“Sport is teaching life-skills such as tolerance, cooperation and respect,” Mr Wilfried Lemke, United Nations (UN) Special Adviser on Sport for Development and Peace, explained at Ke Nako Africa, an initiative of Sport and Recreation South Africa during the FIFA World Cup in Johannesburg. Together with Deputy Minister of Sport and Recreation, Gert Oosthuizen, Mr Lemke discussed the power of sport with youth from Southern Africa who works in the “youth development through football” programme.
“Sport has changed my life,” acknowledged the 25 year old Kitsu Masi from Ramotswa, Botswana. “I was part of a gang. We were into drugs, violence and gangsterism. One weekend, my gang killed a person while I was out of town for a football match. That was a turning point for me and I got involved in a football programme.” Today Kitsu Masi works as a sport manager for the South East District Youth Empowerment League.
“Sport teaches us discipline which assists us lifelong,” Deputy Minister of Sport and Recreation South Africa, Gert Oosthuizen added. He underlined that people like Kitsu Masi are role models for the younger generation, “We have the responsibility to involve as many young people as possible in sport activities. This is why we want physical education back as a compulsory subject in schools.”
An aim supported by Ms Cora Burnett, Professor for Sport and Movement Studies at the University of Johannesburg, “We have statistically proven that crime rates decrease for more than 16 percent for young people involved in sport programmes. Young people who do sport are also more dedicated to work - they even have a six percent higher pass rate at university exams!”
Especially football can be an important factor for the development of young people's identity as the example of Wewe Sokoyi from the township of Khayelithsa (Cape Town) proves. “In football programmes, women are often left out - not so in the youth development through football programme. I am a football coach myself and when I am on the field, I feel free, I feel I can grow here.”
Ke Nako Africa is an initiative by Sport and Recreation South Africa, a government department. Partners are the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Artists Trust of Southern Africa (ARTSA), the German Development Cooperation, WASH United, an non-governmental organisation (NGO) campaign on water, sanitation and hygiene, as well as the youth development through football programme of Sport and Recreation South Africa, which is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) on behalf of the German Government and which is co-founded by the European Union. Ke Nako Africa takes place within the international football village at Birchwood Hotel and Conference Centre in Johannesburg.
Issued by: Sport and Recreation South Africa
11 June 2010
Jacky
