Pardon the pun, but the ball has been thrown back to the Kay Motsepe Western Province School champion Herzlia High regarding their request to have their fixture for the provincial finals rescheduled.
This follows feedback from the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) to Rabbi Sam Thurgood stating that the WECD regrettably is not in a position to change the date due to logistical arrangements that have been done by the Local Organising Committee and the Sponsors to host the event on the allocated date.
“We will inform the sponsors to keep religious days in mind when allocating dates to provinces in future,” said the School Enrichment Coordinator Mary Joan Swartz in a statement which is in possession of No Bones with Jones.
This means that the Jewish community school – situated in Vredehoek – still faces a moral dilemma and is back at square one a week later.
Herzlia requested to have their fixtures for Saturday (23 September) shifted to Sunday due to the religious period of Sabbath which is over the Friday and Saturday. Jews are not allowed to play sports over this period and have to engage in prayer and worship.
Herzlia will now have to make a final decision if they accept or decline the opportunity to represent their (Cape Metro) district at the provincial finals to be played in Saldanha Bay this coming weekend.
Should they decline, then the runners-up, Itsitsa Primary School from Mfuleni, will represent the Cape Metro at the final along with the other five districts – namely Cape Winelands, Eden, West Coast, Overberg and Central Karoo.
No Bones with Jones can confirm that Itsitsa has already been informed and is on standby. However, they have requested that it should be done in writing – something the (Safa Cape Town) region cannot do as they are still waiting for Herzlia’s final decision.
Herzlia won the under-14 section two weeks ago in Matroosfontein in their very first tournament and it will be really unfortunate if they cannot honour this fixture.
One can only hope that all relevant parties have learned a valuable lesson from this situation.
The response from Herzlia’s secretary was: “The principal is engaged in meetings and he will get back to you once this is concluded.”
