Turning water lovers into Champs
WELCOME TO
Kiddies Aqua
Swimming Academy
Hatfield Branch
Jolanda Bender
Client Care Coordinator
Kiddies Aqua Swim School Hatfield™ is part of the largest swimming academy for infants, toddlers, young competitive swimmers and adults in South Africa.
Your number one swim school in Hatfield
076 392 4958
University of Pretoria
LC de Villiers Indoor Sports Centre, Hatfield, Pretoria
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About
Lizette Botha (Co-owner and Head Coach) has a degree in Human Movement Science (UP). She also equipped herself further on the terrain of water safety for babies (6-24 months) through Les Bébés Amphibies (Switzerland) and completed Swimming South Africa’s “Learn-to-Swim” programmes for swimmers from ages 2-10 years. She served as Swimming South Africa’s Liaison Officer in Mpumalanga and is a Project Manager for the Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation and Board Member and Project Manager for the African Children Aquatic Foundation. She taught the Princess' baby twins (Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella) and many other stars and celebrities’ children to be water safe and to swim. Lizette has already taught more than 10 500 babies to be water safe and 22 000 young children and adults to swim since her career started in 1989. She is South Africa’s top Baby Floating Specialist with accolades from M-Net’s Carte Blanche, Supersport and Kwêla and SABC’s Top Billing and Pasella doing programmes on her and her unique method. She also does regular public talks and seminars on water safety and water awareness for infants and toddlers. Both her daughters were regularly included in South Africa’s National Junior Squads when still at school and were awarded swim scholarships in the USA.
Kiddies Aqua Swimming Academy™ was established in 2011 by the current owners Lizette and Arrie Botha. They previously owned Aqua Kid Swim School in Nelspruit for more than 17 years before Lizette became the Head Coach at Ryk Neethling’s swim school in Pretoria for three years. She is celebrating her 34th anniversary as swimming teacher this year. Lizette and Jean Fouace (Switzerland) are the founder members of Amphibies Babies Africa™. Jean is the pioneer and original developer of the Self-Rescue Water Safety Method for Babies in the world since 1967. Kiddies Aqua Swimming Academy™ remains the largest swimming academy in South Africa with more than 4 000x swimmers in total and eight branches across South Africa. All six our franchisees, Rhoné Reynders (Alberton), Maresa Scholtz (Cape Town), Nandi Smit (Centurion) and Mariëtta Herbst (Roodepoort), Elaine Jansen van Rensburg and Cheryl Botha (Namibia) completed a 400-hour training course through Lizette to qualify as Baby Floating Instructors.
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The academy, its affiliates and staff are members of Swimming South Africa, Amphibies Babies Africa™ and Les Bébés Amphibies (Switzerland). We strive to offer swimming lessons of the highest quality with our seventeen highly skilled and qualified instructors - mostly in the fields of Human Movement Science, Childhood Psychology, Teaching, Early Childhood Development, Sports Management and Sports Science. These instructors also have various national- and international certificates in teaching swimming to infants, toddlers, competitive swimmers, and adults and are registered with Swimming South Africa. These swimming lessons are presented at our indoor heated facilities in Moreleta Park and Hatfield (University of Pretoria – Indoor Sports Centre). The academy is in partnership with Tuks Swimming, the African Children Aquatic Foundation, and the Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation. We also have franchised outlets in Alberton, Cape Town, Centurion, Roodepoort, Montana, and Namibia.
Lizette already taught more than 10 500x babies to be water safe and 21 500x young children and adults to swim since her career started in 1989. She is one of the world’s leading Baby Floating Specialists with accolades from M-Net’s Carte Blanche, Supersport, Kwêla, Top Billing and Pasella doing programmes on her and her unique teaching method. She also does regular public talks and seminars on water safety and water awareness for infants and toddlers. Both Lizette’s daughters were regularly included in South Africa’s National Junior Squads when still at school and recently completed their 4-year-swim and study scholarships in the USA.
Meet The Team
Carmen Botha
Learn-to-Swim Instructor
Carmen joined Kiddies Aqua in January 2018. She was based in New York on a swim scholarship at St. Francis College (Brooklyn Heights). She is registered with Swimming South Africa and holds valid CPR and First Aid Certificates. When back in South Africa, she attends our in-house refresher training regularly to keep up with the high standards of our swim school. Carmen works for us only during her four-month USA summer break (May to August every year). She specializes in the learn-to-swim for toddlers (all three phases) and stroke- and stroke correction for young gala swimmers.
