Over 90 athletes provided with relief from SA's coronavirus fund

Sport, Art and Culture minister Nathi Mthethwa announced a R150 million relief fund for the sector in late March in response to the dire circumstances faced by athletes and artists due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

An independent adjudication panel, consisting of Keitumetse Lebaka‚ Allan Williams‚ Simanga Matholeni‚ Leon Fleisher, Marupini Ramatsekisa and Dr Linda Ncube-Nkomo, was appointed to scrutinise each application.

There were "just over" 300 such applications for funding and according to a press release, to date over 90 of those have been approved and the athletes in question have subsequently received funding.

The remaining applications are still being processed.

The release indicated that athletes who have already benefitted come from different sporting codes ranging from "physically disabled sports to netball and gymnastics".

South Africa is currently in the midst of Level 4 of lockdown following the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic which has seen the sporting calendar wiped clean.