When the year 2020 started, all of us had amazing plans of what we wanted to achieve, we set targets and milestones for ourselves either as individuals, teams, and corporates. Some of us went as far as coining the year 20 plenty, 2020 a year of clear visions. We did this because we are people who live in hope, we are very optimistic and always look at the bright side of life.
This was the case with us as well at Netball South Africa, we had a great 2019 and we felt that because we had set the bar that high the previous year, we wanted to do better in 2020. As a President of the Federation I am surrounded by amazing people who are not only hard workers but smart as well. This is from Administrators, Executive Members, Council Members, Associate Members, Staff, Players, coaches, and umpires, this is a blessing I do not take for granted.
The first three months of the year have been very challenging for all of us in the country and in the world. The novel Corona Virus that broke late last year and into the new year has forced sporting codes around the world to be suspended till further notice and none of us were really prepared nor ready for this.
For me personally it was challenging because as I was busy executing my responsibilities with the CEO, Blanche de la Guerre travelling up and down and ensuring that we get started with getting ready for the 2023 Netball World Cup I unfortunately contracted COVID 19 and tested positive. This was really a stressful period for me however as a leader I needed to remain positive and stay strong. I believed that I could overcome this not only for myself but for those around me.
On the work front, we have big plans still for 2020. We have our under 21 team needing to prepare for Africa qualifiers so that they can compete at the 2021 Youth World Championships in Fiji and we need to get them ready for this. We still believe that this will happen, and we need to keep going. Our SPAR Proteas also have some tournaments to participate in such as the Four Nations Netball tournament in Australia as well as the Diamond Challenge later in the year.
We had planned to have a bigger and better 2020 Telkom Netball League that was scheduled to start beginning of May however because of the lockdown we have had to park it and look for alternative dates for this tournament. When we say bigger, we wanted to move the tournament to three provinces with possibly more teams participating in it.
In conclusion I would like to thank all our sponsors who are essentially our partners for their unwavering support especially during these trying times. None of us were ever ready for this, none of us saw this coming however you have stood by us even during this period and for that I would personally like to thank you.
To all our players, coaches, umpires, Council and Executive Members, Associate Members, administrators and staff members, thank you very much for also playing your part in keeping the fires burning, thank you very much for adhering to rules of engagement and staying at home and being healthy. We will come out of this, tell stories, and continue doing what we love very soon.
Remember this as at the end of it all, Coronavirus does not move people do, stay home and be safe
Yours in Service
President Cecilia Molokwane
