Mbalula serious about schools sport | Public Eye Online

By Molefi Sompane

Minister of Sport and Recreation Fikile Mbalula during The National Sports Indaba

BLOEMFONTEIN ? The Ministry of Sport and Recreation will roll out a competitivenetball league comprising teams of all races from 12 of South Africa?s regions next year, Sports and Recreation Minister Fikile Mbalula said on Friday, June 1.

Mbalula also announced a change in the composition of the Boxing SouthAfrica board in an effort to inject the same level of enthusiasm and popularity as soccer enjoys. ?We are also developing women?s boxing,? Mbalula said.

Mbalula told stakeholders during interaction on his ministry?sbudget vote at Protea Hotel in Bloemfontein that the same attention would be accorded to netball as other sports such as soccer and rugby. his departmentwas working hard to put in place a successful Netball Premier League.

?We are doing on our best tohave the Netball League running in 2013. It will consist of 12 regions that will include Free State.? Mbalula said, adding: ?We need professional players and as for netball being the number one women sport in the country we have to support it to build its own league able us to compete on the same professional? level with other nations. We are proud to be among five top teams in the world,? said Mbalula.

He encouraged stakeholders to develop sports in schools and strive to sustain consistency among them cautioning stakeholders against greed. ?Stakeholders have to help develop sports, not to enrich themselves from their organisation?sfunds at the expense of sport. Stakeholders must maintain consistency and beable to build competitive athletes,? added Mbalula.

For sport to attain its full potential South Africa needed to do away with segregated sport, he said. ?We need to stop having sports which are classifiedas for blacks only or whites only; all sporting disciplines must be offered atall schools.?

Mbalula said his ministry had reached an agreement with all stakeholders thatattended a recent sport indaba to concentrate on sport development programmes in schools.

?We have agreed with those attended the sports indaba recently that we have to support the school sport.We are also aware that some leaders in sporting organisations are inclined to enrich themselves at the expense of sports development.?

However, the minister admitted that more work still needs to be done in orderto develop sports in the country. ?We still have to do more as far as development of sports is concerned,? he said.

As part of sport development, the Ministry of Sport and Recreation has concluded talks with the NBA to host the 10th anniversary of NBA Without Borders tournament in South Africa, Mbalula said.

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