Call on women basketball players on Potch campus to stick to the rules

The Potchefstroom campus’ basketball has been shaken by internal conflict over players who have allegedly disregarded the North-West University (NWU) rules for the sporting code.

In the latest incident on the inter-campus sports day on 8 August, two members of the Potch campus’ women’s basketball team chose to play for the Vaal campus rather than for their own team.

“After this was discovered, the Potchefstroom Student Campus Council (SCC) immediately banned them [the two players] from playing in the next match, which was going to be the Vaal campus playing against Potchefstroom, in which they did not play at all,” said Mark Phiri, the chairman and head coach of the NWU Potchefstroom Basketball. 

Phiri added that the players “did not react well” to the decision and one has compiled a report about “racism” and “unfairness”.

Following the team switching on the sport’s day NWU Potchefstroom women’s basketball team was subsequently left without a complete team, and the Sport SCC was forced to ask other residence-based basketball players to fill in. Unfortunately, they [the Potch campus team] lost that match. 

“Five to seven of the NWU Potchefstroom women’s basketball players have been playing for the Vaal and Mahikeng campus in the past,” said Phiri. 

He also mentioned that the Potchefstroom SCC had warned them before that they were not allowed to play for a campus if they did not study or stay on the campus.

Alischa Heunes, the Sport Officer Portfolio Committee of Small Sports and Basketball, said: “This is not the first time they [the players] have disregarded our instruction.”

At the residence basketball league on 6 August 2022, Oppirif, a senior residence, arrived with seven out of nine of the NWU Potchefstroom campus players. In a residence basketball team, only two NWU players are allowed. “Upon hearing that they [the same two players] couldn’t have that many [NWU players], they threatened to resign,” said Heunes.

Yikumba Andreas, Sports Officer of the NWU SCC, said due to circumstances the NWU Potchefstroom Women’s Basketball team lost seven players.

“We now have to recruit some of the players of the residence basketball players to be able to fill up a team,” said Andreas.

“We need this new team to compete in the University Sport South Africa (USSA) basketball league,” said Phiri. He also mentioned that there will still be trials to ensure that the new team is solid and ready for the USSA basketball league.

Phiri say the players who switched teams also did everything in their power to go against the decisions that were made by the SCC.

“One of the players went as far as to send a report to me and the NWU Potchefstroom basketball management team, saying that we are just being racist, unfair and spoiling their fun,” said Phiri.

“In the future, going forward, we need to ensure that all students are aware of the rules concerning sport, because every sport has a philosophy and code that it follows and goes by,” said Phiri.

In addition, he said providing the information to players would ensure that students abide by the rules and that no claim that this is the first time they hear about them.

The two players who got kicked off the Potchefstroom team declined to comment. By Ingerése Keuzenkamp.