Thank you Mr.Moodliar for your kind introductory remarks.
All protocols observed.
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Ladies and gentlemen I bring warm and cordial greetings and the good wishes from Volleyball South Africa to you on the occasion of democratically elected South African Schools Volleyball Association’s (SASVA) inaugural executive committee meeting that will, among other things, set in motion the way forward in the administration and development of schools volleyball in our country.
I must under score that from my dealings with government officials they want a cordial working relationship between the National Federation and the School Sport affiliate. Government’s stand point is that the National Federations are the custodians of sport in our country and as such a good working relationship is imperative in the development of the sport to produce the champions of the future to represent our country on the international platform and to build capacity in educators in the disciplines of coaching, refereeing and administration.
With SASVA’s democratically elected executive I am inspired by HOPE like our President, Comrade Cyril Ramaphosa spoke of a “New Dawn” in his inaugural address in Parliament I too feel that with you on board we can jointly overcome any challenges that may face us in making sure that our children benefit in the best possible way to excel in the sport all the way from school level to provincial, national and international levels.
For delivery to take place core values of honesty, integrity and sincerity to do the best we can will advance our sport for our youngsters.
All of us must be mindful that school sport is crucial to the development of sport in general and if school sport is neglected through poor administration and selfish interests it will spell doom and gloom for sport.
I am also inspired by hope that we are no longer bogged down by “apartheid style” administrators who strangled our sport over the
“dark years” for their own selfish interests and in so doing held back the progress of our sport both for educators and children.
Now that we have buried the demons of the past I present to you a “NEW DEAL” that will charter a fruitful relationship between the NF and Schools Volleyball through ongoing capacity building workshops and country wide development programmes. To this end I implore you as the new exco to join hands with VSA to take back schools volleyball from the decadent past and move forward in the “New Dawn” ascending to dizzy heights.
WE can achieve this only by working together in the interest of the millions of children under the care of school based educators.
- Before I elaborate on our New Deal on offer to Schools Volleyball I want to indulge you briefly on an update of what was done in the past.
- Over the years our development teams have travelled the length and breadth of our country to carry out workshops for educators, learners and community based clubs, spearheaded by internationally accredited coaches.
- In 2016 we helped to set up Eastern Cape’s Schools Volleyball structure.
- In 2017 workshops to capacitate educators as coaches were held in Limpopo, North West and Free State.
- In 2018 follow up programmes were held in Free State, North West and KZN
Ladies and gentlemen our “New Deal” going forward is 2 fold:
- to advance educators through capacity building workshops on an on going basis country wide in relation to coaching, refereeing and administration. Volleyball South Africa has the technical expertise as we have internationally accredited personnel in those respective disciplines. I have instructed both our Schools Volleyball Directorate and the Development Director to present their plans of action for development of schools volleyball for the next 4 years.
- Our Development Directorate will continue with nation wide development and talent identification programmes among learners.
- An elite programme for our future stars will begin provincially in the first instance and in cases where finance becomes available a national camp will be on the cards.
Ladies and gentlemen, given what I have elaborated in terms of our New Deal the ball is now in the court of the new exco to engage with their membership to take advantage of our capacity building workshops that aim to produce over the years national and internationally qualified coaches, referees and administrators.
Finally I wish to inform the exco that I have an open door policy to listen to your concerns but take note that these must be raised with your leadership in the first instance before being escalated to me. I will not by pass the leadership structure.
Once again I am extending a hand of friendship and co-operation to you and wish you well for the 2018 Summer Games.
I leave you with the famous word of the late US President, JK Kennedy who said during his inaugural address at the US Congress
on 20 January 1961:
“Äsk not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”.
In relation to schools volleyball I say:
“ Ask not what schools volleyball can do for you, ask what you can do for schools volleyball.”
I thank you.
Anthony Mokoena
President, Volleyball South Africa (VSA)