From the Eastern Cape, he became the fly-half of the South African Sevens rugby team and has been blessed with vision, skill and speed.

Cecil was a member of the South African schoolboys team in 2006 and then became a member of the South Africa Under-20 squad in the 2008 IRB Junior World Championships that reached the third place play-off. He was promoted to the full South African Sevens team for the Dubai leg of the 2009/10 Sevens World Series and has been a mainstay of the squad ever since. He was also a member of the South African team that won the bronze medal in the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

Afrika was included in a 12-man squad for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and played in most of the games. They finished top of their qualifying group, beat Australia in the quarter-finals, but lost 7-5 to Great Britain in the semi-finals. They beat Japan 54–14 in the Third Place Playoff to secure the bronze medal.

Following his success in the 2011 HSBC Sevens World Series, he was unveiled as the new International Rugby Board ‘Keep Rugby Clean’ Ambassador for sevens.

He said: “I am absolutely delighted to be a part of this important initiative. I have learnt that there is no short cut to success – it takes a lot of hard work, hours of training, dedication, commitment and self belief to achieve your goals. I am looking forward to be involved in this project and to contribute in whatever way to keep rugby sevens clean.”