Members of the South African women’s softball team will each have to fork out a whopping R25 000 to represent their country at the world series scheduled for Venezuela in June.
This follows hard on the heels of the news that each member of the national men’s hockey team had to raise R10 000 to play in the Champs Challenge held in Argentina last year.
Softball South Africa (SSA) and the South African Hockey Association (Saha) blamed the National Lotto Distribution Board, which funds most federations in the country.
“The funds we get from Lotto are either insufficient or arrive well after the event intended for their use has passed owing to bureaucratic bottleneck,” Saha chief executive Marrisa Langeni said this week.
SSA president Guillo Marapjane, whose association does not have the money to pay for the trip, echoed Langeni’s sentiments: “We have an application pending with Lotto but have not heard anything from them. We don’t even have our project number.
“Our past relationship with the Lotto board has taught us that financial allocation is never given when you expect it.”
While the softball team members scramble to raise the collective R300 000 to make the trip to Venezuela, more than R100-million is reportedly tied up with National Lottery Distribution Board red tape.
SSA initially decided not to enter the team for the world series because of its unhealthy financial state and doubts about future funding.
However, the players told SSA they wanted to participate, even if it meant paying their own way.
After much deliberation, the SSA council decided to sanction South Africa’s participation in the world series on condition team members raised the required finance.
Asked how the SSA leadership came to such a decision, Marapjane said: “SSA was faced with a tough decision and when we looked at our financial forecast it became clear we should shelve this event … but then our players refused to be left out in the international cold and asked us to consider their proposal.”
South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) president Gideon Sam, who also chairs the National Lottery Board, was equally unhappy that national teams are being forced to dig into their own pockets for the right to represent their country.
He said it was not fair for South African teams “playing the national anthem, flying the national flag … representing our country” to have to pay their own way. He called for an investigation.
“We need to find out if SSA applied to Lotto and, if they did, what happened to the allocation.
“If the application was not made, we need to ask SSA officials why not,” said Sam.
The national softball players do not appear to be disheartened. They are motivated and undergoing tough and rigorous training. They have turned to their clubs, family, supporters and Facebook friends to help them raise funds.
The SSA will host the World Softball Youth Championship in Cape Town in December next year.