Netball to resume in SA
Netball South Africa’s (NSA) president, Cecilia Molokwane, and her executive committee have been meeting and reviewing the situation in the country and have been in constant consultation with the relevant government departments.
Following the announcement by President Ramaphosa that the lockdown level three restrictions have been reviewed and relaxed, the Executive and Molokwane decided that netball activities should resume effective from February 8.
“The decision to resume netball activities was not an easy one, because we are still amid a pandemic and we needed to be very careful on how we will do things going forward.
“This was a balancing act, because key to our list of priorities is ensuring that we preserve the lives of all our stakeholders whilst we play the sport we love. As the executive together with our events and compliance teams, we have put measures in place that will enable us to make sure that we protect the lives of everyone,” said Molokwane.
The first event that will take place is the SPAR Challenge which was supposed to happen at the beginning of the year. The participating teams will be the SPAR Proteas, the SA President’s XII, the SPAR Baby Proteas (u-21), Uganda’s She Cranes with Namibia yet to confirm participation.
The SPAR Challenge will take place under strict health and safety regulations, this tournament will happen in a biologically safe environment in Cape Town from March 24 to 31. The teams will meet for a pre-training camp between March 19 to 23.
“The City of Cape Town is proud to partner with Netball SA for this major continental series. As the home of Netball for the next three years leading up to the 2023 Netball World Cup, Mother City will again showcase to the global stage that it can host major events in a safe environment despite the pandemic.
“We are looking forward to welcoming the teams to our city and for them to experience the beauty of the Mother City,” said the City of Cape Town’s mayoral committee member for safety and security, JP Smith.
The federation would also like to encourage local teams that would like to resume training and host coaching clinics to submit their risk mitigation plan to Netball South Africa’s offices for approval. This is done to ensure that everyone adheres to the rules and regulations.
“In such challenging times, we are blessed to be able to play competitive netball and our appreciation goes to the Department of Sports, Art and Culture, Netball South Africa and the City of Cape Town for partnering together to make sure that the 2021 SPAR Challenge takes place in a safe environment.
“From all of us at SPAR, we would like to welcome and wish all the teams competing in this series everything of the best during this time,” said Mike Prentice, group marketing executive at the SPAR Group.
