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Masinga longs for good, old school sports days

VARIOUS South African greats have heaped praise on Sports and Recreation Minister Fikile Mbalula for introducing the National School Sport Programme.

The programme, which is in partnership with the Basic Education Department, is aimed at reviving school sports in all 27 000 schools in the country.

Initiated by Mbalula in 2009, the programme is in line with a call made by Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe to ex-professionals to get involved in sports.

Motlanthe, who was an excellent soccer player at school in Meadowlands and also played at semi-professional level in Pretoria, urged the ex-professionals to adopt schools in their areas.

Phil "Chippa" Masinga, the man who ensured Bafana Bafana qualified for their first-ever Fifa World Cup in France in 1998 with a spectacular goal against Congo, is in support of the school sport revival programme.

"This is a wonderful project to take our sport to greater heights ... congratulations to Minister Mbalula.

"The only way for South Africa to once more become a super-house in sports is for us to go back to the basics.

"We have become a laughing stock because we did not take school sports seriously for a long time.

"I still remember as a little boy, we participated in school sports activities.

"We were spoiled for choice, I was a very good sprinter, and also did long and high jump events.

"It was only after I joined Jomo Cosmos and enrolled at Orlando West High School that I started channeling all my energies into soccer.

"At Orlando West High, there were other successful soccer stars like Edward Motale, Eric September, Thomas Madigage and Gesond Vilakazi.

"We used to play against other schools in Soweto like Dalinwonga, which was led by Doctor Khumalo.

"During our match days on Wednesday, our sports grounds were always full. People used to knock off early at work on Wednesday to come watch us play.

"Some of the professional and semi-professional clubs used those games to search for new talent," added Masinga.

Former sprinter and now development coach Geraldine Pillay is echoing Masinga's sentiments.

"I think we are going to be a nation of well-beaters again with the project introduced by Minister Mbalula," said Pillay.

"It is good that athletics is one of the first five sporting codes included in the programme.

"With the 2012 London Olympics around the corner, we have to start building a new team for 2016 and 2020 Olympics.

"In the past, some of us did not have money to buy equipment, government is making those things available for free.

"Government is also paying for transport to competition venues, which is highly commendable," said Pillay.

Also excited about the revival of school sports is Netball South Africa director of coaches Anneline Lewies.

"We are excited about the project, it has the full support of NSA executive committee.

"We will assist government in the development of netball at schools, we are working closely with a structure running netball at schools."

Some of the big names who are products of schools' netball include Portia Dimu, Rusky Mthethwa and Martha Mosoatlhe.

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