Private companies and the public reward Olympic medal winners with cash donations

After the government and the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) let down South Africa's two medal winners at the Tokyo Olympics with all sorts of excuses as to why they could not receive cash rewards like previous medal winners, leaders from two large public companies teamed up and raised money to reward these two sportswomen and their coaches.

September 13, 2021

Rekord Pretoria 1 minute read

From left, Armond Boshoff (CEO of Atterbury SA) and Albé Geldenhuys, (CEO of USN) with Tatjana Schoenmaker, who received R600 000 from the Spansaam project for her two Olympic medals. Photo: Koos Venter

Pretoria’s golden swimming girl, Tatjana Schoenmaker, as well as South Africa’s Olympic silver medallist surfer, Bianca Buitendag from the Southern Cape, officially received cash donations in Centurion last week that were collected through a private initiative to reward them for their performance at the recent Olympic Games in Tokyo.

The coaches of these two sports stars also received cash rewards.

A crowdfunding project named Spansaam (“team-up” in Afrikaans) of the real estate development company Atterbury and the sports nutrition company USN raised R1,050,000 for this purpose since kicking-off early in August on the popular breakfast TV programme Die GROOT Ontbyt.

The four people who received cash donations from the Saamspan initiative, during the official handover ceremony. From left is Rocco Meiring (Tatjana Schoenmaker’s coach), Tatjana Schoenmaker, surfer Bianca Buitendag and her coach, Greg Emslie.
Photo: Koos Venter

Spansaam was launched via the Atterbury Trust, a non-profit organisation, after the government and the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) initially indicated that they did not have money available to reward the country’s Olympic medal winners, as has been done in the past.

The Spansaam project has received more than 100 payments from various organisations and individuals since it was launched.

The civil rights organization, Afriforum, also joined the project and gave Spansaam just over R100,000 raised through its own similar initiative.

The official handover to the two Olympic medallists and their coaches took place last week at USN’s offices, in Centurion.

Schoenmaker received R400,000 for her gold medal in the 200m breaststroke event for women and R200,000 for her silver medal in the 100m breaststroke event. Buitendag received R200,000 for the silver medal she won on her surfboard in Tokyo.

Rocco Meiring, who has coached Schoenmaker for the past ten years, received R150,000 and Greg Emslie, Buitendag’s coach, R50,000.

The remaining R50,000 will be allocated by way of a bursary to an upcoming athlete.

Due to the overwhelmingly positive response from ordinary people, businesses and community organisations, the Atterbury Trust will continue Spansaam as a fundraising platform for similar future initiatives to make up for governmental shortfalls, whether on the sports, culture or community front.