During December 2011 the Department of Basic Education will host the Provincial Cluster Sports Festivals. The tournaments are part of the School Sports Leagues introduced by the department this year.
Out of 16 sporting codes that are offered in schools, four codes were selected as a pilot for 2011, namely: football, netball, rugby and cricket. Schools had to register for participation in these leagues through their district offices. The majority of schools registered for football and netball. Five more codes will be included in the league system for 2012 and the remaining six will be included in 2013.
Schools that are at the top of the provincial log in their respective provinces will be participating in the Tri-Provincial Cluster tournaments. These tournaments will be hosted by the following provinces:
- Northern Cape (Kimberly) will host Eastern Cape and Western Cape on 9 to 10 December 2011 and
- Limpopo (Polokwane) will host North West and Gauteng on 10 to 11 December 2011,
- KwaZulu-Natal (Durban) will host Free State and Mpumalanga on 15 to 16 December 2011.
The main objectives of the school sport are to:
- ensure that learners in all schools get an opportunity to participate and develop sporting skills,
- expose learners to a variety of sporting codes provided by the school;
- create conditions for the development and nurturing of identified talent in specific sport codes; and
- create vibrant school sport code structures, that are effective and properly manage
TOTAL through United Nations Children's Fund are the partners and main sponsors of these tournaments. Other partners include South African Schools Football Association (SASFA), South African Schools Netball (SASN) and Love Life.
Each hosting province will accommodate almost 676 participants during the events. SAFA has confirmed that they will sent their talent scouts to the three provincial venues to identify talented players for the country’s under 17 football team. The stakes are therefore very high in this tournament.
Enquiries:
Panyaza Lesufi
Cell: 072 148 9575
