First of six cheque handovers boosts West Coast sport federations

The Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport, through its Sport Promotion Directorate, has embarked on cheque handovers across the various districts in order to support sporting federations in their re-opening of the sector.

On Monday, 14 September 2020, Minister Anroux Marais handed over a total of R610 000 to the West Coast District sport federations to empower affiliated federations and clubs with funds needed to again administer, develop and host capacity building workshops.

Chief Director of Sport and Recreation, Dr Lyndon Bouah, opened the proceedings, hosted in Piketberg, with the following words: “We believe that all sport federations must within the structures of Covid-19 start to resume training and playing as sport and recreation is important for communities. The West Coast sport federations play an important role in bringing communities together and we hope that this funding ceremony and the funds will assist in rebuilding social cohesion.”

In her keynote address, Minister Marais spoke about the challenging past few months but also expressed her optimism about the way forward: “We have changed the way we live, how we say hello and even how we play sport and practice recreation. As many restrictions have now been relaxed and as we head into the recovery phase, we can now safely move forward in the Western Cape and get to work as the task ahead of us is great, but together, we will conquer, as we have time and again.” she said.

This was the first of six handover events planned across the province. The next handover will take place in the Central Karoo district on 22 September 2020.