Hestrie Cloete
Athlete
Tel: +27 12 997 7342
South Africa’s high-jump queen is taking a couple of seasons away from the athletics circuit. She won silver at the Athens Olympics in 2004 and in Sydney in 2000. The popular jumper from Coligny in the North West was World Athlete of the Year in 2003 and has twice won gold at the world championships. Her personal best is 2,06m. Cloete is married to her second husband, Afrikaans singer Jurie Els.
Pietie Coetzee
Hockey Player
Tel: +2711 482 8240
Southern Gauteng Hockey Association
www.sgha.co.za
Pietie Coetzee has been a regular in the South African women’s hockey team for nearly a decade and is fast approaching the 200 mark in both caps and goals scored. Although her career has often been hit by injury, the southern Gauteng player is still regarded as one of the best strikers in the world, with opponents making special preparations to close down her trademark “drag-flick” shot. Coetzee was born in Bloemfontein but now lives in Johannesburg, where she works as an events organiser.
Natalie du Toit
Swimmer
Tel: +27 11 465 4447/57
Natalie du Toit represented South Africa at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur at the age of 14 in 1998. Her left leg was amputated at the knee after a scooter accident in 2001. At the age of 18, she qualified for the able-bodied 800m freestyle at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2002. She was named the outstanding athlete of the games. Du Toit narrowly missed qualifying for the 2004 Olympics in Athens, but qualified for the Paralympics in the same city and won five golds and one silver. She hopes to qualify for the Beijing Olympics in 2008 if her favourite event, the 1Â 500m freestyle, is made an Olympic event. Du Toit was the only South African to be nominated for a Laureus Award in 2004. She does motivational speeches at conferences in between training.
Tania Fourie
Chief Executive
Women’s World Cup of Golf
Tel: +27 11 646 5730
www.womensgolf.co.za
Tania Fourie took up golf at the age of 23 and got down to a four-handicap within a year. She represented South Africa in three Test matches and gave up playing the sport competitively in 1999. She and Lesley Copeman opened the first women-owned pro shop in the country, at Parkview Golf Course in Johannesburg, and Fourie’s company runs coaching clinics at the course to encourage women to take up golf. In 2000 she organised the Nedbank Women’s Golf Tour, and created the inaugural Women’s World Cup of Golf in 2004. Fourie was joint winner, with Copeman, of the South African Woman of the Year Award in the sports category for 2005.
Penny Heyns
Swimmer
Tel (Manager Zelda van Vuuren): 083 255 8504
www.pennyheyns.com
Penny Heyns is a double Olympic gold medallist and motivational speaker. Her name was splashed across the nation’s media when, in 1996, she became the first South African in 44 years to win an Olympic gold medal. That wasn’t the “golden girl’s” only historical achievement at those Games, however, as her victories in the 100m and 200m breaststroke saw her becoming the only woman to date to accomplish this unique double. Heyns was born in Springs and, after serving as head girl of Amanzimtoti High School, left South Africa to study and train in Nebraska in the United States and eventually Canada. During her career in the pool, Heyns shattered a total of 14 world records, establishing herself as one of the world’s greatest breaststrokers. And since retiring from the sport, after collecting a bronze medal at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, Heyns has poured her passion and dedication into business and public speaking as well as the publication of an autobiography in 2004.
Ria Ledwaba
Chairperson of Women’s Soccer
South African Football Association
Tel: +27 11 494 3522
www.safa.net
Ria Ledwaba is a member of the South African Football Association (SAFA) Subcommittees: Women’s Committee, Provincial Affairs, Competition’s Committee. Ledwaba was Businesswoman of the year 1999. Founder and owner of Ria Stars Football club that sold its status back to the Premier League in 2002. She relinquished her position as project manager of the under-19 women’s football to venture into another male dominated industry, air-conditioning. Ledwaba is a shareholder and director of The Ifihlile Group of companies, the only South African and black-owned air-conditioning company which also has the sole distribution right to supply Gree Air Conditioners throughout Africa. Ledwaba is a shareholder and director of HFF Group of Companies specialising in the manufacturing and distribution of school and office furniture; GAS Pty Ltd Specialist in the manufacturing of chairs and Sinda Health Solution. She has just been appointed to serve in the Sascoc’s Women in Sport Commission Committee.
Mimi Mthethwa
President
Netball South Africa
Tel: +27 12 344 5971
Mimi Mthethwa is in charge of the sport that has the largest number of active participants among women in the country — there are 15Â 000 members of Netball South Africa alone, before you take into account the United Schools Sport of South Africa (Ussasa) and associate memberships. Mthethwa started playing netball at school and went on to be both captain and coach of the University of Zululand side while she studied to be a teacher. She is now a Department of Education deputy chief education specialist, overseeing 33 schools in the Empangeni district. She started in administration as PRO for the Zululand Netball Association and held the position of director of selections at the national body, overseeing the transformation of the sport, before being elected president in late October 2005.
Muditambi (Ntambi) Ravele
General Manager: Marketing and Corporate Communications
Premier Soccer League (PSL)
Tel: +27 11 482 9111
www.psl.co.za
Muditambi Ravele initiated the Women and Sport South Africa project in the Department of Sport and Recreation and was appointed a national coordinator of women and sport in 1997. She was then appointed to lead Netball South Africa and to transform the sport. She received the State President Sport Administrator of the Year Award for 2001/02. As chairperson of Women and Sport South Africa (Wassa), she fought for women’s rights during the All Africa Games in 1999 when women were forced to go through gender testing. She also fought for the scrapping of a discriminatory clause in the South African Boxing Act, which did not allow women to participate in that sport. Ravele serves on several boards of directors: Women Sport International, International Federation on Netball Associations, Laureus Sport for Good Foundation (South Africa). In 2006 Ravele was appointed as the chairperson of the South African Hall of Fame Trust. She is a former president of Netball South Africa. She recently joined the Premier Soccer League as head of marketing and communications.
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