THIS year, KwaZulu-Natal will not be sending a team to represent the province in the annual Nedbank Championships for the Physically Disabled due to a shortage of funds.
“Each athlete has trained extremely hard and has put time, money and a lot of effort into training. Some people have even taken time off work to get us ready for the games, just to be told by the sports body that KZN won’t take part as there is no money,” said Grant Oosthuyzen, a member of the KZN Boccia (disabled bowls) team.
Both him and the KZN team have won numerous gold and silver medals in the previous championships, and last year took home the overall team trophy. The 2016 Nedbank National Championships for the Physically Disabled and Visually Impaired will take place in Bloemfontein this year from 18 to 24 March.
According to Oosthuyzen, the team was told at the end of last year that there was a budget to send the whole team through to this year’s championships.
“This affects all the different categories and we are blessed with some top sports athletes. KZN is top of the log, so how can we not defend our position? We have been first in South Africa for some time and have brought back many medals. Some of our members have even represented South Africa overseas,” said Oosthuyzen.
The team received an e-mail on Saturday, 20 February to inform them that a decision had been taken not to send a team to compete in the national championships. “In our last meeting we were asked to cut down the number of players going to Bloemfontein for the national championships due to the shortage of funds. It has since been realised that sending half a team will only cause dissatisfaction amongst people.” It also stated, “If there are athletes willing to go to Bloemfontein, they can do so at their expense.”
Oosthuyzen said he and his teammates were saddened by the news. “How can the department only decide at this late stage that the money is finished? Where did it go? This is the only team sport these serious physically-challenged people have,” said Oosthuyzen.
Thabo Mofokeng, the senior manager for the Department of Sport and Recreation for KZN, said, “Disability sport is regarded as a priority in the province and the department channels funding for the promotion and development of disability sport through the respective federations and DISSA KZN, which is the recognised structure that co-ordinates and funds disability sport in the province.
“The department has moved away from supporting mass-based festivals to talent-identified programmes. The prime purpose of this shift is to ensure that the province and the country procedure (sic) talented athletes who will compete successfully internationally.
“The Department’s Elite Athlete Development Programme (EADP), which provides scientific, medical and high-performance support to the top-performing athletes in the province, includes eight disabled athletes who are successfully competing nationally and internationally.
“There have been budget cuts and this has led to DISSA being stringent in the number of athletes representing the province in national tournaments. Athletes selected in provincial teams, must be ‘podium finishers’ at a national level. This applies to all sport codes.”
