CORRECTIONAL VOLLEYBALL’S AFRICAN DREAM STALLED

MBABANE – “COVID-19 stole our dream of competing and conquering the African Senior Club Championship.”

This was an assertion made by His Majesty’s Correctional Services Sunrise Volleyball team coach Mbuso ‘Pumpy’ Vilakati, who lamented missing the chance to compete in the African Senior Club Volleyball Championships due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Nedbank Volleyball League 2019 champions, both ladies and men’s teams, missed the chance to compete in the Zone 6 games in Malawi last December. Their conquest in the Zone 6 campaign would have been their ticket to the peak of the competition, the African Senior Club Championships, a battle against Africa’s creme de la creme teams of the region.

There were no volleyball tournaments in 2020 in the country as COVID-19 emerged just before the season kick-started, forcing sports activities to be suspended. To date, volleyball, alongside netball and basketball, remain inactive as they were declared high risk contact sports according to government’s sports category. Vilakati voiced his fears of missing out on the competition once again if volleyball remained suspended.

Challenged

“At team level, we are familiar with competition. We made history and won the Zone 6 campaign in 2018, but financial challenges barred us from progressing to the championships. I am appealing to government to allow volleyball to return because we are already behind compared to other countries like South Africa,” said Vilakati. Vilakati said the logistic of the sport allowed for at least four technical time-out breaks which would allow the players to sanitise their hands and balls as a safety precaution against COVID-19. “Volleyball is not a contact sport and we can use up to four balls per game. From point one to 25, we can sanitise at least four times. As long as we follow the rules and test players, I believe we can play,” said Vilakati.

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