Rejuvenate club sport in the region

An issue weighing heavily on my heart as an avid sportsman is how club sport has died out over the years in the King Cetshwayo district.

I remember like it was yesterday how sport blossomed in the area in terms of code variety, number of tournaments, and number and quality of athletes.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic halted events, sport within the city had already dropped in standard.

Melmoth, Mtubatuba and uShaka Warriors are just a few rugby clubs in the area that no longer exist owing to lack of funding and player availability.

Badminton was once hotly contested in the Empangeni Civic Centre, but this is no longer the case.

Galas were jam-packed with swimmers, but now the numbers are dwindling as the focus shifted more to development swimmers, noble as the concept is.

A number of teams have dropped out of the local squash league, drastically weakening the league.

Golf days have become few and far between at the Empangeni Country Club.

There also used to be a number of track and field events at the uMhlathuze Central Sporting Complex, which have now also faded away.

Tennis also has seen a decline in player numbers, with hardly any local tournaments being offered. We used to boast about our provincial and national sportsmen and -women across a number of codes.

In recent years, the municipality also wanted to close certain sporting clubs in Richards Bay which, luckily, has not happened, and I hope it doesn’t.

I call on municipalities in the region to make all efforts to rejuvenate sport in the area, and focus on grass roots level to ensure certain codes do not die out.

AVID SPORTSMAN