Chauke should be given the Netball Proteas job: ex-captain Mdodana

Former South Africa captain Zanele Mdodana believes there’s no better person to replace Norma Plummer as national team coach than Netball Proteas assistant coach Dumisani Chauke.

Plummer is set to retire from coaching when her contract with Netball SA ends at the close of the year.

NSA have already set the replacement processes in motion by confirming Jenny van Dyk and Rozanne Matthyse as Plummer’s understudies during the Proteas tours of Australia and England. Association president Cecilia Molokwane said this week the next coach will be selected from those candidates. 

Van Dyk will travel Down Under later this month, while Matthyse will join the squad on their England tour in December.

TimesLIVE has learnt Van Dyk appears to be the front-runner.

Mdodana, though, believes it would be a shame if Chauke, who has been in the national team set-up for a long time, working with the baby and senior Proteas, is overlooked.  

“I’m not quite sure if that is just to give them [Van Dyk and Mathys] experience and exposure under the mentorship of Norma Plummer. We do know Dumisani Chauke is there as an assistant coach,” Mdodana said.  

“So is Dumi [Chauke] going to take the position? Technically speaking, it should be like that. She has been there under Norma Plummer for so many years, so if Norma leaves, she should then take that spot.

“Maybe then they [NSA] are looking for an assistant for Dumi. That’s how I would think, otherwise why would you have a coach there as an assistant if your plan is not to let them take the head coach position?”

Chauke has publicly raised her hand for the top job as she believes she has learnt a lot by deputising for different coaches in the national team and has international experience.  She was also assistant also to former coach Dorette Badenhorst since 2019.

Mdodana supports NSA’s decision to seek out a local coach, but called for the incoming person to be afforded the same support and respect by the federation and players as overseas-based coaches.

“We do need an internal coach. We have for a long-time looked for solutions from international coaches. We must find solutions and answers within our own house,” said the SuperSport commentator.

“We have got competent coaches who can put together a good management side and pick the right players to represent us.

“We have to find our own identity as the Spar Proteas? What is the brand of netball we want to play? We must work that out so that when we come out with South African-brewed ways of doing things, solutions lie in-house.

“It’s good that Netball South Africa is exposing young coaches because one of my ideas was that Norma Plummer is here but young coaches are not gaining access to her.

“It's good they are opening these doors by saying, ‘Go on this tour, go and learn, go and grow, and come back and plough that into our players’.

“We have to sit down and find out why it is not working. [Former Proteas coach] Dorette [Badenhorst] went to the Commonwealth Games and lost to Uganda, Norma went to the World Cup and lost to Uganda too.

“We have got coaches in our country who are competent, passionate about the green and gold, passionate about the Proteas. Coaches who know these players, work with these players daily, who know the buttons to get the best out of the players.

“Our players need to respect South African coaches because there seems to be a lack of that [and a belief that] we South African coaches can’t give them what an international coach does.”