By Karabo Ntanzi
David Selebogo, an ardent sports fan found a novel way to fuse his interests with and merge it with zeal to address what he saw as the rising social evil of drug taking and unplanned pregnancies.
“A serious intervention is needed to curb social ills such as drugs, alcohol, and teenage pregnancy in schools and communities. One way is the introduction of a variety of sports in schools. That would require a serious financial injection from the Department of Sports Arts and Culture and other stakeholders because some sports are expensive”.
One of these sports is softball, popular in the United States but less so in South Africa. Roma Nna media spoke to David Selebogo, Interim Chairperson of SoftBall in the province.
“We had a team that represented the province at the annual provincial games. The squad included three players from Warrenton, Kuruman, and Francis Baard. However, the annual games are on hold due to financial constraints. We now have two teams in Galeshewe, the “Giants” and the “Rock Diamonds”. We have another team in Platfontein. Our school teams in Platfontein and Galeshewe are Tetlanyo, Flamingo, and Mankurwane. We used to have players from Vuyolwethu High school but they are not coming anymore,” explained Selebogo.
According to Selebogo, funding, equipment acquisition and a playing field are significant obstacles to the sport’s growth.
“There is no publicity and softball is also struggling with the grounds. The people at Galeshewe stadium want us to pay and Yorkshire doesn’t want to share the playground. Some of the stuff we buy out of our pockets but the department doesn’t want to give us balls. The difference between soccer and softball is that ours is very expensive. The ball costs about R200 while the glove costs R1000. We need 14 cloves for one team,” highlighted the Interim chairperson.
When asked about the selection process for consideration to the provincial team, Selebogo said, “There is supposed to be a club at each school. We select from these and other local teams to form a provincial team. After selection we keep training them until they have reached a certain level as a team. After that we compete with other teams to see how we perform. We then play against provinces such as Gauteng (Pretoria) and the Western Cape. However, accommodation is a major obstacle when assembling a provincial squad with players from other towns.
“However, at the moment we don’t want financial assistance as yet until our bank account is in order. We need someone to sponsor us with equipment,” added Selebogo.
“The motto of the Northern Cape Province is ‘Sa ||a! aisi ‘uisi’ – which means: ‘We go to a better life’ in the San language. Bringing this motto to life hasn’t always been easy in a province affected by unemployment, poor access to opportunities resulting in generational poverty,”
The provincial team has had a number of practice games despite the dire need for equipment and playing sports fields especially in the greater Kimberley area.
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