Cape Town’s top sportspeople honoured at awards ceremony

Cape Town’s top athletes were recognised and awarded on Wednesday, 24 July 2019 when the Cape Town District Sport Awards took place at Old Mutual in Pinelands.

The event was hosted by the Western Cape Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport, in partnership with the Cape Town Sports Council, in order to celebrate the achievements of disabled and able-bodied athletes and administrators from a range of sports codes.

Cultural Affairs and Sport Minister, Anroux Marais, delivered the keynote address at the awards ceremony and highlighted the important role the nominees and award winners had to play in their various communities.

“Making this ceremony all the more significant is that many young people from under-resourced, vulnerable communities made the conscious decision to challenge the stereotypes often associated with these areas by actively participating in their respective sporting codes,” said Minister Marais.

“Substance dependency, gang intimidation and consequent life sentences, as well as teenage pregnancies have become at the order of the day in many of these areas. All of which further erodes the sense of hope, motivation and self-determination needed to optimise on constructive potential to create an alternate to the destructive path too many youths have already fallen victim to. Yet, here we are, officially honouring and recognising the shining beacons of hope and inspiration from these very communities suffering under turmoil often brought on by the vicious cycles of poverty and damaging social ills.”

The awards ceremony was one of six that will be hosted in the various districts of the Western Cape over the new few weeks.

The Overberg District Sport Awards takes place on Saturday, 27 July 2019 and will be followed by the Cape Winelands, West Coast, Garden Route and Central Karoo ceremonies.

Wednesday night’s winners were:

• Sport Community Builder of the Year – Frank Solomon
• Recreation Body of the Year – Play Sport4Life (Cape Town Baseball Federation)
• Volunteer of the Year – Dr Corena de Beer (Western Province Black Powder Association)
• Developing School Team of the Year – Matthew Goniwe Memorial School (Western Province Cycling Association)
• School Team of the Year – Groote Schuur Primary School (Western Province Majorette Cheerleading Association)
• School Sportswoman of the Year – Nokuthula Yonke (Eros School – Athletics)
• School Sportsman of the Year – Marx Meyer (WP Black Powder Shooting)
• Journalist of the Year – Shirley Ann Kaminer (Cape Town Bridge Association)
• Newcomer of the Year – Reyaan Trout (Western Province Cycling Association)
• Sports Administrator of the Year – Elze Lambrechts (WP Sports Association for the Physically Disabled)
• Coach of the Year – Desiree Ellis (Safa Cape Town)
• Recognition of Technical Excellence – Elizna van den Berg (Cape Town Netball Federation)
• Indigenous Games Team of the Year – Team Kgati
• District Federation of the Year – Cape Town Netball Federation
• Team of the Year – Cape Town Kings (Western Province Ice Hockey)
• Junior Sportswoman of the Year – Amirah Spannenberg (Cape Town Netball Federation)
• Junior Sportsman of the Year – Nicholas Notten (Luke Davids)
• Chairman’s Awards – Warren Lucas (Cape Town Gymnastics Association)
• Sportswoman with a Disability of the Year – Elanza Jordaan (Western Province Association for the Physically Disabled – Boccia)
• Sportsman with a Disability of the Year – Mpumelelo Mhlongo (Western Province Association for the Physically Disabled – Athletics)
• Sportswoman of the Year – Hayley Preen (Cape Town Unicity Equestrian Federation)
• Sportsman of the Year – Chad le Clos (Cape Town Metro Aquatics)

Dr Lyndon Bouah, Director of Sport and Recreation at DCAS, said the district award winners would be nominated for the Western Cape Sport Awards and could be set for even higher honours.

“After that we will be nominating the winners for the SA Sports Awards, and what has been happening for the last few years is that the winners of the SA Sports Awards also get invited to the zonal one with all the southern African countries and a number of our top athletes have won at the zonal level as well,” Dr Bouah added.

DCAS works to create an active, responsible and socially cohesive population by providing sport and recreation opportunities to communities across the Western Cape. BETTER TOGETHER.