A successful first meeting of SASCOC’s newly formed Gender Equity Commission was staged in Johannesburg recently.

Chaired by the Olympic governing body’s First Vice-President, Ms Hajera Kajee, the meeting took place at Olympic House. One of the key functions of the Commission will be to monitor the development of gender equity across the full South African sporting spectrum.

The Commission will be made up of SASCOC Board members, SASCOC members as well as people with particular expertise on gender equity.

The first meeting was attended by Commission members Ms Merrill King, Ms Ilhaam Groenewald and Messrs Jerry Masia and Bongani Zondi.

The Commission plans to meet on a regular three-monthly basis but the next meeting will be conducted on Sunday, 22 April, again at Olympic House.

Among various matters discussed at the meeting were the fact that there is a wide stigma that women are only seen as fit to be placed as secretaries and not play any part in major decision making or chairing of important meetings.

The meeting also discussed the fact that culture and religion can become major hindrances to the participation of women.

The Commission also hopes to extend its influence outside South African in future and envisages collaboration with other countries in the continent, once its own house in order. The Commission also believes the continental link would have a positive effect on the influence of gender equality and the participation of women.

For his part, SASCOC CEO Mr Tubby Reddy heartily endorsed the establishment of the Commission. “I have recently returned from the meeting of ANOC, the Olympic Committees of the world and the aspect of gender equality and women leadership and participation was a large focus. Our federations will need to adhere to the resolutions from this meeting”

The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) on Wednesday hosted the celebration of the important 100 days-to-go landmark for the much anticipated 2012 Olympics Games in London.

Broadcast live exclusively on SABC 2′s Morning Live television programme, the 100 days extravaganza took place at Golf Reef City, Johannesburg early on Wednesday morning, and featured a most apt theme of ‘Going for Gold’ with award-winning journalist turned world renowned commentator Duane Dell’oca in charge of the proceeding as the MC.

Among the dignitaries who joined in the celebrations were the Deputy Minister of Sports and Recreation, Mr Gert Oosthuizen; Ms Hajera Kajee and Mr Les Williams, respectively first and second Vice-Presidents of SASCOC; SASCOC Chief Executive Officer, Tubby Reddy as well as Presidents from various National Federations. Sporting hopefuls for the London 2012 Olympic Games, including track and field athletes and members of the national men’s hockey team, who will be leaving for their Olympic Qualifier tournament in Japan on Thursday, were also in attendance.

Wednesday’s celebration saw Cecil Africa (Springbok Sevens star), former Bafana Bafana captain and now retired football legend Lucas Radebe, golf sensation Ernie Els, retired international cricket ace Makhaya Ntini and Cynthia Tshaka – one of the first Laureus Ambassadors in South Africa as well as the founder of the Sports Hero’s walk against HIV/Aids – were unveiled as Team South Africa Ambassadors.

“The role of the Team SA Ambassador is to inspire and mentor the Team SA athletes competing at the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, while encouraging young and old people worldwide to become more active in sport”, said Reddy .

Already a star in his own right, the recently announced Team SA mascot, Chukuru, once again showed why he is the fans’ favourite, especially when he has his dancing boots on. Members of the public recently voted for the rhino-like mascot as the most popular mascot for Team SA going forward to all multi-coded sports events.

Following Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula’s Magnificent Friday initiative before the Soccer, Cricket and Rugby World Cups, where South Africans were encouraged to wear green and gold on Fridays, SASCOC also launched a supporter’s shirt for Team SA Fridays.

Predominately green, the (supporters) shirt will be available in selected stores around the country, ahead of the regular staging of Team SA Fridays which kick off this weekend and are sure to drum up more popular support for Team SA at the world’s biggest global sports event.

South African Airways (SAA) on Tuesday announced its support and sponsorship of Team South Africa who will partake in the upcoming London 2012 Olympics and Paralympic Games.

The announcement, which comes close to 100 days before the start of the Games, was made at a signing ceremony jointly hosted by the SAA and the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) at a South African Airways Technical hangar at the OR Tambo International Airport.

Speaking at the event, the Chairperson of the SAA Board of Directors, Cheryl Carolus, said: “SAA, as a national carrier, has a long standing history of supporting various national activities. This agreement is another significant contribution to our national efforts and our company’s mission of bringing the world to Africa and taking Africa to the world. As the national carrier, we are thus honoured to support Team South Africa by flying them to London – backing them all the way in true South African style,” Carolus said.

The sponsorship comes in the form of the issuance of air tickets which allows participating athletes and officials to fly the national carrier for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games. The occasion was attended by a host of dignitaries including the Minister of Public Enterprises Malusi Gigaba as well as the Minister of Sports and Recreation Fikile Mbalula.

Addressing guests at the event, Minister Gigaba alluded to the significant role that state owned companies such as SAA can play in the developmental endeavours of the country. “This partnership attests to SAA’s commitment and unquestionable support to the South African brand and the country’s broader objectives. I am confident that this collaboration will spur on our athletes and encourage them to bring home the gold,” Gigaba said.

Speaking on behalf of the Confederation, SASCOC President Gideon Sam thanked SAA for coming aboard for this exciting Olympics and Paralympics journey.

“I have to say that patience is indeed a virtue. We have been ‘courting’ SAA for some time now although we were obviously mindful that the current economic situation worldwide is impacting on all businesses.

“A chance meeting with the SAA Chairperson created that gap for us to raise the matter again. She was adamant that it would be over her dead body that the pride of South Africa must be transported to and from the Games on a foreign carrier. The rest is history and here we are today to say thank-you to a most welcome new partner.

“All South Africans will no doubt join us in thanking SAA for being so kind as to partner the sports movement in general and our athletes in particular.”

SASCOC CEO Tubby Reddy also expressed his heartfelt gratitude to SAA. “It makes perfect sense for the cream of our country’s athletes to be flown by our world renowned national carrier and we are extremely grateful for SAA’s involvement in this regard particularly in these tight financial times. And hopefully there will be additional extra baggage on the return journey in the form of some medals won by Team SA.”

“The injection of cash and kind support in anyway necessary to help Team SA to perform well in the 2012 London spectacle, is welcomed.  For Team SA, to make the country proud we need big business, state owned enterprises and all interested parties to invest their time, energies and trust in the team to bring us those medals.  We are hopeful that by the time the departure day comes, we would have had many companies knocking at the Team SA door to inject more resources,” Minister Mbalula said.

Minister Mbalula further stated that all athletes must understand that they are our ambassadors and must focus their energies on ensuring that they sharpen their tools to represent the hopes of millions of South Africans.