EXCLUSIVE: Two Months After Becoming First Elected Female President of FASU, Nomsa Mahlangu Reveals Her Plot for African Sports (AUDIO)

Nomsa Mahlangu, first ever female president of the Federation of African University Sport (FASU) is poised to ensure all African university students are involved in sports.

FASU is the governing body of university sport in Africa and got funded in 1971 by 10 African countries to improve the development of sports in African universities. The body is currently made up of 39 member countries regionally grouped into FASU-North, WAUG, FASU Central, EAUSF, CUCSA.

Two months ago,  the former goalkeeper got into the history books of world sports after been elected as the first female leader of African University Sports at the FISU-FASU Strategic Dialogue and FASU General Assembly in Entebbe, Uganda which held in March.

In an interview with busybuddiesng.com, Nomsa who sees challenges as opportunities outlined her plans for university sports in Africa.

“The greatest opportunity we have is to repackage ourselves but also market ourselves much better to ensure that every African student at least gets an opportunity of being part of the FASU activities be it as an athlete or as a volunteer and also the fact that I’ll like a situation where when younger kids grow up they will want to have that zest to say someday I want to play in the FASU Games.”

Aside engendering the inclusiveness of African undergraduates in sporting activities,  the South-African is keen on uniting Africa through sports, ensuring university sport plays a greater role in general federation sports in the continent and consequently, ensuring Africa’s representatives enjoy rewarding outings at the Olympics.

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“It is important for us as FASU to get involved more in research , in trying to find solutions for African sports and to ensure that we try by all means to contribute towards ensuring that more and more of our athletes that go to international events like the Olympics, the world championships they get medals at those competitions that they attend on behalf of the continent,” she passionately stated.

Nomsa is realistic about her plan and says expanding the country membership of FASU is one of her key goals.

“At the moment we are sitting at 39 members. It is quite a part of our responsibility to ensure that every African state becomes a member of this body and that can only be achieved if we try and engage with governments in the different countries which we have already started doing and surely in our next General Assembly that will be held in two years from now, we would have probably gone to the fifty mark,” she said.