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Heath Streak Academy board chairman Elifas Mashaba (left) with Mawaba Primary School’s Nokukhanya Chirwa during the official presentation of cricket equipment at the school yesterday

Kusile Madlela Sports Reporter
MAWABA Primary School of Lobengula West was yesterday presented with prizes for winning the Heath Streak Academy raffle draw. The school was presented with cricket equipment, which included a helmet, pads, gloves, bat, two sets of stumps and two equipment bags worth $522 after a pupil, Nokukhanya Chirwa bought the winning ticket.

A student teacher at the same school, Gift Mawimbi was also the lucky winner of a Nissan March vehicle valued at $4,000.

Mawaba Primary headmistress, Morrinah Dhlamini expressed delight at receiving the cricket equipment.

“This is a welcome development indeed and we look forward to utilising this equipment to the benefit of the children. I would like to thank the Heath Streak Academy for their involvement in the development of sport in the school and sharing their dream to turn the school into a sporting powerhouse. The academy has been really keen on activities relating to sport development at schools in the western suburbs and it’s very refreshing to know that we can count on them,” said Dhlamini.

She said the school plans to develop standard sports grounds as part of their vision to develop sport and allow pupils to be able to play in a conducive environment.

“We recently had a borehole drilled at the school and that is good because this equipment will give us the zeal to fast-track our plans to improve the state of our grounds. The parents are also available to witness the progress happening at the school and I am sure they are happy with the development of the school’s sporting department. It’s very humbling to have sporting institutes such as the Heath Streak Academy supporting sport in the western suburbs,” she said.

The chief executive officer of the Heath Streak Academy, Joseph Rego, who presented the school with its prize, said he was impressed with the spirit for sport development exhibited by Mawaba.

“It’s quite pleasing to see the dedication that the school has toward sport and it shows you that there are some people with the heart for sport development at grassroots level. I came here two months ago as we were engaging the school in one of our training programmes and I want to thank Mawaba for not turning their backs on us and allowing us the right to work with them and it seems our relationship is bearing fruits that will be beneficial in the near future,” said Rego.

He said a number of teachers and students had gone through the academy’s training programmes and they hoped to see the number swelling in the coming months.

“To date we have 36 teachers and 386 children from the western suburbs who have gone through the academy’s training programmes since December last year. We are looking forward to increasing that number with the cooperation of the schools to groom future cricket stars. Mawaba is an exception as they won the raffle draw from a group of 120 schools that entered the competition. We will continue to see that they get our help whenever they need it,” Rego said.