This past weekend saw the South African Baseball Union hold its Annual General Meeting in Gauteng with much enthusiasm for the future of baseball in South Africa.
The physical meeting was preceded by two days of valuable inputs and collaboration from provincial and portfolio representatives with several resolutions taken to secure the future of baseball in South Africa with the common thread being to grow baseball at all levels.
A major resolution saw the adoption of the draft safeguarding policy for base.ball in South Africa. The safeguarding policy which aims at preventing harassment and abuse in sport stems from the SASCOC national regulation that all sport federations in South Africa must have this policy in place and this will now roll out to all baseball members in South Africa.
In addition to the rollout of several educational programs on safeguarding it was undertaken that all clubs and schools must ensure the appointment of a safeguarding representative at their structure.
All members present were reminded by South African Baseball President Mr Marc Moreau that the matter of transformation in sport is not negotiable and they should pay particular attention to the details of the National Transformation Charter, in particular the transformation scorecard. It is widely understood that transformation happens at grassroots and as such all clubs and schools should ensure the provision of their annual transformation targets and achievements as required by the national transformation commission, otherwise known as the EPG.
Additional matters agreed on included the growth of the South African Baseball coaching, scoring and umpires’ structures and various mechanisms to increase membership and sponsorship at all levels with a major focus on education for clubs to promote local business investment and supported with readymade toolkits to assist these leadership structures, which are primarily driven by volunteers.
The continued focus to grow women’s baseball remains one of South African Baseball’s objectives and the deployment of a women and girls’ representative at all baseball structures will undoubtably go a long way towards creating more opportunities for women’s baseball.
Having participated in an unprecedented six world cups during 2022 all present thanked the board for their hard work and the remarkable achievement of being one of the few nations to send a team to all of the WBSC World Cups under very difficult circumstances.
A highlight of the meeting was the presentation of the WBSC Baseball5 African Champions trophy and all round congratulations went to the South African Baseball5 side on this achievement, and then ending 7th at the recent inaugural WBSC Baseball5 World Cup and undoubtedly being the most spirited side at the tournament.
Future plans for baseball in South Africa include the introduction of Baseball5’s at schools and all clubs in South Africa, and it was agreed by all that Baseball5’s, which can be played everywhere with only a soft ball provides an easy introduction to the game of baseball. Baseball5 is a mix-gender five-person team sport and is most likely South Africa’s fastest-growing sport.
For more information on all baseball in South Africa, including women’s baseball, coaches, scoring, umpires, masters, and youth baseball, all current, and past members and baseball fans are encouraged to follow the various South African media platforms that now include YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Web and can sign up to the South African Baseball newsletter ( click here ).
To find out more and sign up for Baseball5 click here
