Mbalula to announce SA sports awards nominees

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Pretoria - Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula is expected to announce the nominees of the 2011 South African Sports Awards later this evening in Rustenburg.

When launching the SA Sports Award last month in Johannesburg, Mbalula dedicated the event to newly crowned world female welterweight champion, Noni Tenge.

The theme for this year's awards is, 'Today's Leaders, Tomorrow's Legends'. The awards will be held on 21 August at Sun City in the North West province.

The event is a programme of the Sports and Recreation Department in partnership with the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) and the North West Department of Sports, Arts and Culture.

Mbalula said: "The Sports Awards are imperative as they are not only a platform for incentive and jollity for sport excellence, but a celebration of human triumph."

The award categories are: Administrator of the Year; Sportsman of the Year; Sportsman of the Year with a Disability; Sportswoman of the Year; Sportswoman of the Year with a Disability; Team of the Year.

Newcomer of the Year; Coach of the Year; Steve Tshwete Lifetime Achievement Award; Volunteer of the Year; Minister's Award; Indigenous Games Star of the Year; Federation of the Year; Photographer of the Year; Journalist of the Year and Sports Star of the Year.

The judges of the awards are a panel of experts including Doctor Khumalo, Kass Naidoo, Gary Lemke and Cynthia Tshaka.

To ensure that the awards are fairly done, an auditing company will be appointed to oversee the process.