Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Mr. Nathi Mthethwa praised gsport4girls for their contribution in raising the profile of women in sport and assured guests at the 2022 Momentum gsport awards that the government will continue to support the initiative.
The Minister delivered a speech at a packed The Wanderers Club in Johannesburg on Wednesday, 14 September, where #gsport17 finalists and other distinguished guests gathered for a night of celebration.
Mr. Mthethwa share similar sentiments as Momentum Metropolitan Group Chief Marketing Officer, Nontokozo Madonsela, as he urged corporate South Africa to get involved in supporting women in sport.
“I am speaking after Ms. Madonsela, who was here, and she spoke so well about the responsibility of all of us, particularly the corporates citizens.”
The minister further painted a picture of how far back the journey of women in sport goes by referencing Richard C. Bell’s words from his review in the sports journal.
“Richard C Bell states the following in a review of the sports journal, ‘certainly woman engaged in sports, three millennials ago, so why is it that today that people want to know if women are involved in sports or not and they can see that women are involved in sports,” added the Minister.
“If we continue to look at what is happening, we see the foundation and that this foundation consists of misogyny, social stereotypes and outright barbaric view of women that we have and continue to fight so hard to eradicate from the facets of our society and in particular sport.”
Mr. Mthethwa acknowledged that the women’s sport journey has not been an easy one but hailed the women who have worked hard to put South Africa on the continental and global map.
“Notwithstanding the fact that the journey has indeed been a long and odious one. We are emboldened by exceptional performances of South African woman in major continental and international competitions in the recent past and they have done us proud, notably only women brought medals from the Tokyo Olympics Games. At the Paralympic Games women brought four medals with men contributing only three [nothing personal to men].
“At the recently concluded Commonwealth Games, women continued to fly the South African flag by bringing fourteen medals while men brought back thirteen medals,” he added.
“Banyana Banyana recently restored our dignity and reclaimed our space in African football with their victory over Morocco following in the footsteps of Mamelodi Sundowns women’s team.”
With the crowd cheering at the mention of Banyana Banyana, the Minister expressed that such victories are important in shaping women’s sport in our country.
“These historical victories are redefining and reshaping various facets of our country’s socio-economic landscape. They speak to the emergent of new role models the little girls and boys can look up to. They speaking to economic emancipation and empowerment of a girl child as they begin to earn and make a living out of sports by setting themselves free from historic bondage and dependency on their male counterparts. This goes a long way in our campaign against gender-based violence and femicide in our country.
“The corporate citizens have a critical responsibility as Miss. Madonsela has alluded to in ensuring that women sport is professionalized and reach a status where women can play sport on a full-time basis.”
With the Netball World Cup and two ICC Cricket World Cup’s making its way to South Africa in 2023, Minister Mthethwa believes that it will be an exciting year which will elevate women’s sport in our country.
“2023 promises to be an exciting year with women in our country as they will be welcoming the women from rest of the world for the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup, T20 Cricket Women’s Cricket World Cup and we will also be hosting the world for the Netball World Cup, just to mention a few.
“Recognition of women’s excellence in sport through special initiatives such as the Momentum gsport Awards undoubtedly goes a long way in encouraging more women and girls to reach even greater heights,” he continued.
“This year marks my department’s 8th year involvement with the awards and allow me to take this opportunity to thank Miss Kass Naidoo and her team for their never say die attitude, commitment and dedication in profiling the achievements and performances of our women athletes and sport administrators. We are here to celebrate our women; we should be celebrating their achievements and where they are and heir basking in glory.
“Thank you Kass and your team! We as government, will make sure that we support you. I can tell you now that over a period of time as we have more discussions with you as government, we are steaming ahead to pass the Women in Sport policy which is aimed at equalizing the playing field for both men and women in this country.
“My sincere appreciation to sponsors and all those who have worked tirelessly to put this event together and sponsors who sponsor women in sport, they are our heroes because all of them without exception did not look at the numbers, they committed themselves to build the numbers with the women in this country,” the Minister concluded.
Photo 1 Caption: Minister of Sport, Arts & Culture Mr Nathi Mthethwa pictured at the 2022 Momentum gsport Awards at The Wanderers Club in Johannesburg on Wednesday, 14 September. Photo: gsport
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