As part of honouring the legacy of former State President Nelson Mandela, the Justice and Correctional Services minister, Ronald Lamola, handed over a sports field restored by offender labour to Mchaka High School in Bushbuckridge on Friday July 8. Lamola said it would cater for sports such as football and netball.
The entertainment company MultiChoice partnered with the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) to provide much-needed resources for the sports field’s upgrade.
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Lamola has often lamented the poor sporting infrastructure in public schools and rural communities, which he said deny young people opportunities to take part in sport. “Some of our renowned sport icons were identified at school sport tournaments. It is our hope that our work of developing sport fields will revive the vibrant school sport culture and yield more champions,” he said.
“Some of our renowned sport icons were identified at school sport tournaments. It is our hope that our work of developing sport fields will revive the vibrant school sport culture and yield more champions. Projects of this nature are thus aligned to the DCS’s self-sustainability and sufficiency framework, by means of partnering with strategic stakeholders like MultiChoice in order to roll out infrastructure in disadvantaged communities,” said Lamola.
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He said the department would also help schools in other provinces with sporting infrastructure. “This has resulted in some schools in Gauteng, Western Cape and Northern Cape benefiting from this project.”
Lamola said at least 40 000 youth are incarcerated in correctional centres, with some lured into crime due to failure to channel their youthful energy to positive activities like sport and recreation. “Such work will serve as a catalyst to promote sport, leading to positive lifestyles among the youth,” he concluded.
