The closing ceremony of the South African Local Government Association (SALGA)-KZN Games 2011 was held last night at the Durban Exhibition Centre. The ceremonial extinguishing of the SALGA-KZN Games flame and the lowering of the South African flag marked the end of three days of highly successful inter-district municipality sport.

The Games are an annual mixed code sporting event held in the province of KwaZulu-Natal for all its district municipalities namely Amajuba, iLembe, Sisonke, Ugu, Umgungundlovu, Umkhanyakude, Umzinyathi, uThukela, uThungulu, Zululand and the eThekwini Metropolitan.
The good organisation of SALGA-KZN and the host municipality, eThekwini Metropolitan ensured that the Games ran smoothly and efficiently with only a few inconveniences. The wonderful weather conditions were also a contributing factor, ensuring that no delays occurred.
Over 4000 athletes competed in fifteen sporting codes consisting of rugby, cricket, swimming, ballroom dance, golf, soccer, volleyball, indigenous games, swimming, karate, netball, table tennis, athletics, boxing, and basketball. The codes were all greatly enjoyed by the participants and the competitions were held in good spirit, with much encouragement from the team’s supporters.
The message from the MEC for Art, Culture, Sport and Recreation Ms N. Sibhidla â€" Saphetha called upon all our young people to continue take sport seriously and inculcate sport practices in their lives to promote an active and healthy lifestyle.

This year has seen a huge improvement in sporting performances over previous years. This improvement is evident in that many of the rural municipalities won medals at sports which are normally dominated by cities and towns. A contributing factor to this improvement is the greater commitment from local municipalities to ensure that their youth have the opportunity to participate in different sporting codes. This year Sisonke District competed in swimming for the first time.
Umgungundlovu District Municipality was congratulated on its much improved performance in organisation winning third place. eThekwini Metropolitan won the award for best organised municipality and Umzinyathi District Municipality was runner-up.

The good efforts in organisation paid off as eThekwini Metropolitan won the highly prized inter-district competition, winning 43 points. uThungulu District was second with 14 points and Umgungundlovu District was in third position with 10 points. A full list of medal winners and final points is available from www.salgakzn.net
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For more information contact Gayle McLennan-Smith (SALGA KZN)
E-mail: gayle@salgakzn.net

www.salgakzn.net
Tel 031 2671977 or 083 6530465
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