Sports policy uncertainties in South Africa and its Universities

Abstract

The argument of this paper is that sports policy in South Africa is ambiguous or contradictory, both in universities selected for this study and  nationally. The data used for this paper emerges from qualitative interviews conducted at three universities in South Africa: North West University (NWU), University of Pretoria (UP) and the University of Johannesburg. The data is not representative of campus soccer. The conclusion is that the
organization of soccer as experienced by students, and by some sports personnel, in an ambiguous way. The recommendations suggest universities to act on such findings, and higher education authorities to find alternative forms of defining notional hours for students who partake in sport, if the problem of the weight of sports and studies is over-burdening on students workload is more prevalent than this study finds, and encourage new forms of recognition of sports learning, in order to redefine sports education.