Sport Matters

Magangeni Primary School in Malamulele, Limpopo, is a rural school with not so much to write about in terms of rescources and facilities. The school is well run and taken care of by its management, a fact which should be the standard for all schools. However, for a rural school in a community where girls come against great odds to get ahead in life, Magangeni has been doing great over the years. In November 2018, then 13-year-old Hlulani Baloyi was in the news for having earnt the right to represent South Africa in the spelling competition in Kenya. The following year a teacher from Magangeni, Florence Bekwa, received an award at the National Teachers’ Awards. In 2020 Bekwa clinched another national gong, with a brand new car as part of her prizes, for winning the excellence in primary school teaching prize award. Other female teachers at Magangeni Primary also excelled in the national teaching awards in 2015 and 2016. In 2021, a former Magangani pupil and agriculture academic, Hl

Earlier today I settled down to a highlights package of major sports events which took place the previous day and I saw an interesting headline at the bottom of the screen: "Higuita claims Stage 5 in the Basque tour." Tour of the Basque Country is a major cycling event taking place right now, in the northern Spain region in the name of the contest. I'm not a cycling enthuiast even though I admire the athleticism of the cyclists making a career out of this sport. So what hooked me about Sergio Higuita, a name previously unknown to me, winning a stage in the Basque tour, is his last name. Before today, the only Higuita I knew about is the former Colombia goalkeeper René Higuita - or José René Higuita Zapata to go the full hog. He was not just a keeper in the conventional sense but a lot more - more on the crazy, hence the nickname El Loco. Higuita was not mad in a true sense of the word but kept the world of football and his Colombian national team on tenterhooks with