2010 Sport Legends | Western Cape Government

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2010 Sport Legends

8 December 2010

The Annual Sport Legend Ceremony that is hosted by the Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport (DCAS) grants an opportunity to honour legends, heroes and icons, who have contributed uncompromisingly to the development, transformation and growth of sport in South Africa and more specifically in the Western Cape. It is the task of our High Performance Sport Promotion Unit to recognise sporting heroes and contributors who qualify as worthy of an award for their contribution in sport.

This year marks the 6th year that DCAS will be recognising the shapers of sport as Western Cape Sport Legends on 15 December 2010 at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens by honouring them in identified sport codes for the roles they have played in ensuring the growth, development, and transformation of sport in difficult circumstances. It also serves to acknowledge the contributions made by individuals as sporting activists, sporting heroes and sporting icons in shaping the future of sport in the Western Cape. In the past it had linkages with the Christmas Tinto Cup. The linkage creates an opportunity for young and old to rub shoulders and share experiences, and hopefully the youth will also obtain wisdom from legends.

The sport codes that will receive focus during 2010 are baseball, bowls, football, golf, gymnastics and netball, and the criteria include people who have made a significant contribution to sport and who are regarded as icons in their communities.

This also provides an opportunity for people who gracefully gave sport their all and who played a role in shaping sport before 1992. Representivity along the lines of gender, demography and geography and a lifetime of service to the code in general also play a role. Nominees must be aged 50 or more and should preferably be in retirement, except in outstanding cases where the qualifications of the candidate speak for themselves. Nomination forms have been in circulation since 31 August 2010 from the federations of the abovementioned sport codes, regional sport councils and regional sport offices and the deadline was 28 October 2010.

A Selection Committee consisting of representatives from each regional sport council, nominated media journalist(s), and nominated member(s) of the sport fraternity considered useful in the process (nominations are made by the Transformation and Monitoring Committee) adjudicated the collation and evaluation of all nominations.

During previous years, the following codes were acknowledged: athletics, boxing, netball, darts, hockey, table tennis, rugby, football (up to 2010), disability sport, chess, cricket, softball, weightlifting, karate, tennis, cycling and volleyball. To date a total of 213 Legends have been acknowledged, numbering as follows: during 2005, 37; during 2006, 67; during 2007, 29; during 2008, 31 and during 2009, 49.

Philasande Macwili at the High Performance Unit believes that giving the appropriate honour to people that gave their life for sport is like saying "thank you" to your mother and father for the sacrifice they made for your upbringing, education and wellbeing. It also sets an example for the youth, teaching them that hard work is never wasted; instead, it is always rewarded at the end.