Border refs make history

Engela Pretorius has been elected as the first female to chair a referees' society in South Africa, following her election by the Border Referees' Society. The election took place on Sunday, 3 October 2010.

Engela Pretorius started refereeing in 2004 when she joined the Border society. Her son Casper started playing rugby and some of the parents asked her to help out with coaching, as she was the daughter of a rugby-keen father. She decided if she wanted to teach the boys properly she needed to know the laws and their application and so joined the society.

She was an active referee till 2008 when she became involved in assessing and coaching referees. At the time of her election she was the treasurer and assistant secretary of Border referees.

The Border society has about 130 active referees and being farflung has six sub-societies - East London, King William's Town, Victoria East, Queenstown, Drakensberg and Transkei and they hope to form a sub-society for primary school referees.

Engela Pretorius, a project manager for consulting engineers, is married to Hennie and they have a boy and a girl.

Steve Meintjes, the chairman of the South African Referees' Association, said: "On behalf of South African Rugby Referees Association, all its members and referees throughout South Africa, I extend our congratulations to Engela on her election as Chairperson of the Border Rugby Referees' Society.

"In so doing Engela becomes the first female chairperson of a referees' society in South Africa. Our female referees and officials are becoming increasingly more involved in the administration of referees' matters in South Africa, and introduce a fresh dynamic into our aims of constantly improving and of being the best refereeing fraternity in the world.

"Well done, Engela - we salute you and look forward to working with you."

Engela Pretorius herself is grateful to her Heavenly Father, her father and her family for the opportunity, support and faith in her.

She says: "I'm looking forward to the next three years serving Border Referees as president and hope I can make a positive contribution to them and rugby."