CAPE TOWN - Minister of Arts, Sports, Culture and Recreation Nathi Mthethwa and his officials need to explain why netball in the country is so severely underfunded that two Eastern Cape teams were forced to travel by bus to Cape Town, when it overturned killing three young players and a coach.
His department was able to cough up at least R1 million for actress Natasha Thahana’s studies in the US for a semester, after she asked her “mama” and former Speaker Baleka Mbete for help.
His department still remains mum about where this money came from and how others in need can have access to such funding.
The point of this editorial however is that sending condolences to the families of coach Nocamagu Mvunyiswa and players Phelo Charles, Indiphile Mfengu and Thabisile Maxikikata does very little to console their teammates and families when this could have been prevented.
The accident on Sunday morning happened in Aberdeen, a small town in the Sarah Baartman District Municipality of the Eastern Cape.
The bus carrying 34 occupants, including a driver and his assistant, was transporting the teams for the 2021 Spar National Championships, which started in Bellville, Cape Town on Monday.
This would have taken them not less than 11 hours of travelling and upon arrival, the players were expected to take part in a tournament that could be career changing.
How this could be allowed to happen to the future sports stars of this country, is beyond heartbreaking.
Netball South Africa president Cecilia Molokwane painted a horrifying picture of how severely underfunded they were and that they were even prepared to settle for buses because flying players to tournaments is something that they could only wish for.
To expect South African sports to prosper in global competitions without providing the simplest of resources, is wishful thinking when our young sports people are subjected to such deplorable conditions.
The same goes with how Mthethwa’s department has treated our artists and historic institutions during this pandemic, leading to some shutting their doors permanently.
We demand the government use this tragic accident as the reason to close the inequality gap in how it funds some sports and not others, especially codes dominated by women.
The current funding model has failed so many talented people from disadvantaged communities, the latest being our three rising stars whose lives were prematurely taken.
Their lives mattered and we dare not allow their deaths to be in vain.
Cape Times