Celebrating the former heroes of South African primary school sports

TRIBUTE TO UNSUNG ADMINISTRATORS

- MERVYN NAIDOO

SOME yesteryear sports administrators who did yeoman’s work keeping primary schools sports fluid and functional, especially in the days when resources and appropriate facilities were nonexistent, received commendation for their endeavours recently.

A “Recognition Function” to honour the sports stalwarts who impacted the lives of thousands of children, was held at Trubel Primary School in Tongaat, last month.

Family of officials who passed away and some high school sports administrators were among the attendees at the event put together by the Natal Primary Schools Sports Board Trust.

The trust can be best described as a conglomeration of various school sports bodies that were responsible for organising and administering sporting events in the past, with non-racialism being their nonnegotiable standpoint.

Bala Kamal, a long-serving sports administrator and chairman of the trust, stated that it was overdue to appreciate their loyal and dutiful administrators for the work they did under difficult circumstances, especially during the apartheid era.

“It's our first time to host an event such as this where we recognise the efforts of our members. They were overwhelmed and appreciated the recognition. We realised many of them were passing on, so the trust decided to stage the event.”