Professional teams, athletes to resume training under level 3
Sports teams and professional athletes will be allowed to resume training from Monday.
Recreational sport remains banned.
Sports, Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa briefed the media on Saturday on how sport will be affected when the lockdown regulations are eased to level 3 on Monday.
“The regulations now allow professional non-contact sports to host sports events without spectators and professional athlete to train irrespective to whether it is contact or non-contact sport, in a staggered way,” said Mthethwa.
“What this means is that the process of training would actually resume in sport generally, both for contact and non-contact sport.”
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Mthethwa said all sport bodies will have 14 days to inform the minister of their plan of action, including operational guidelines and a guarantee that technical staff and officials will be tested for Covid-19 before resuming activity.
The department said it was important for all training to resume for all codes so that athletes could stay in shape.
Tennis and athletics are among those who can get back onto the field, but golf remains a contentious issue.
"At this stage we are talking about professional," said director-general of the department of sport Vusumuzi Mkhize.
Mkhize added: "Golf is one of the core sports that is allowed to take place in Level 3 as a non-contact sport."
He adds that the department is yet to issue more directives on the sport.