Schools ban netball, soccer, rugby to fight Covid-19 infections

School soccer, rugby and netball are among the sports that have been put on hold, after the Department of Education decided to cancel contact sports in an attempt to manage Covid-19 infections at schools.

Despite Covid-19 rules being followed, school sports activities have led to outbreaks in Gauteng during the last week of the first term, with case numbers gradually increasing in the second term, the department found.

Contact and semi-contact sport were cancelled with immediate effect following a meeting by the Council of Education Ministers on Wednesday.

The cancelled sporting codes include:

• Soccer
• Netball
• Rugby
• Hockey
• Basketball
• Baseball
• Softball

“The outbreak response team said the risk was high when engaged in close-contact sports, especially with people who do not live together,” education department spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said .

Non-contact sport training in schools is still permitted provided protocols are observed and there is no physical contact between participants.

These include:

• Aquatic (except water-polo which is deemed to be contact)
• Athletics
• Tennis
• Chess
• Cricket
• Gymnastics
• Table tennis
• Volleyball
• Goalball

The suspension of sporting activities will only last until the cluster outbreak is over and no further cases are reported, Mhlanga said.

A @DBE_SA decision on contact sports has been made. Here is why… pic.twitter.com/ehA1J2B0mq

— Elijah Mhlanga (@ElijahMhlanga) May 19, 2021

While coaches expressed disappointment at the news, they considered the safety of the pupils first.

Tshepiso Goba, who coaches at a school in Johannesburg, said while he was disappointed the bigger picture was to stop the spread of the virus.

“For us, it’s a pity and unfortunate because we always look forward to getting involved with the children and some make a living from this. But I guess it is for the benefit of everyone to not spread the disease. The bigger picture is that people are going to be safe,” Goba said.

“Depending on how long we will be out for, the special aspect of development of the kids will be hampered.”

A high school in Centurion, which was looking forward to upcoming sports fixtures, earlier this week decided to postpone them due to the outbreaks.

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“Based on the recent increase in the Covid-19 cases, we took the decision early this week to postpone our upcoming sports fixtures. Following the announcement [by the department], our learners are disappointed but they understand that their safety and the safety of others is important,” said Heidi Cook, public relations liaison at Sutherland High School.

Such closures could result in missed opportunities for those training for tournaments or trials, science journalist Sean van Staden said.

“The missed opportunity may be not to make the under-16 tournament or to become a professional player. They are not going to have that equal opportunity their predecessors in previous years had. Also, if pupils don’t burn energy and stress too much, it misdirects to bad behaviour and leads to another psychological state,” he said.

rorisangk@citizen.co.za