Holiday Message from Netball South Africa & Africa Netball President, Cecilia Molokwane

The Festive Season is a time where we traditionally spend it with family to reflect on the year that was, remind ourselves on how far we have come, take stock of the challenges and victories we came across throughout the year and most importantly it is a time of festivities and celebrations.

As we bring down the curtain on another year riddled with COVID and most recently the tragedy that befell the netball fraternity, I would like all of us to take a moment and reflect, remember those that we lost and celebrate them in the process.

COVID has really made us relook at life but most importantly be innovative in how we do things – we have survived yet another year, we have shown our resilience and strength.

Please be mindful of the fact that we are still in the middle of a pandemic so as we go out and celebrate, kindly be safe, wear your masks, sanitize and adhere to all government regulations regarding COVID.

If you are traveling be do so carefully, drive carefully and arrive alive because we really would like to see you again in the new year. My prayer and desire for you is that you enjoy your holidays with friends, family and loved ones.

Thank you to each and every single one of you for the role you played and contribution you made in helping us grow the sport and taking it forward. None of our achievement would have been possible without you, for that we are grateful.

Your positive criticism makes us grow and think out of the box, all we need to always remember and make a priority is PUTTING THE ATHLETES FIRST in the midst of everything we do.

I will always say, Africa is a giant that needs to be awaken, working together in achieving this goal is key, however the sad part is we cannot achieve anything if we compete and not complement each other.

We are the biggest continent in the World let’s show that by getting more team qualify for World Cups and Commonwealth games and for the future Olympic Games because that’s where I believe our sport should compete.

Getting sponsorship and having our main goal and focus because we can only improve our ranking and the standard of Netball in our continent if we play competitive games regularly.

It’s still a dream of us to have an African League that is fully sponsored so as we can compete with the best of the best in the World.

To the countries that improved on their world rankings, congratulations and to Tanzania congratulations for going back to the world ranking, to countries that organised ranking games this year thank you from us Africa Netball.

To our Africa Champs congratulations and to those players from all over Africa that got international contracts we are super proud of you.

To Malawi and Kenya congratulations on being selected as countries that will benefit from 2023 Netball World Cup Legacy, not forgetting, Botswana, Seychelles, USA and another country that will still be identified.

We learned to do things in the new normal and thank you for all countries that participated in our AGM.

Let’s encourage UNITY and more introduce Netball in other countries in Africa.

Roads are now leading us to Morocco to our first Male Africa Cup.