Ramatsiyi Moholoa

Ramatsiyi Moholoa

The Gauteng provincial government has once more organised a variety of sports activities to keep the youth busy over the winter school holidays.

Barbara Creecy, MEC for sports, arts, culture and recreation, said the holiday programme was part of their mass participation project.

The programme started on Monday and will end on July 12. The games are played daily between 9am and 2pm.

Creecy said youngsters in the province were participating in sports like soccer, cricket, rugby and swimming. Indigenous games like dikete, kgati and morabaraba have also been included in the programme, which has been in place since 2004.

"The programme aims at taking young people away from streets and promotes a healthy lifestyle among the youth," said Creecy.

"The Faranani Hub Holiday Programme in Tsakane is one of 42 similar programmes by the department during the June holidays. Over 300 participants per day compete in activities such as basketball, volleyball and indigenous games in this programme.

"It aims to ensure young people have constructive activities over the school holidays, while at the same time giving others an opportunity to learn different sporting codes."

Creecy said they were hoping the programme would help to identify new talent that will benefit the various national teams.

The MEC has urged the community to support the games in Toekomsrus, Munsieville, Etwatwa, Themba, Katlehong, Moletsane, Atteridgeville, Diepkloof, Ivory Park and Diepsloot.