Green light given for school sport fixtures

There was a buzz of excitement in school sports departments recently, after Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga announced in the Government Gazette that school sporting fixtures can go ahead, subject to conditions.

This includes sport matches, physical education, extra-curricular activities and inter-school, district, provincial and national school sport tournaments.

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These activities are permitted without any spectators, subject to compliance with hygiene and safety measures to prevent and combat the spread of Covid-19, and with social distancing measures pertaining to gatherings.

The following safety measures must be adhered to when resuming the activities:

• A Covid-19 compliance officer must be appointed for each venue
• There must only be one controlled entrance to the venue
• All participants must undergo health and temperature screening before warm-up
• Hand sanitiser must be available at the entrance gate and every person who enters must be screened and sanitised
• A register of all officials and learners from visiting and hosting schools attending the event must be kept for 21 days
• A maximum of 100 people at indoor venues and 250 people at outdoor venues
• All ablution facilities and sport equipment must be sanitised
• Teams, technical officials, volunteers, medical staff and registered members of the media or broadcaster team must leave the venue as soon as their responsibilities are completed
• Masks must be worn at all times, except when competing in the fixture
• Championships, tournaments and inter-school sport matches that require learners to travel to other schools or provinces may resume, also without spectators.
• A list of names of all officials, learners and any other person from the visiting school must be provided to the hosting school at least three days before an event or match.

These amendment directions came into operation on 27 March, on publication in the Government Gazette.

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