Ilhaam Groenewald was present when, at a historic meeting held at the University of Port Elizabeth on 16 April 1994, the major role players in tertiary sport unanimously agreed to join forces and establish a united non-racial national umbrella structure that would represent and protect the sporting interests of all students.
Something sparked in her on that day when 78 tertiary educational institutions officially constituted the South African Student Sports Union (SASSU), now known as University Sport South Africa (USSA).
She left that meeting with a feeling of hope and the belief that she has a contribution to make, and she has been blazing a trail through tertiary and South African sport circles ever since.
In 1994, Ilhaam was the manager of the UWC volleyball team. In April 2017, 23 years after that historic meeting, she was elected as the 9th president of USSA.
She will have an oversight, leadership and networking role and will perform these duties in conjunction with her duties as Chief Director: Maties Sport and as a member of SARU's executive.
Having a strong support team at Maties Sport enables Ilhaam to take on voluntary responsibilities such as these.
"It is necessary to cultivate a culture of collective responsibility and teamwork," she believes. "You can't achieve anything on your own.
"My motto in life is that there is power in passion. If we are passionate about what we do and we understand the purpose of why we are here we can live our dream."
Ilhaam believes that sport has the ability to cut across all boundaries and the power to create an enabling environment which, in turn, creates opportunities for young people.
"Sport provides an equal platform, notwithstanding the challenges we have around transformation, inequalities with regards to facilities, sport programme management, etc."
Her dream for the organisation is that it will contribute towards change and continue to shape conversations in South Africa.
"We can only achieve this if there is collective visionary leadership and if we understand the unity of purpose," she adds, referring to a phrase mentioned by outgoing president Prof Tyrone Pretorius.
Her goals for her tenure is linked to the National Sport and Recreation plan. This plan has three core pillars of implementation: (1) active nation (2) winning nation and (3) enabling environment.
"Tertiary institutions can contribute to creating an active nation by encouraging and improving participation in sport at all levels, whether it is recreational or competitive.
"The annual USSA tournaments provide a platform for talent identification, not only for USSA teams but also for national age-group and senior teams. There are opportunities to build capacity in terms of staff and we have the expertise and facilities to contribute towards a successful high-performance programme. This leads to a winning nation.
"Lastly, tertiary institutions provide access to tertiary education through, among other things, bursary systems, and we invest hugely in training and development opportunities. This creates an enabling environment."
She encouraged USSA member institutions to contribute and play a role in shaping conversations about tertiary sport.
Her inaugural message included a quote by Steve Jobs: "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. You somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
"So let us live our dream to strengthen sport in South Africa and Africa," she concludes.
