This comes after Swimming SA approached the Ministry of Sports, Arts and Culture regarding the failure to include the sport in the list of non-contact sports that are allowed to resume under level 3. After some delay, the department’s regulations for level 3 were finally gazetted on June 11, nearly two weeks after Minister Nathi Mthethwa first announced them.
The delay has allowed the government to clear up some misconceptions and remove problematic regulations, but the lack of clarity on swimming is a blow to South Africa’s Olympic swimming hopefuls.
Swimming accounts for 18 of South Africa’s 87 Olympic medals putting the sport third on the national medal table behind only athletics and boxing.
Swimming SA believes that this may be an oversight on the part of the department of sport who have included triathlon, which encompasses swimming alongside running and cycling as the three disciplines making up their event. The gazetted regulations allow for the return of professional and elite sport but not recreational sport which means that golf courses and tennis courts remain closed to the general public.
Sporting bodies who wish to stage events under lockdown level 3 can only do so if the events are closed to the general public. In a change to the originally slated regulations athletes and officials won’t be required to be tested and quarantined‚ but will have to give written confirmation that they are to the best of their knowledge‚ free of Covid-19.
Government issued the following list of sports given the go-ahead to resume matches. However, all matches must be cleared with the department before they are played: archery‚ athletics‚ baseball‚ badminton‚ canoeing‚ cycling‚ equestrian‚ golf‚ gymnastics‚ rowing‚ sailing‚ shooting‚ table tennis‚ tennis‚ triathlon‚ volleyball‚ softball‚ angling‚ snow sport‚ chess‚ cricket‚ bowls‚ squash‚ jukskei and pigeon racing.
Sports only allowed to train during level 3 of lockdown include fencing‚ football‚ handball‚ hockey‚ rugby (non-contact training methodology)‚ figure skating‚ Athletics (specifically for national championships and Olympic qualification)‚ ice hockey, motorsport and netball (specifically for leagues).
