Community welcomes field
A lack of professional soccer fields in Luthuli Park is now a thing of the past following an official handover of a seven-aside soccer field at Luthuli Park Combined School.
POLOKWANE – The soccer field, donated by Hitachi Reliable Solutions, Builder’s Warehouse and SuperSport will be used by residents in Lithuli Park and neighbouring communities. The sport field is part of SuperSport’s Let’s Play initiative which aims to encourage the youth to take part in sport to stay fit and live a healthy lifestyle.
Let’s Play is a corporate social responsibility initiative developed by SuperSport and partners in response to a national need after realising that children are becoming alarmingly inactive. They can’t catch balls or walk on a balance beam. According to the statistics, 20% of children are overweight and physical education has almost been entirely eliminated from government school curriculum. Family activities follow the path of least resistance as parents and children opt for sedentary play activities.
Hitachi National Risk Control Manager and SHEQ Auditor, Christo Marx, said they have completed 20 sport fields so far and were honoured to be part of this great initiative. He said they were keen to assist as many schools as possible because sport makes one have an active mind.
SuperSport CSI and Enterprise Manager, Vaughn Bishop, said Christmas came early for the youngsters in Luthuli Park and emphasised that he was confident that the community would look after the property. “It is very important that children take part in sport as this will help them with their academics. The field needs to be looked after so that it can last longer.”
Luthuli Park Principal, Moloto Rasebotsa, thanked all the companies that came on board to make the project a reality. He said they would share the field with neighbouring schools and pledged to look after the project. “Our school governing body (SGB) pledged to erect a fence around the sport field to separate it from our schoolyard so it can be accessible to all. This is a great initiative and I hope other companies will follow in Let’s Play’s footsteps and assist local schools,” he said.
He encouraged the youth to look after the sport field so it can last longer.
He also urged residents not to vandalise the walls around the sport field because the property is for the children’s development.
