Page 8 - DUT Conduit Sept 2023

MFAMADI IS SELECTED AS THE MANAGER OF THE USSA NATIONAL BASKETBALL TEAM
Sinethemba Njoko
Pictured:Takalani Mfamadi
The Durban University ofTechnology (DUT) sport officer,Takalani Mfamadi recently went to China, Chengdu for the International University Sports Federation (FISU) World University Games, as the team manager of the University Sport South Africa (USSA) National Basketball team.
She started playing basketball at the age of 14.“I was actually a netball fundi but my sister told me about this friend of hers who played basketball and how she thought I would like it. I tried it out, did not like it because I was not good at it at first, but something told me to carry on and I did.Two years later, I made my first provincial team,” said Mfamadi.
She carried on playing both netball and basketball in high school but she had to choose one of the sports at university as she was offered a scholarship for both of them.“I went with my heart and chose basketball. I must say I have never looked back ever since,” said the enigmatic sport officer.
She started playing for the national team when she was 17. “I was the youngest person in the team so you can imagine the pressure that I felt. In the same year we went to our first tournament in Zimbabwe. It was one of the toughest competitions I had ever been to, firstly because it was my first match I was playing in the senior national team, but also because I had no experience and I was so scared that I would mess up,” she confessed.
The countries she has been to for basketball are Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Botswana, Angola, Mozambique, Cameroon, Australia and China. She further shared on all her achievements throughout her basketball journey saying that she made captain at the U18 tournament that she had travelled to in Australia when she was 17.
“I further made the senior national team at 17, I played for the national team from 2007 until 2015. I had the most valuable player title at the tournament at the Swaziland International tournament in 2015, for me to get it at an international tournament was huge,” she said jubilantly. Mfamadi was the captain of the University of Pretoria ladies’ team. She received all-star awards at a few University Sport South Africa (USSA) basketball tournaments.
“I was in the national team for the USSA team that participated in the Confederation of Universities and Colleges Sports Association (CUCSA) games held in Botswana in 2010. I was team manager for the USSA ladies’ team which participated in the CUCSA Games in 2016 in Zimbabwe and 2018 in Botswana. Further on, I was the team manager for the USSA
men’s national team that participated at the International University Sports Federation (FISU) World University Games which took place in Chengdu, China in 2023. I also serve in the USSA Basketball executive committee as the Secretary General and have been in the committee since 2017,” she said.
Sharing her education history, she said that she had always wanted to study something in sport but her dad discouraged her to study sport science. In her first year of varsity she was studying BCom Internal Auditing. She had passed her first year in Auditing but she did not like it so she did some research and found out that there was a BCom in Recreation and Sport Management that University of Pretoria offered. She then sat down with her dad and they came to a compromise that she could study towards a BCom in Recreation and Sport Management. In the end it was a win for her to be given the opportunity to study something in sport.
Mfamadi also explained how her role entails and intertwines with DUT’s ENVSION2030.
“My role as a sport officer is to ensure that I assist the codes that I am in charge of with the best service delivery, and to ensure that they get the best experience in being part of that code for as long as they are at DUT. I also manage the DUT student and staff gyms and I receive immense joy of seeing both students and staff who might not want to partake in any sporting activities, still finding joy in exercising and keeping a healthy lifestyle. Being a sport officer to me means doing the best that I can with the opportunities given to me and seeing my efforts making a difference, even if it’s a little one in someone’s life,” she added.
She also shared on her experience as a female basketball player and aims to always motivate students that it is possible to achieve one’s dreams.
“The sporting world comes in all shapes and sizes; and has always been known as a male dominant world, and for me that has never made sense. I think gender inequality is still a challenge in South Africa, and we need to find ourselves in spaces where this is discussed and in conversations where a solution is reached as to how it will be sorted. Not only does this affect our national teams or professional teams but it filters down to our local and provincial structures too, including institutions,” she expressed.
She indicated that the DUT sport unit has so much potential to grow in all aspects, and work towards a common goal which is to one day become one of the best sporting institutions that they know they can be.
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