People with disability games festival, local talent development centre launch and multi-purpose sport courts handover

People with disability games festival: 3 to 5 June 2011

The first ever provincial people with disability games tournament will be staged in Sasolburg from the 3 to 5 June 2011. The people with disability games are a multi-coded sport tournament which includes the following codes for people with disabilities:

• Football (deaf; physically disabled and intellectually impaired)
• Tennis (wheelchair)
• Table tennis (physically disabled)
• Netball (intellectually impaired)
• Goal-ball (partially blind and blind)
• Chess (physically disabled)
• Volleyball (physically disabled)
• Wheelchair basketball (physically disabled)
• Indigenous games (physically disabled): morabaraba, kgathi and ncuva
• Athletics track and field (physically disabled and intellectually impaired).

Six hundred and seventy nine (679) participants from across the Free State will represent their different districts in the tournament. The tournament is not competitive in nature. The above various sporting codes will be staged at the following sport facilities in Sasolburg: Moses Kotane Stadium; DP de Villiers Stadium and Flavius Mareka Sporting Complex.

While this is the first ever provincial people with disability games tournament the department has and will continue to prioritise disability games as a platform to give an opportunity to people with disabilities to actively take part in sport. This has happened in the past through providing support during various sport tournaments in which people with disabilities participated. This support also included provision of sport equipment for various disability games codes.

Local talent development centre launch: 4 June 2011

The people with disability games festival, taking place in Sasolburg, will coincide with the launch of the Metsimaholo Local Talent Development Centre (LTDC) in Sasolburg. The Metsimaholo LTDC will be officially launched on the 4 June 2011. This is the third LTDC to be opened in the province, with the first two opened in Maluti a Phofung (QwaQwa) and Matjhabeng (Thabong/Welkom). The last two LTDCs will be opened in Mangaung (Botshabelo) and Xhariep.

The following services are being rendered at the LTDCs:

• Sport specific skill coaching
• Sport conditioning and strength training
• Athlete development and support
• Capacity building programme
• Team preparation programme

The LTDC provide the following facilities where the above-mentioned services will take place:

• Fully equipped sport gymnasium
• Multi-purpose training facility

Multi-purpose sport courts handover: 4 June 2011

As part of efforts to ensure access to sports facilities for communities five multi-purpose sport courts have been erected in Van Stadensrus, Petrus Steyn, Heilbron, Luckhoff and Vredefort. These facilities allow for a number of different sporting codes to be played simultaneously.

MEC Dan Kgothule will officially handover the first Multi-Purpose Sport Court to the community of Vredefort on the 4th June 2011, coinciding with the above people with disability games and launch of the LTDC.

Other areas in the Province where these facilities will be rolled out are: Diyatalawa, Makgolokweng and Tweeling.

The programme for the above activities will proceed as follows

Media enquiries:
Tankiso Zola
Cell: 082 940 2392
E-mail: tankiso@sacr.fs.gov.za

General enquiries:
George Tshabalala
Cell: 082 461 5997
Tel: 051 410 4742/4786/4719
E-mail: georgep@sacr.fs.gov.za

Source: Free State Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation