsters, it will also offer refuge to them from the societal ills that plug certain sections of Kagiso. According to Zikode, drugs are taking hold of certain sections.
Zikode’s work in Kagiso’s cricket community casts a long shadow. However, it’s safe to say that Mkhize has done enough to step out of that shadow and is creating a legend of his own. Whatever he achieves in his life and career, Mkhize will always be the person who brought cricket closer to the kids in his little corner of the world.
He is no longer just Zizi Mkhize, the son of Zikode, he is now also, Zizi Mkhize, the son of the Kagiso community.
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