THE ROLE OF SPORTS IN SOCIETY !!

Modibe Julius Modiba
Johannesburg, South Africa

As I was walking back home in the dusty streets of Daveyton I realized something, I realized the high number of the black youth just gallivanting around and sitting in the corners of our streets. It then hit me that there are hardly quality sports facilities around. I mean if our townships had proper quality sports facilities, high level coaching and a professional administration how better would our black societies be today? I mean let's be honest you never see white kids hanging around the corners of white suburbs doing absolutely nothing unlike what you see in our townships. 

Now let me make an example, if you go to white schools, school starts at 08:00 until 14:00 and after that it's time for the schools extra mural activities with a variety of sports being offered and then
after that those students who are affiliated to sports clubs head down to their sports clubs for more intense training unlike at black schools were school starts 08:00 until 14:00 and after that everyone goes home. Let's be honest, during this free time what happens ? This is the time where our brothers and sisters galavant around and sit in the corners of our streets, indulge themselves in teenage drinking, drugs as well as unprotected sex which then leads to the high number of teenage pregnancy we already have.

 I mean we can complain about the little number of black players in our national rugby team or in our national swimming teams BUT, the question we should ask ourselves is that do black kids go to schools with rugby facilities? Do black kids live in areas with quality swimming facilities? And the answer is NO they don't . So there's no point complaining if we are not going to invest heavily in quality sports facilities in our townships. Sports has the power to transform society, the power to boost academic excellence because in most cases students who participate in sports are also fairly good academically. It's time for our government and various sports associations to up their gear and deliberately invest more in sports facilities in our townships and especially at school level. 

Originally posted on the blog MONARE

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