Amathole and Nkonkobe Host Salga Games ’15 in Fort Hare University

By Samkele Letese

After a violent spur of the #FeesMustFall protests, Fort Hare, Alice Campus opened its doors to the community as it hosted the 6^th annual South African Local Government Association (Salga) Games. The games saw local municipalities and teams going head to head in numerous sports.

The games had various sports namely, Boxing, soccer, Volley ball, tug of war, table tennis, netball, pool and rugby seven actions. Amathole Municipality Major, Nomasikizi Khoza said, whilst declaring the games open, “Sport is not about winning. Sport is about enjoyment, by finishing the game you’re already a winner”

The games were hosted by Amathole Municipality along with Nkonkobe Municipality under the theme “Celebrating 15 years of Democratic Local Government. Going back to basics to consolidate and deepen a developmental and people centred local democracy”. 

The goal of the games were to encourage an active, creative and healthy lifestyle to citizens in the province, to focus on mass participation in sporting activities in communities and to encourage collaborative engagement amongst municipalities through participation and contribution in sporting activities.

The games started on the third of December and concluded on the sixth. The Salga games started in 2010 and were hosted by the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality (BCMM), in 2011 were hosted by the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality. In 2012 they were hosted by the O R Tambo Municipality then Alfred Zo in 2013, Chris Hani in 2014 before it came to Nkonkobe Municipality this year.

Major of the Amathole Municipality also emphasized on the 16 days of activism against the abuse of Women and children by motivating the players to know that they are playing to raise awareness. She said she knew that the times we live in are harsh and some of the youth are forced to into playing the role of the parents due tragedious circumstances.

BCMM volley ball player, Kamvelihle Kamile said “I advice all women to be outspoken about abuse, in fact.