Tournament hones skills of future sport stars
The Transnet Rural and Farm Schools Tournament held at the Boksburg Stadium, from Monday, September 22 to 24, proved to be a huge success.
This year’s event began on Monday afternoon, with an opening ceremony, including an Olympic-style procession, traditional dancers, live bands and a fireworks display.
During the tournament, competitors, sports scouts and dignitaries spent the three days witnessing up-and-coming sports talent in four sporting disciplines: soccer, netball, chess and athletics.
The annual sporting event began with preliminary rounds, during which more than 22 000 learners from 75 different schools competed in an inter-house competition.
From there, 5 000 learners were selected to progress to compete in regional tournaments, which resulted in 2 000 selected athletes competing in Boksburg.
The tournament saw learners from seven of the nine provinces competing against each other in all four codes.
The seven provinces included Eastern Cape, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North-West and Northern Cape.
With South Africa rich in sporting talent and boasting formidable teams and athletes, like the Springboks, Bafana Bafana, Caster Semenya and Simon Magakwe, Transnet has realised that much of the country’s talent sits deep and undiscovered in the country’s rural areas, waiting to be nurtured and developed into the heroes of tomorrow.
The programme’s main objective is to do exactly that, by giving boys and girls aged between 13 and 19 the opportunity to shine by means of Transnet’s Corporate Social Identity (CSI) budget, to give sporting opportunities to young sportsmen and women who would, ordinarily, not have access to such programmes.
Transnet CEO Cynthia Mgijima echoed these sentiments on the final day of the tournament, on Wednesday.
“Transnet invests in sport because it instils discipline and makes people better citizens,” she explained.
She was one of a handful of dignitaries who were present on the final day including Transnet Foundation’s senior sports manager Michael Moloto, former Kaizer Chiefs star Jabu “Ngwana wa Tswenya” Mahlangu (formerly known as Jabu Pule), Forever Tournament director Nkoali Botsana and Banyana Banyana coach Joseph Mkhonza.
Mahlangu, who has been travelling around the country with Transnet as an ambassador and motivational speaker, had the following to say when asked for his comments on the tournament: “We have to thank Transnet for organising this good event which I think is a great initiative.
“It is especially good for the country’s under-privileged kids who more often than not feel ignored – they sometimes feel like they are not part of the country and this programme encourages them to feel good about themselves.
“I am very impressed with the talents from the kids, it is really good for them and more importantly, it is good for the country.
“I have been travelling around with Transnet as a motivational speaker from early this year sharing my experiences to these kids and also sharing my life story.
“I always tell them (the learners) to look at people like Caster Semenya who come from underprivileged backgrounds but have made it big for themselves by becoming world stars, so it is possible to make it big if you work hard.”
Transnet spends between R140m and R160m annually directly through the Foundation and the other R20-m through other divisions to promote sports.
The programme has already seen a number of its learners win sporting scholarships and selected for national sports teams and regional soccer programmes.
The awards ceremony saw the Free State dominate the administration awards, with Kwa-Zulu/Natal blossoming in the individual sporting awards.
Total medals tally: Free State 45, Eastern Cape 42, KwaZulu-Natal 34, Limpopo 24, Mpumalanga 13, Northern Cape 10 and North-West 9.
