SUBSTANCE ABUSE TO SPORTS CHAPLAIN: ANGELO’S STORY

‘I’m back on track’, says Cape Town’s Angelo Hannival, who conquered his ‘tik’ addiction to become a family man supporting hundreds of sports people through challenges | Photo: Ronelle de Villiers

Angelo (38) and his twin brother Mario are the youngest of six Hannival siblings who hail from Cape Town’s Ottery. He attended Fairmount Secondary School in Grassy Park and studied sports management before embarking on a career encompassing various aspects of sport. He’s married to brand co-ordinator Nicole, and they live with their daughter Leah (9) in Cape Town’s Pelican Park

‘I WAS RAISED in a lower to middle class family, and always had enough. We were close-knit and I had the best childhood with an amazing support structure. I have fond memories of visits to the beach and always having a family member walking me home from school. We were brought up as old-school Anglicans and I have fond memories of my parents giving me little pinches at church to stop me wriggling.

My parents worked extremely hard, Mom at Reggies toy store and Dad in a curtain factory. He’d dropped out of school young because he needed to contribute to the family income, but he taught himself to read and write and worked successfully his whole life. When I was nine, he had a stroke and couldn’t walk or talk, though he still showed us love. When I was 16, he passed away and Mom became an incredible mom and dad to us. Life was difficult, but we all persevered and I was still nurtured.

things went pear-shaped

I always felt there was a God looking after us, but things went pear-shaped at my 16th  birthday party when my friends and I had our very first taste of alcohol. Soon, I was drinking over the weekend. Mom wasn’t ok with it but would give me money for beer to drink at home so she knew where I was. At that stage, drinking didn’t affect my fitness levels. I loved soccer and was playing the best football of my life.

When I turned 18, I started drinking excessively. After matriculation, my sister Shireen asked what I was going to do, but I had no plan apart from partying! I did, however, tell her I was passionate about sport and the very next day she paid for my first year of studies at the Exercise Teachers’ Academy.

‘When I turned 18, I started drinking excessively,’ says Angelo | Photo: Nicky Elliott

That first year was overwhelming in some ways, meeting people from all walks of life, including privilege that I’d never seen before, but it was really fun. In my second year, I fell into a life of drugs. I was friends with a phenomenal soccer player who took me to a party and I got so drunk I lay down outside. My friend’s brother gave me a puff of something to ‘help’ me. And that was my first puff of tik [crystal meth]. I’d always called out drug users, but that night turned me into one.

For three years, I was addicted and found myself amongst gangsters in places I’d never imagined I would go to, all to feed my habit. I couldn’t always afford drugs, but friends would share with me or I would use the pocket money Mom gave me.

When you’re on drugs you feel you’ll achieve all your aspirations, conquer the world. It’s a high you want to stay on. A few days after using, you get withdrawal symptoms and start craving again. You think you’re the same person, but you don’t sleep or eat for days at a time and eventually your body can’t take it anymore. My body lost its muscularity, and it never returned.

‘When you’re on drugs, you don’t sleep or eat for days at a time. Eventually your body can’t take it anymore. My body lost its muscularity and it never returned,’ says Angelo (left), pictured here recently with his twin brother Mario 

My cycle of using, withdrawal and craving continued over and over. At some point, Mom found out and said to me, ‘You pull the skin off my face,’ which meant I was deeply shaming her. This went through my body like a knife. I wrote a number of prayers to God that I formulated from every book in a little Bible I had. I think He was prompting me at that time, because just before I turned 21, I decided I just had to stop using.

The cravings were terrible and it was really hard but I prayed for strength, and slept and ate them away.

no purpose

Walking away from drugs was a turning point. But while I looked ok from the outside, I was a broken, broken young man. I was very thin and felt very unworthy, that people were judging me. Life seemed to have no purpose.

A few months later, I met a warm and generous girl called Nicole who was studying business administration and became keen on me. I told her she shouldn’t get involved with me, but she said I must just let her know if I relapsed. Fortunately I didn’t, even though life as a recovering addict wasn’t easy.

