Within hours of the announcement by President Cyril Ramaphosa on March 15 where he declared Covid-19 a national disaster, and following what has been happening around the globe from various sports codes, all mainstream sports codes have either cancelled or postponed their events till further notice.
Some of the comments issued by the mainstream sports codes in the country are as follows:
• Athletics South Africa (ASA) postponed all athletics in the country for 30 days, which includes national track events.
• SPAR Women’s Challenge, Cape Town. Parkrun UK will deliver their way forward for the countries that have not been cancelled yet. But some of the local parkruns have already cancelled their events.
• Boxing South Africa (BSA) has, thus far, cancelled and postponed national and local tournaments until further notice.
• Local bowling tournaments have been set aside and will be played in the latter part of the year and cancelled until further notice.
• Canoeing events are also in the process of been cancelled or move to another date.
• Most international events have been postponed for now, and Canoe SA has also postponed all our major interprovincial events and suspended the national calendar of events until April 17 when new information will be advised presumably.
• Cricket South Africa (CSA) announced that all cricket for the next 60 days has been terminated.
• Sunshine Tour’s statement for all golfing tournaments: In light of the announcement by the President and having taken the advice of the various government ministers and the World Health Organisation (WHO) on the issues surrounding Covid-19, the Sunshine Tour will be suspending all of its activities.
The Sunshine Tour will review its position on April 20 or as the situation demands.
This decision was taken by the Sunshine Tour board of directors and players’ committee, and stands in unity with the International Federation of PGA Tours and world golf’s decision to suspend its activities.
• The 2020 African Artistic gymnastics championships is postponed. The 15th African Artistic Championships, which was set to take place between April 1 and 5 has been postponed.
Various African countries and prominent gymnastic judges were to attend the tournament, which is also a qualifying event for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo this July.
• Formula 1 has announced that due to the ongoing global situation regarding Covid-19 the Heineken F1 Joburg Festival due to take place on March 29 has been postponed to protect the safety of all fans and participants attending the event.
• Some of the local motoring events have postponed their events until further notice.
• Netball South Africa (NSA) President Cecilia Molokwane and her executive members have taken a unanimous decision to suspend all planned netball activities scheduled to take place in March and April 2020 respectively, effective immediately.
The affected events include the 2020 Telkom Netball League media launch and u-21 national training camp. This decision is taken with the aim of protecting all stakeholders and partners.
• South African Rugby Union (SARU) suspended all national team training camps and business travel as part of a raft of measures in response to the global Covid-19 pandemic.
• Scheduled Springbok alignment camps, Springbok men’s and women’s training camps and the SA Rugby u-20 preparations have all been suspended until April 14.
• In addition, the SuperSport Rugby Challenge, scheduled to kick off on the weekend of April 24/25, has been postponed until further notice and the club level Gold Cup competition is being reassessed with a view to postponement.
• The Springboks’ Castle Lager Incoming Series Tests in July (against Scotland and Georgia), Youth Week tournaments and Currie Cup remain as scheduled, but will be reviewed in April.
• The latest updates come following the suspension of the Vodacom Super Rugby and Guinness PRO14 international club competitions; the postponement of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series event for women in Stellenbosch, and the cancellation of two u-20 international events featuring the junior Springboks.
• Players who returned home after their international activities were placed under self-isolation for 14 days.
Following a SANZAAR executive committee (EXCO) teleconference in response to the announcement by the New Zealand government that all returning travellers will have to self-isolate for 14 days, including Super Rugby players, SANZAAR believes it has no option but to suspend the 2020 Super Rugby tournament at the conclusion of this weekend’s matches for the foreseeable future.
• Statement by FNB Varsity Cup: Following the FNB Varsity Cup board meeting, all Varsity Cup matches, including Varsity Young Guns and Varsity Shield are suspended with immediate effect.
Member universities are currently restructuring their academic calendars and programmes, which will have an effect on lecture dates and times, university recess breaks and examination periods.
• SA Rugby is in ongoing deliberations on the reworked domestic rugby calendar and as a result, the Varsity Cup Board will reconvene towards the end April 2020 to reassess the situation and take a final decision on the 2020 competition.
• South African Football Association (Safa) president Dr Danny Jordaan announced that no international, national or local soccer will take place.
• Premier Soccer League (PSL) announced by the chairperson, Dr Irvin Khoza, on March 16 that there will be no league games taking place until further notice.
• After consultation with various stakeholders, COSAFA can confirm that the 2020 Women’s u-17 championship scheduled to be staged in Mauritius from April 17 to 26 has been postponed.
• Tennis South Africa (TSA) has announced a suspension of all their tournaments until April 20, following President Cyril Ramaphosa declaring a national state of emergency over the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Other sports, such as basketball, chess, cycling, hockey, karate, martial arts, swimming, sky diving, surfing, obstacle course racing, triathlon, which includes the iron man which has been cancelled, polo, water polo and wrestling will most probably follow the mainstream sports codes adhering to the President’s announcement on March 15.
