October started off with the IWBF Africa World Cup Qualifier at Mandeville.
Teams from Algeria, Angola, Kenya, Morocco, and Zimbabwe battled it out for the single African slot available at next year’s World Cup.
In the final game South Africa’s captain, Marius Papenfus, led Marcus Retief, Justin Govender, Kyle Louw, Daniel Mphaki, Siphamandla Gumbi, Thandile Zonke, David Curle, Luvuyo Mbande, Jaco Velloen, Steward Jellows, Richard Nortje, Leon Fleiser, Jaco van Niekerk and Simanga Mbhele against a pumped up Algeria. Trailing by just five points and confident of a win, South Africa were side swiped when Paralympian guards, Marcus Retief and Justin Govender, received their marching orders having committed their maximum of five fouls each. All hopes of victory were dashed but the team hung on, going down with 72 to Algeria’s 77.
National pride was somewhat restored by Richard Nortje’s Most Valuable Player award (131 goals, 62 rebounds, 14 turnovers and eight steals!!) and the naming of five South Africans (Nortje, Retief, Govender, David Curle and captain Marius Papenfus) as All Africa Stars.
The players barely had time to catch their breath before it was down to Port Elizabeth to compete in the Vodacom National Championship. In the final game North West held off a determined Gauteng North to take the title 69-52.
The two teams headed back to Mandeville to duel for the coveted Vodacom Cup. North West started strongly, taking the 1st quarter 16-6 and it was only really in the 3rd quarter that Gauteng made any inroads on the lead. But Thandile Zonke (Man of the Match) brought his superb form with him from the PE Championships, obtaining a shooting average of 71%, and dunked almost half of his team’s winning points. The attempted comeback of the third quarter seemed to exhaust Gauteng North and the points slowly ran away from them, eventually losing 52 – 77. North West claimed their 
fourth national title since 2000.
Palesa Chabula, of Vodacom, was
at the Cup game and congratulated
North West on their win. She said:
“Vodacom has been involved with
WBSA in South Africa for the last
decade, and it is very rewarding for
us to see how the sport has grown
during this time.
