Sport stakeholders deliberate women’s issues

In follow-up of a recent report on the status of sport transformation which indicated that women are underrepresented in areas of sport and recreation, Minister of Sport and Recreation Tokozile Xasa embarked on a process of developing a policy for women and sport by hosting consultative deliberations and engagements with various stakeholders within the sport and recreation fraternity in order to finalise the policy.
Xasa’s office, together with the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture, hosted a session at Bolivia Estate last Wednesday to allow stakeholders an opportunity to raise concerns and make input on the proposed policy for women and sport. It was learnt that prior to the gathering, Xasa handed over a multipurpose sport facility, attire and equipment to Dumela village, Malamulele.
Addressing the audience Xasa highlighted that for the policy to be finalised, it must have attributes from all the nine provinces. She stressed that although the province might still be facing challenges such as a shortage of sport equipment and infrastructure, Limpopo has to identify its key sporting skills.
“You need to determine your strong skills rather than wanting to take part in all the sporting codes. We can create more job opportunities through sport but a lot still needs to be done,” Xasa advised.
It was reported that considerable work has been completed on the proposed policy including research, literature review, analysing the declarations of the various women and sport conferences. This process led to the finalisation of a discussion document towards the formulation of a policy, it was learnt.
Sport, Arts and Culture MEC Thandi Moraka revealed that women make up only 18% of qualified coaches, 9% of senior coaches are women and less than 10% of women volunteer in sport compared to over 15% of men. She said this could not continue undisrupted, adding that they can’t remain indifferent when they are faced with such skewed statistics. There has to be a concerted disruption of the way people think about participation of women in certain sporting codes, Moraka stressed. She went on to say the anomaly has to be addressed sooner than later.

Story and photos: ENDY SENYATSI
>>endy@observer.co.za