Johannesburg, 22 February 2024– Thembalethu Primary School in Soweto played host today to the official handover of 10,000 netballs and 5,000 rugby balls to underprivileged schools across South Africa. The donation comes from Discovery and its clients, who contributed either by donating their rewards through Vitality’s philanthropic crowdfunding platform “MoveToGive” or by tapping their Discovery Bank virtual cards around the 2023 Rugby World Cup. Discovery also donated a netball for every goal scored by our national side, the Spar Proteas during the Netball World Cup.
Thembalethu is one of more than 1 000 schools, which are beneficiaries of the donation that will be distributed by six non-profit sports development organisations.
- Netball South Africa,
- Tag Rugby Association,
- VUKA Rugby,
- South African Deaf Rugby Association
- Dreamfields Projects,
each of which work with communities where sports opportunities are limited, and provide coaching, equipment, and tournaments for young players.
Firoze Bhorat, Discovery’s Chief Marketing Officer said, “Sport has the power to inspire young girls and boys to achieve their goals and dreams, and we’re excited to make this donation as part of our commitment to promote sports development and physical activity to build a healthier society. We also thank Discovery clients for making this donation possible through their incredible participation in the campaigns we ran over the Netball and Rugby World Cup tournaments last year.”
About the beneficiaries:
- Tag Rugby Association – a non‑profit, public benefit organisation and an Associate Member of the South African Rugby Union (SARU) that develops youth sport programmes.
- VUKA Rugby – a sustainable rugby programme developed by the South African Rugby Legends (SARLA), in partnership with SARU, that aims to develop and promote rugby in disadvantaged communities and areas where it is not being played.
- South African Deaf Rugby Association – an associate member of SARU that supports deaf and hard‑of‑hearing youth and creates opportunities for them to play rugby regionally and internationally.
- Dreamfields – a non-profit organisation that uses the power of sport – including finding and coaching the next generation of netball stars – to create better schools, more opportunities and stronger communities in rural areas and townships.
- Netball South Africa – the governing body for netball in South Africa which is responsible for overseeing the practice of the sport across the country.
