A Buffalo City Metro team of more than 180 officials and councillors were once again crowned the 2018 Southern Africa Inter-Municipal Sports Association Games overall champions on the weekend.
The week-long municipal games took place in eSwatini (Swaziland).
The BCM team took part in various sports codes including soccer, netball, volleyball, table tennis, tennis, fishing, aerobics, athletics, cricket, golf, pool and darts.
The games were held from September 23 to 28, with the winners crowned on Saturday.
“We were the overall winners of the tournament and we took the spot for the sixth time in a row,” portfolio head for sport and special programmes councillor Xolani Witbooi said.
“Our junior and over-40s soccer teams won gold.
“We reclaimed our spot in netball too when we won gold after losing it last year.
“In aerobics, we won four gold medals, in athletics we won silver and gold, and in fishing we won a silver medal,” Witbooi said.
The BCM team also won gold medals in pool, darts, cricket and women’s table tennis.
“It shows our workers’ commitment. This also helps keep them active and closes the gap between workers and councillors,” he said.
The metro had budgeted R1.6m for the trip and sent 170 employees and 15 councillors.
It was an Eastern Cape battle between Amathole District Municipality and BCM in the soccer finals for the junior team, with BCM coming out victorious.
BCM lost to the OR Tambo District Municipality in the volleyball finals.
ADM acting senior communications manager Nonceba Madikizela-Vuso said: “We are very proud of our team, especially since we won a silver medal in the soccer finals when we clashed with BCM.
“It was a first-of-its-kind for us and we are proud of the achievement which saw us winning a silver.
“In volleyball, we finished in fourth position overall,” she said.
“We are proud of how our team performed as they represented brand ADM when they were faced with about 40 municipalities,” she said.
OR Tambo District Municipality spokesperson Andile Duka said: “Our teams performed very well. Even those who did not make it to the finals were knocked off in the last 16 and eight stages of the tournament.”
He said their mixed volleyball team brought back a gold medal and a trophy.
“Our table tennis team got a silver medal, soccer received bronze and athletics received one silver for a 10km run.
“Our volleyball teams are the 2018 Saimsa champions, they received a trophy and gold medals.
“OR Tambo district is a district of heroes and heroines, whatever we do, we aim to achieve greatness.
“The commitment to win was there even if not all participating codes won gold medals,” Duka said.
“We strongly believe that they will do much better next time.
“We are happy with their overall performance. All teams are in a good mood and high spirits after these games.
“Wellness is the biggest winner as our teams participate in these games as part of the district’s comprehensive wellness programme,” he said...