Carmen is a top performer in the pool as well as at her university in the USA. She used to be in the Top 5 of all female swimmers in South Africa in various events and has been a national age group swimming champion since the age of seven years, winning medals regularly at national- and provincial swimming competitions. She still holds several Northern Gauteng provincial swimming records. Together with her older sister, Mikal, they still hold several swimming records between them at Afrikaans Hoër Meisieskool in Pretoria.​ She has been included in the Junior South African Youth Swimming Squads since the age of 14-years and has been offered more than 90x swim scholarships from different universities in the USA. She also swam for Mpumalanga- and Gauteng Schools and Gauteng North Province during her whole school career. She won the Victrix Ludorum-award (Best Female Swimmer) every year during her school career and also a few times at the A-League inter-schools gala. She joined the University of North Texas (Dallas, USA) in August 2018 on a student/athlete scholarship, but moved to St. Francis College (New York, USA) in 2019, also on a full student/athlete scholarship. She is swimming for them in the NCAA League (Division 1). She once received the award for Athlete of the Week during her time at the University of North Texas.​ Carmen has got a great touch with the children and loves assisting them to improve in their swimming ability. She enjoys sharing her vast knowledge of competitive swimming with the younger generation of swimmers. Her favorite strokes are the Backstroke and the Breaststroke.
She joined Tampa University (Florida, USA) in August 2017 on a student/athlete scholarship, but moved to Oklahoma Christian University (Oklahoma, USA) in 2018, on a swim scholarship and was participating for them in the NCAA League (Division 2).​ Mikal was a top performer in the pool as well as at university in the USA. She used to be in the Top 10 of all female swimmers in South Africa in various events during her school years, winning medals regularly at national- and provincial swimming competitions. Together with her younger sister, Carmen, they still hold several swimming records between them at Afrikaans Hoër Meisieskool in Pretoria. Mikal loves working with the babies and young children and takes great interest in their early development. She has got an excellent touch with the children and loves sharing her vast swimming knowledge with the older swimmers. Her favorite stroke is Backstroke. Like her mom, she is planning to open her own swim school one day. She has also been included in the South African Junior and Youth Swimming Squads at the age of 14-years and has been offered more than 40x swim scholarships from different universities in the USA. Mikal also swam for Mpumalanga- and Gauteng Schools and Gauteng North Province during her whole school career. She won the Victrix Ludorum for five consecutive years in a row during her high school years.
Mikal Botha
Learn-to-Swim Instructor
Mikal joined Kiddies Aqua in January 2016. She studied B Ed (Early Childhood Development and Psychology) at Oklahoma Christian University (Oklahoma, USA). She is registered with Swimming South Africa and also holds valid CPR and First Aid Certificates. She renews her Police Clearance every year. She attends our in-house refresher training regularly to keep up with the high standards of our swim school. Mikal takes great interest in learning from her mom regarding the Self-Rescue Water Safety Method for babies and will be completing her training as Baby Floating Instructor in January 2022.​ She specializes in the bridging phase between babies and toddlers, learn-to-swim for toddlers (all three phases), stroke- and stroke correction for young gala swimmers and adult swimming.
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Irene Mokoena
Learn-to-Swim Instructor
Irene joined Kiddies Aqua in January 2001 (at Aqua Kid Swim School in Nelspruit). She completed Matric and is also registered with Swimming South Africa. She also holds valid CPR and First Aid Certificates and renews her Police Clearance every year. She attends our in-house refresher training regularly to keep up with the high standards of our swim school.​ Irene specializes in the bridging phase between the babies and toddlers, learn-to-swim for toddlers (all three phases), stroke- and stroke correction, adult swimming and special needs kids. She has been a swimming teacher since 2001 when she started with Lizette at her swim school in Nelspruit. In the early 2000’s Irene qualified as one of South Africa’s first Black Learn-to-Swim teachers.
She worked for Lizette for eight years before Lizette moved to Pretoria in 2009. She took over various clients and pre-schools from Lizette in Nelspruit and never stopped teaching swimming since then. Irene is also assisting us with most of our Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation projects. In 2018 she received the award for the Most Improved Swimming Instructor.
​Irene is a super coach who learnt her trade through Lizette. She is fluent in seven different languages, including Afrikaans, English, Pedi, Venda, Sotho and Shangaan. She is passionate about swimming and a real mother figure to our swimmers. She is a goal-driven, positive, enthusiastic hard worker and a good communicator. She builds and maintains brilliant relationships with her swimmers and parents. Parents insist that their children must swim with Irene. She is an enthusiastic student of the sport and always tries to stay informed on all the latest developments in swimming.
