Netball SA president Mimi Mthethwa says the national team coaching job is off-limits to all local coaches with ambitions of ascending to the plum job.
The association will rather stick with Australian-born Norma Plummer and former Australian goal attacker and now assistant coach, Nicole Cusack, for the job until such time that local coaches change their mentality about team selection.
According to her, the local coaches who have coached the Netball Proteas previously were subjective in their team selection, stalling transformation, as many deserving players were excluded, and those who were selected were just being benchwarmers in competitions.
Mthethwa said she had heard the cry about the predominantly white Netball Proteas and had taken a decision to steer the team towards being 90% black “because that is how the country looks like”.
Addressing Eastern Cape Aloes players in East London, Mthethwa said: “This year you are going to be lucky because last year we engaged Norma Plummer and Nicole Cusack and we will continue using them this year for a simple reason that is known ... right now there is no coach I can give responsibility the national team because they are full of subjective issues.”
She noted a tendency by local coaches to play talented black players out of position saying “those are strategies to destroy you”.
“I am not giving that position to a local coach until such time that all players stand a fair chance of being selected for the national team regardless of their skin colour.
“We are sticking with outsiders because they are objective and neutral and you can see since Plummer took over, team selection is based on performance.”
Mthethwa believes the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal are taking the lead in transforming netball in the country.
“Eastern Cape is the best performing predominantly black province in netball,” she said to loud applause.
“This is the time for black people to claim their rightful positions because we do have strong and capable players.”
Mthethwa said plans were in place by the NSA to speed up transformation.
On top of the strategic appointment of national team coach, changing the Brutal Fruit Netball Premier League to a one-stream league featuring all provinces was part of the strategy.
Previously, the NPL had been a two-stream league, consisting of all the strong and predominantly white teams in one and the predominantly black provinces in another.
She explained why this had to change: “With those two streams we gave black provinces time to catch up with their white counterparts but now the time has come for Eastern Cape and KZN, who are able to beat these teams, to step up.
“When we say netball is white, that is reality, it is not because we hate white people because we do not but we understand the history of our country.”
Netball SA was also in the process of establishing a netball academy that will focus on unearthing and grooming black players.
She could not divulge details as to where this academy would be based but expressed appreciation over Buffalo City Metro municipality who have promised to make land available for supporting such an endeavour.
Netball SA will not back off its push for transformation
The association will rather stick with Australian-born Norma Plummer and former Australian goal attacker and now assistant coach, Nicole Cusack, for the job until such time that local coaches change their mentality about team selection.
According to her, the local coaches who have coached the Netball Proteas previously were subjective in their team selection, stalling transformation, as many deserving players were excluded, and those who were selected were just being benchwarmers in competitions.
Mthethwa said she had heard the cry about the predominantly white Netball Proteas and had taken a decision to steer the team towards being 90% black “because that is how the country looks like”.
Addressing Eastern Cape Aloes players in East London, Mthethwa said: “This year you are going to be lucky because last year we engaged Norma Plummer and Nicole Cusack and we will continue using them this year for a simple reason that is known ... right now there is no coach I can give responsibility the national team because they are full of subjective issues.”
She noted a tendency by local coaches to play talented black players out of position saying “those are strategies to destroy you”.
“I am not giving that position to a local coach until such time that all players stand a fair chance of being selected for the national team regardless of their skin colour.
“We are sticking with outsiders because they are objective and neutral and you can see since Plummer took over, team selection is based on performance.”
Mthethwa believes the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal are taking the lead in transforming netball in the country.
“Eastern Cape is the best performing predominantly black province in netball,” she said to loud applause.
“This is the time for black people to claim their rightful positions because we do have strong and capable players.”
Mthethwa said plans were in place by the NSA to speed up transformation.
On top of the strategic appointment of national team coach, changing the Brutal Fruit Netball Premier League to a one-stream league featuring all provinces was part of the strategy.
Previously, the NPL had been a two-stream league, consisting of all the strong and predominantly white teams in one and the predominantly black provinces in another.
She explained why this had to change: “With those two streams we gave black provinces time to catch up with their white counterparts but now the time has come for Eastern Cape and KZN, who are able to beat these teams, to step up.
“When we say netball is white, that is reality, it is not because we hate white people because we do not but we understand the history of our country.”
Netball SA was also in the process of establishing a netball academy that will focus on unearthing and grooming black players.
She could not divulge details as to where this academy would be based but expressed appreciation over Buffalo City Metro municipality who have promised to make land available for supporting such an endeavour.
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