Netball South Africa’s Modiegi Komane believes the federation has made strides since taking over the reins as the CEO.
Komane has been in office for about 100 days since she was appointed in the role, taking over from Blanche de la Guerre who had been in the position for 12 years having taken to the position in 2011.
De la Guerre was the federation’s vice president before then.
The former Black Business Council Built Environment CEO signed a yearlong performance based contract with NSA when she joined in October, the contract has an option to renew if the two parties are happy to do so.
Komane says although she has now found her footing, she didn’t realise the heap of work that awaited her in the position.
“I undermined the role in a sense that there was a lot to be done. I am talking about foundations, I have had various functions within the sports fraternity but being there and having to lead as an accounting officer, the first thing you need to look at is your constitutional mandate or the legal framework.
I had to go through that, I had to do an assessment of where the state of netball is from various angles. Your legislative frameworks or prescripts and governance issues. And also look at the business of netball from a player perspective,” says Komane.
She realises that netball in the country has made big strides however she reckons that there is more that can be done to make it grow. She says the process won’t be an overnight process. She reckons having proper structures in the federation will also play an important role in building a stronger NSA which can also rope in more sponsors.
“We have developed a document that speaks to where we want to take netball. We are now in the 30 years of democracy in South Africa and that was when Netball SA was formed in 1994. We did that review and we are continuing with roadshows in the 52 regions across the country so we can hear what they say but also celebrate the wins.
We are acknowledging the struggles and the challenges to say let’s move forward. I was exposed to a lot of things, we had to assess and let’s review systems and structures. It’s an ongoing process, it’s not something you can do overnight,” she says.
In her days in office, Komane has also introduced a board of directors to lead the newly formed Netball South Africa Investment Group led by chairperson, Leapeetswe Molotsane who is a former Telkom CEO. The board consists of 12 individuals from different sectors including finance and law.
NSAIG’s obligation is to create an environment of financial sustainability that will not only benefit the players and the organisation but also the country. Komane says this is to help fast track the commercialisation of the federation.
“It’s a new era and transition of netball and I am very excited about it. Hence we needed an investment arm of Netball South Africa that is 100 per cent share owned by Netball South Africa as a nonprofit corporation. It’s a fully-fledged commercial company that has to generate revenue that has to comply with the Companies Act and all the other legal frameworks. We hope that it will grow,” she says.
Following successfully hosting the 2023 Netball World Cup, South Africa will host Netball World Youth Cup Africa qualifiers. The University of Pretoria will host the continental qualifiers in March.
The finals of the competition will take place on the Rock in Gibraltar from 19 to 28 September next year. This will be the first time since 2017 that the competition returns after it was cancelled in 2021 due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Komane says the federation is working on changing how the teams prepare for competitions, she says having continuous training and selection camps will help ensure that players are always on top of their game. She adds that the federation is still working to launch a professional league in 2025 to help the Proteas become more competitive on the world stage.
“The target for the next three to four months is to concretise the plans and to ensure that we host a successful Africa qualifier. To make sure we support our council and our regions and take them on board with what we are doing.
We have to start planning on the premier league in 2025 but also to plan for the year. We have a test series with Malawi that we had to postpone, we have to plan for it as well.
We are going to have training camps every quarter, we are not going to wait for when we have an international or continental test series for the Proteas or even the Under-21 to have a camp. We are closing those small gaps,” she says.