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Netball South Africa (NSA) has decided to postpone all on-court activities during the two-week lockdown period.
With President Cyril Ramaphosa announcing new lockdown restrictions on Sunday in light of rising Covid-19 infections, NSA chose to halt activities with the option to review them in two weeks’ time.
NSA president Cecilia Molokwane, who recovered from Covid-19 last year, said they needed to prioritise the lives of all the people involved in netball.
“The decision to postpone all our planned events for now is one that is in line with government regulations, we need to respect what our government recommends,” Molokwane said in a statement.
“Secondly, it is very important that we preserve the lives of all our players, coaches, umpires, administrators and support staff.
“We are living in unprecedented times and that means we need to allow ourselves to be very flexible to change as we never know what to expect from this pandemic.”
While netball at school level stopped because of the halting of contact sports in May, tournaments affected by the postponement are the Netball Club Championships which were approaching the conclusion in some of the districts.
The Junior Netball Championships that included Under-17s, Under-18s and Under-19s have been postponed until October.
With South Africa hosting the 2023 Netball World Cup, a little bit of preparation has been taken away, but Molokwane said the decision was a painful one to take.
“It is very important that we put lives before the sport, we need to be mindful of the fact that we are dealing with an invisible pandemic.” – News24
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