The Thohoyandou Indoor Sports Centre is one of the sports facilities that will be ugraded during the current financial year. The good news was revealed by the Minister of Sports and Recreation, Mr Makhenkesi Stofile, during his three-day visit to the Limpopo Province this week.

He was responding to questions raised by people during his visit to the Thohoyandou Stadium and the Thohoyandou Indoor Sports Centre on Monday afternoon. Stofile stated that his department received the smallest budget of all government departments. He further indicated that they have put aside an amount of R350-million towards the ugrading of the Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane. According to him, the capacity of the stadium will increase from the current 15 000 to 45 000 upon completion.

Stofile said he was concerned about some of the clauses in the rules and regulations of the football governing body in the country (Safa). He stated that they were going to hold a meeting with Safa’s top officials with a view to advising them to revisit some of the clauses.

He indicated that they want to convince the Safa leaders to amend the rule relating to the registration of foreign players by local PSL clubs. According to the Safa rules and regulations, a club is limited to registering a maximum of five foreign players. According to him, the rule is promoting laziness on the part of the clubs to develop young local players, saying they instead go for quality foreign players. He stressed that the rule is contributing a great deal to lowering the standard of football in the country. He blamed the rules for Bafana Bafana’s poor performance during the recent African Cup of Nations tournament that was staged in Egypt.

Some of the points that the minister touched on during his visit to the province include the Peter Mokaba Stadium, the Seshego Stadium, the Ngoako Ramatlodo Indoor Sports Centre and the meeting with the representatives for the Limpopo-based professional football clubs, Dynamos FC, Black Leopards FC, City Pillars and Winnerspark.