Patric Solomons
Cape Town - We have lost a champion for women and girls, for gender equality, social justice, and an activist against patriarchy.
Cheryl Roberts was a South African table tennis player. She competed in the women’s singles event at the 1992 Summer Olympics.
For decades she dedicated her life to promoting, writing about and documenting, through her lens, women and girls in sports. She spoke out against gender inequality and called out men in power who block transformation and deny women their rights and opportunities as players, coaches, management, and leaders. She used social media, her journalism and photographic lens to capture the joy and struggle of women and girls in sports.
Cheryl Roberts used her own money to sponsor individual girls and women or clubs with money for transport, food, sports gear, or to get to tournaments. She always helped those who love sports and play sports, especially girls from poor families.
Cheryl Roberts loved sports...men’s sports and women’s sports. But her passion and joy were to see girls enjoy the pleasure of sport. Every opportunity she had, she would be on the sports field or at the stadium enjoying the matches and games; or from behind her lens capturing our sports girls and women.
Cheryl Roberts, over the years amassed a volume of images of the history of sport from Apartheid to post-Apartheid. She produced various publications capturing the Anti-Apartheid sports men and women and tracked their heritage as sports activists, trainers, and developers.
She loved the movies, going to the theatres and cultural events. She bought her own tickets to support the artists, and for others, to expose them to cultural works and experiences.
She loved the streets. This is where she engaged with people, photographing them, and promoting their wares.
She knew the street sellers in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban and elsewhere... and she loved public transport.
She often travelled in busses, trains and taxis to the townships to watch and photograph women’s and girls’ sports events. And she loved exploring Africa, often travelling to other African countries, just to get refreshed and because she could.
I know Cheryl for over 30 years, and we became good friends. I loved hanging out with her. She was a very private person. She loved her sisters and regularly went to visit the family home in Durban.
And she adored the family dogs. Cheryl kept her health condition very private.
She was diagnosed with cancer and struggled to keep it under control. I had spoken to her on Wednesday. I was shocked and devastated by the news of her passing.
Patric Solomons is the director children’s rights organisation Molo Songololo
Cape Times