Hundreds of
youngsters from the communities of Blue Crane Route Municipality and the
neighbouring Bedford and Adelaide towns had an opportunity to showcase their
love for physical activity and sporting talent at a winter holiday sports
programme for schools hosted by the recently launched school sports programme,
PlayerNation.
PlayerNation,
an initiative developed by the Institute of Sport partnering with Exxaro as the
first founder partner, through its renewable energy business Cennergi, aims to
revitalise sports in schools in the Karoo and eventually in the whole of the
Eastern Cape.
Both
organisations, in collaboration with the Department of Sport and Department of
Basic Education, are intentional about fostering sports participation and
promoting whole-school development and youth nurturing where academic
performance and participation of the school in extra-mural activities are
equally important.
PlayerNation
was designed to become the ultimate schools sport programme for 28 000 schools
in South Africa.
The two
events which took place in July in Bedford, attracted an overwhelming number of
more than 1 000 young people, boys, and girls, from various communities in
Somerset-East, Cookhouse, Bedford and Adelaide, as well as hundreds of
community members who came to watch.
Organisers at
WG Olivier Primary School in Somerset-East said they planned to host just 90
youngsters and were taken by surprise when more than 500 young people showed
up.
The
youngsters from Bedford and Adelaide kept the momentum when they also pitched
up in their hundreds for the second event which took place at Templeton High
School in Bedford.
Cennergi’s
Economic Development and Community Programmes Coordinator in Amakhala Emoyeni
Windfarm Mr Simphiwe Mbenya said, “Our objective has always been to see a
positive future for the youth through our economic development initiatives.
Supporting these communities in sports development has always been expressed
strongly when we are having stakeholder engagements. With the support from our
shareholders and other potential partners, we can really do more to close the
gap and thereby we can see harmony and economically vibrant communities.”
“Seeing
PlayerNation come to life is exciting, particularly so, because this is a
long-term project that will not only revitalise sports in schools, but also
have a positive impact on communities. For us to see hundreds of young people
filling the sports facilities to compete with one another and their family
members coming to give them support, affirms the objectives of this programme
to revive sports in schools, while also investing in communities.”
Local ward councillor, Lorraine
Smith-Johnson said an event of this nature is crucial in bringing the young
people together.
“I am very
passionate about sports because it brings people together. Our youth is falling
into drugs and into all sorts of crimes because crime in our communities is
horrible, but we can bring them to play together through sports,” said Smith-Johnson.
Yolanda
Rachabedi, Project Manager at the Institute of Sport said, “Our passion is to
bring children back to sports, and that is why we launched PlayerNation. We
want to have more passion and more sport because we know that people who are
passionate about what they do, tend to be people who have more positive outlook
on life, have greater self-esteem and can overcome difficulty through
problem-solving.”
She said that
it was for this reason that they have partnered with Exxaro’s Cennergi and the
schools in the Karoo, to give schools a sense of pride and belonging and
youngsters a place to belong on and off the sports fields.
“The winter
holiday sports programme is just the beginning of what’s to come in the region.
PlayerNation will roll out in phases, which will include the development of a
sport promoting culture in schools, training of coaches, sport organisers, the
development of leagues, and inter-and-intra school festivals, competitions, and
championships,” said Rachabedi.
“We are
developing active young people, schools and a new class of champions that will
massively increase sports participation in schools, getting young people
involved in positive lifestyle activities, and helping them showcase their love
for healthy physical activity and their sporting prowess.”
Rachabedi
said that on the fields, the youngsters wasted no time in tackling each other.
Some of the boys got down and dirty, in the wet and muddy rugby field at
Somerset-East, while others showed their soccer skills in dribbling, passing
the ball to each other, marking, and defending on the soccer pitch.
She further
said that the girls played competitive netball while indigenous games attracted
mixed participants.
Indigenous game
coordinator Sibulele Magwa said that these types of games are very important as
they don’t require practice but quick learning.
She said that
they also help young people to bond with each other.
Netball
player Lisakhanya Lawrence who was representing the netball team from
Somerset-East said activities like sport keep the youth from the streets and
mixing with wrong crowds.
“Drugs among
the youth is very high in Somerset East, but when we play games like these we
stay out of drugs and become active in sports. My team has played against three
different teams, we have been struggling but we are not giving up on netball
because we love it,” said Lawrence.
The Cookhouse
team coordinator, Lucky Kwatsha said that these games have laid a platform that
will take the youngsters out of the streets and onto the playing fields.
“We want to
see the sports back in the schools and communities. We grew up playing
competitive sports after school and we had tournaments on weekends. These games
show us that this is still possible if we put more effort into it. We don’t need a lot of effort because these
youngsters are eager to participate,” said Kwatsha.
On both
sports days, all participants were winners and overall champions were awarded medals.
Cennergi described the
event as part of its activities linked to Mandela Day, which celebrates the
birthday celebrations of the struggle icon and the first democratic president
of South Africa, Nelson Mandela.
