Palesa Mbukwana decided to start playing netball while in Grade Nine at Nigel High School.
The 25-year-old from Rest In Peace KwaThema, says it wasn’t long before she was selected to play in the U/15 Gauteng schools sports.
She played for the school team until she was in the U/19 team, which she was forced to leave after completing matric.
Palesa then joined the Spartans, a local team which played in the Eastern Gauteng league.
It was during a game that she was selected to play in the South African championships in Potchefstroom.
“In Potchefstroom I was one of the 30 people chosen to be part of the national team in 2010,” says Palesa.
The tall player has experience in playing different positions, including wing attack, wing defence, goal defence and goalkeeper.
Palesa shares that a year after joining the national team, they participated in the All Africa Games, hosted by Mozambique.
Sadly Palesa says it’s not easy to make a living by playing netball, as the sport doesn’t have a lot of sponsors.
“Netball is just for fun, I continue to play because it’s a God-given talent and because I inspire others to play the sport,” said the Black Tigers’ player.