Mike Dawson
Learn-to-Swim Instructor
Mike joined Kiddies Aqua in January 2017. He did a 2-year Diploma in Personal Training (Sharks Rugby Academy). In addition to this, Mike also completed the KZN and International Rugby Board Level 1 Coaching Courses. He is registered with Swimming South Africa and holds valid CPR and First Aid Certificates. He renews his Police Clearance every year. He attends our in-house refresher training regularly to keep up with the high standards of our swim school.
​Mike specializes in learn-to-swim for toddlers (all three phases), stroke- and stroke correction for young gala swimmers and adult swimming. We refer most of our Special Needs Kids to Mike, seeing that he is very gifted working with these special kids.
Mike excelled at rugby, swimming, athletics and water polo during his school years. After school he joined the Sharks Rugby Academy and played rugby for their junior teams. He continued to become an assistant coach at Hillcrest High and also did some Boot Camps at Westville Girls High. Mike is also assisting us with most of our Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation projects.​ Mike has got an unbelievable touch with the children, especially with the Special Needs Kids. He understands them and loves coaching them. He also excels at stroke- and stroke correction coaching, seeing that he was a competitive swimmer himself whilst still at school. Most of our adult swimmers swim with Mike. He is an enthusiastic student of the sport and always wants to improve and expand on his knowledge about swimming. He is always going the extra mile for his clients, teammates and colleagues and no task is too big or too small for him.
Liezl Mentz
Learn-to-Swim Instructor
Liezl joined Kiddies Aqua in February 2023. She completed her six-week in-house training in our Learn-to-Swim Programme with Lizette. Liezl completed her BSc degree in Sport Science at the University of Stellenbosch in 2017. She worked as a Fitness- and Dance Instructor, Financial Manager Assistant, Admin Assistant, Operations Manager and Medical Administrator at several leading institutions in and around Stellenbosch during the past few years. She is a very confident, assertive and well-organized individual that brings excellent value to our little swimmers.
She loves children and being around with children makes her very happy.
Jackie de Sousa
Learn-to-Swim Instructor
Jackie joined Kiddies Aqua in April 2022. She completed her BA Human Movement Science degree at the University of Pretoria (2003). She then went on to complete her post graduate certificate in education (UNISA) in 2005. She taught Physical Education and Life Orientation at Pretoria Girls High for 10 years and has been for the last 8 years working at the Deutsche Internationale Schule Pretoria(DSP) as the Head of the Sports Department. During her school years she participated in several sport codes and played squash at a provincial level and played at a club level long after having finished her schooling. She was also a member of the Schools Representative Council. Jackie is qualified and experienced in coaching hockey, athletics, netball, squash and swimming.
She holds a valid First Aid Level 1 and CPR certificate and renews her police clearance every year. She also completed her lifesaving qualification. She is qualified in sports massage therapy(Health and Fitness Professionals Association) and has completed 56 hours of training in the application of muscle monitoring techniques at the International College of Professional Kinesiology Practice. She has three children of her own, one boy and two girls.
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"I love Sports, it has been a big part of my life! I love working with children of all ages. It is important to me that all children find a physical activity that they love. I want to see them become lifelong participants so that they may be able to live with a healthy body and mind and have a good quality of lifestyle far into adulthood." - Jackie
Lea Smit
Learn-to-Swim Instructor
Lea is one of our youngest members on TEAM KIDDIES AQUA. She joined us in February 2022 and had to complete our 300-hour intensive in-house LTS-training course before she was signed-off as competent and ready to coach for us. Lea holds certifications in both EMS Personal Training, as well as a 200-hour Vinyasa Yoga qualification.During her school career, Lea completed more than 200x hours of community service with the Dasha School for Special Needs Children in Nelspruit. She has been a competitive butterfly swimmer throughout her swim career and has also competed in the Midmar Mile (in KZN) on numerous occasions.
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She began learning about water safety at the tender age of 12, when she completed her first Lifesaving Level 1-certification. During her yoga qualification, she was educated on Kiddies Yoga, which included Child Behaviour Management, as well as Child Physiology. She is well versed in the sport of swimming, yet has a gentle-, loving approach to all her young swimmers. She works well with all age and all-level swimmers, from Learn-to-Swim to Stroke Correction, Gala Preparation and Adult Swimming. She enjoys cultivating a safe space and trusting relationships with her swimmers and prides herself in her swimmers’ immaculate acceleration in both confidence and skill.
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