USSA News Vol 4 USSA President Voice The USSA Council Meeting took place on Saturday, 21st April 2018, preceded by a number of other meetings held on Friday, 20th April 2018 that include the NUSAs President’s Forum, Heads of Sport Forum, Student Forum and later that the day a National Executive Committee. Friday turned out to be a long day packed with important meetings with important discussions with more to follow at the AGM the next day. Not only did we focus on the governance aspects and important discussions to continue the legacy of university sport during 20-21 April 2018, but also celebrated 24 years of SASSU/USSAs existence, noting the birth of our unified structure on 16 April 2004. The President further acknowledged the total of 34 years of outstanding and dedicated service rendered by Mr Louis Nel, our Chief Executive Officer (CEO). The President requested our women and men (those who can or wanted to), to wear a ‘doek’ in memory of our late Mama Nomzamo Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and further reminded our USSA family to find ways for her legacy to become part of our daily lives. She further acknowledged how she taught us to be brave, to defy what goes against our principles and to be courageous during tough times. With such inspiration, our President reminded us to always have hope and she quoted Maya Angelou who reminds us “To be the rainbow in someone’s cloud” and to have no fear, but to believe in what is right and important for us all as human beings. We celebrated the performances of all our recent individuals and teams and to mention but a few recent achievements: USSA Athletics Team’s performance at the WUC held in Switzerland with our Women 1st and Men 3rd on overall points. USSA Cricket did it again, winning the CSA Future Cup Championships. Gold Coast Common Wealth Games: FISU article covering 12 former USSA FISU Summer Universiade graduates winning 6 medals. Important issues discussed at our AGM are: The new 5-year strategic plan, the importance, strengthening of human and other resources to ensure successful implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and reporting. The funding of our national university teams for competitions such as CUCSA, FASU, World University Championships (WUCs) and World Student Games (Summer Universiade) needs to be revisited with very good recommendations from our member universities for further investigation and implementation. The preparation, selection and confirmation of our respective teams, especially for the Summer Universiade and WUCs to at least have a year lead-time. The matter of TVET colleges and the possible future role of USSA that could have a positive impact on our membership and broaden the participation base. The proposal to revive our provincial tournaments with key considerations such as the reduction in provincial membership. Motions to amend our constitution and regulations were well received, with some important discussions that led to a few referred to the October meeting. The NEC and our respective task teams were given the go ahead to develop the necessary plans for the above-mentioned matters to be realised, understanding its financial impact, therefore the need for member universities, partners and corporate investment noted as critical. National sport issues continue to inform our daily lives and to note the ongoing challenges such as player well-being, recruitment and retention, coaching, technical and general leadership and management issues, affecting sport at different levels. The President urged members to do whatever is necessary to ensure that we continue to advance and protect our governance system; our product and most importantly that we continue to be always of service to our student-athletes and their various support systems. The meeting also endorsed a decision taken by the National Executive Committee to co-opt Ms. Nqobile Gama from University of Johannesburg to fill a vacancy that occurred due to a resignation of Ms. Busisiwe Sijora. Ms. Gama will serve in the National Executive Committee with immediate effect until the next NEC elections scheduled for April 2020. We thank the USSA Head Office for their commitment and hard work to ensure a well presented meeting pack that ensured another successful AGM as well as our membership for their contributions during the meeting. We look forward to see you all at our October meeting. Thank you Posted by USSA Communications Unit on 08 May, 2018. Source: