Free Gender group remembers sporting, gender activist Cheryl Roberts
NON-profit organisation Free Gender paid a special tribute in memory of veteran sports journalist and transformation and gender-activist Cheryl Roberts. A memorial event was held for Roberts at the Isivivana Centre, Khayelitsha Mall, on Saturday.
Free Gender advocacy co-ordinator and founder Funeka Soldaat said around 60 young lesbians from Strand, Mfuleni, Cape Town CBD and Khayelitsha attended the event.
The black lesbian advocacy group is based in Khayelitsha.
“Free Gender remembered the involvement of Cheryl Roberts to the organisation,” Soldaat said.
The memorial also included panel discussions on activities beyond sexualities, Soldaat said.
“Cheryl was a quiet person but good at documenting and that’s why our panel was around documentation and activism.”
Tributes continue to come through following Roberts’ death earlier this month. She represented South Africa as a table tennis player at the 1992 Summer Olympics Games in Barcelona. She died on October 7, due to cancer, at the age of 62.
Roberts would use her own money to sponsor individual girls and women or clubs by paying for their transport, food and sports gear.
She also used her social media and other platforms to raise awareness around representation and fought for the promotion and recognition of women in sport. As an author, her works often contextualised sport within the patriarchal and racist existence in South Africa.
Free Gender chairperson Lydia Nikani said: “The event took place as a remembrance to Cheryl and shared her contributions to Free Gender in all aspects especially in media, sport, photography and documentation. There were celebrations through poetry and singing as she was not a woman of many words but actions.”
As Free Gender, Nikani said they would continue to champion the work done by Roberts.