In traditional society, playing games and participating in physical activities played an important role in the upbringing of our young and our youth. These games were also used to acquire skills and provide knowledge that is necessary for young boys and girls to gain entry into adult life, while at the same time developing a communal spirit.
With the re-enactment of these games, which is an initiative of the South African Sports Commission, we as the Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport aim to celebrate and offer recognition to a re-emerging cultural identity.
Ladies and gentlemen, the objective of this initiative is to help popularise the games which have been played for years by the generations before us. It also goes a long way in acting as a catalyst against the problems which plague our communities, while at the same time helping to create a positive, active lifestyle.
Over the past four years, the national directive to promote these games, at a club, district, regional and provincial level was vigorously enforced, where at each level a team was selected for each code. Honoured guests, through these games, we can remember and re-embrace the games that even we played as children.
These games include drie stokkies, also known as three sticks; Dibeki, a running ball game; intonga, a stick fighting game; kgati, a rope jumping game; marabaraba, a board game; Jukskei, a target game; ncuva, a board game; diketo, a coordination game; and kho-kho, a running game.
In this era of technology, where we spend a lot of time indoors in front of computers and TV’s, it is important to remember that we need to encourage healthy lifestyles and an important part of that is to get out and to be active.
Ladies and gentlemen, we need to reclaim our heritage, for this is indeed what it is, the heritage of those who came before us.
We can not allow this heritage to be forgotten and left to die a slow death, hence, honoured guests, the establishment of the "let the nation play" campaign. So lets go out and "let the nation play" and in honour of the team representing the Western Cape at the national games at the end of this week, the Department of Cultural Affairs and Sports hereby bestow Western Cape colours to the men and women who will make, I am sure, this province proud during the National Indigenous Games.
I thank you.
