Call to enter Gauteng Sport Awards
JOBURG – The new Gauteng MEC for Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation Mbali Hlophe launches the 2019 Gauteng Sport Awards and urges for a good crop of nominations.
Nominations for the Gauteng Sport Awards have opened and the new and youthful MEC for Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation Mbali Hlophe has called on sport personalities and federations to put their best athletes forward for the prestigious awards.
Addressing the awards launch at the headquarters of the Gauteng Sports House at the Johannesburg Stadium at the Ellis Park precinct in Doornfontein, Hlophe, who was introduced as a ‘young and exuberant’ person urged federations to nominate their cream of the crop in order to put that ‘youthful exuberance into the awards as alluded to in the introductions about myself’.
“Sport is one of the only, if not one of a few unifying activities, where you don’t have to be rich to participate and creates the ideal kind of society that we envisage, which does not discriminate in any form or other,” said the 36-year-old former political activist in the ANC Youth League.
“These awards are meant to celebrate and reward, though in a small way, our shining sport stars and the up-and-coming ones. Hence, I urge the federation to put their best foot forward and choose the right candidates that are really standing out.”
Hlophe took the opportunity to congratulate Banyana Banyana for their efforts in the FIFA Women’s World Cup, saying she notes the rumblings about the performance and said those rumblings must be put in the context of the conditions that prevail in the domestic women’s football in the country.
“We have a lot of inhibiting factors that need to be addressed if we want the standard of women’s football to be up there with the rest of the world, and if addressed, that could then lead to a better environment for them to most probably perform better than they did this time around.
“One of those factors is the lack of a professional league for women, which we’re busy trying to establish in partnership with the South African Football Association. If that goes well, I am confident it might also go a long way towards improving their performances on various arenas.”
Nominations opened on 1 July and will close on 31 July and those achievements should have been accomplished between the dates of 1 July last year and 30 June this year. The awards ceremony will be held on 29 September at a venue still to be confirmed.