‘I met a warm and generous student called Nicole,’ says Angelo. ‘I told her she shouldn’t get involved with me, but she said I must just let her know if I relapsed’ | Photo: Ronelle de Villiers

Nicole had this contagious smile and a giving heart and she gave me the benefit of the doubt about drug use, which can’t have been easy. She cared for, loved and affirmed me, and her trust played a huge role in me not going back to drugs.

We dated for almost seven years and married in 2013. I worked as a trainer at Virgin Active and started gymming with Keegan Davids, a youth pastor. One time we got chatting and he suggested I read John chapter 3 in the Bible, which talks about making a decision to be reborn spiritually. After that I started reading the Bible with more intent!

Angelo and Nicole married after dating for seven years. ‘Her trust played a huge role in me not going back to drugs,’ says Angelo

 A turning point came when I was driving early one morning to work at Virgin Active where, at that stage, I was a fitness instructor. A lady driving in front of me was hit by a truck that went through a red light. I pulled her out of the car and performed CPR on her but, though she regained consciousness once, she died at the scene.

I was obviously very emotional but at the same time I felt a strong presence, that of Jesus. And I believe he was asking me to follow him. After work that very day, I met with Keegan and prayed with him to give my life to Jesus. My heart was filled with a fire, a sensation I just can’t explain that didn’t go away. I believe this was the Holy Spirit.

easier and simpler

Soon after, my brother Mario invited Nicole and me on an Alpha course at a local church. It was the most amazing 10 weeks of my life, a chance to find out what Christianity and Jesus are really about. We met in groups over a warm cooked meal every week, heard talks, asked any question we liked. It felt like a new introduction to God and it made my life so much easier and simpler. Nicole was similarly impacted and started following Jesus a few weeks later.

In December 2024, I was appointed sports chaplain to Stellenbosch Football Club, which has risen to the professional league. I provide support to everyone, from the players and the CEO to cleaning and security personnel. Even successful professional athletes can be under pressure, with numerous people depending on them financially and emotionally.

As sports chaplain at Stellenbosch Football Club, Angelo is tasked with supporting everyone from the players and the CEO to cleaning and security personnel | Photos: Nicky Elliot

I’ve also just been appointed National Coordinator for Sports Chaplaincy in South Africa, giving care to all kinds of sports clubs and their leaders, as well as to 47 sports chaplains all around South Africa.

It’s key in my work to love people authentically. This I do by building relationships. You need to wait to be invited in, and your words of affirmation must be genuine. People, especially the young, don’t want to be told what to do, they want to be accepted, to know you care even if they join a gang or do drugs. They don’t want you to sort out their struggles, they just want you to listen.

‘It’s key to love people authentically,’ says Angelo. ‘People don’t want to be told what to do, they just want you to listen’ | Photos: Nicky Elliot

Looking back on my life, I feel privileged and grateful to be where I am now. I feel really optimistic about my future even though I can’t control what God’s going to do in my next season. I believe He was by my side from childhood and walked beside me in my alcohol and drug usage. I believe He let me have my way with drugs so that I can do what I’m doing today, then prompted me towards the light.

Almost 18 years since my drug journey started, I’m still clean. It hasn’t been an easy road, there’s always temptation around. I’d advise anyone wanting to stop substance abuse to change their friendship circles. The most dangerous time is when you’re surrounded by addicts.

‘I’d advise anyone wanting to stop substance abuse to change their friendship circles,’ says Angelo | Photo: Nicky Elliot

Sometimes I struggle with focus, which I’m sure is a hangover from drugs. But I’m back on track. I’ve been married for 11 years, I own my own house and if I drink three times a year, it’s a lot. We have a beautiful daughter who hasn’t been affected physically by my past in any way. I’m so grateful for that.

I love a God who I believe accepts me just as I am, and encourage people to depend more on His strength. So often, we try to depend only on our ourselves. It doesn’t always get us very far.’

‘We have a beautiful daughter who hasn’t been affected physically by my past in any way,’ says Angelo. ‘I’m so grateful for that. I encourage people to depend more on God’s strength’ | Photo: Ronelle de Villiers