Municipalities not keen to support netball
Moutse – The Sekhukhune Netball Club is in dire need of sponsorship. The netball club will be representing Sekhukhune District Municipality in the Spar National Netball Championships in North West University from 7 to 12 August 2022.
Sekhukhune Netball Club Head Coach, Betty Phala, told the Sekhukhune times that they are going to the competition with the under-21 and senior team and since the team got off the ground four years ago, they never had any sponsorship.
Phala said they had tried in vain to get support from the municipalities and to obtain sponsorships from private businesses and have had trouble to get any support.
“Going to the competitions is a challenge because no one support the team. Is been frustrating, for the past four years we have been trying to get help from Elias Motsoaledi Local Municipality and Sekhukhune District Municipality, seeking their support but they are not keen to come on board even when we are going to the competitions to represent the municipalities,” she said.
Phala believes if the district municipality starts supporting netball in the region, they will continue helping young girls in the area by keeping them off the streets.
“All these years, other districts municipalities in the province such as Mopani, Vhembe and Capricorn provide full support for their netball clubs including transportation, food and accommodation. Whereas, is a pity that in Sekhukhune we could not get any support from the municipality even after pleading for their assistance for many years,” she said.
Phala said many young talented girls have resigned from netball because of the current stressing situation.
“We survive by raising funds and when we fail, we have to put money together so that we can attend netball games. Many of these girls are coming from poor families and could not afford to pay for their trips. They opt to quit because of their families’ situations,” she said.
Phala started her netball coaching journey a few back at Moroathebe Primary School with Ntwane Fighters Netball Club in Moutse. She said she never get any support from municipalities since then.
Phala said she had to spend over R15 000-00 from her pocket financing the team when representing Elias Motsoaledi Local Municipality in regional competitions.
“We are not planning to quit the sporting code when we have serious challenges. To us, netball is not just a sport, but a platform to put together these young girls to help them get away from immoral activities and teenage pregnancy. We appeal to anyone to come forward to help sponsoring the sporting code,” she said.
Despite that the club is not getting any support from the municipalities, Ntwane Fighters NC made strides in the sporting code by winning the Limpopo Championships, winning the National Netball Championships, represented Sekhukhune provincially as far as representing the country in the 2017 World Championships in Singapore where they obtained the fifth position globally.
