Orienteering combines walking or running, with the skill of navigation. A map and compass are used to find checkpoints in a variety of different terrains including forests, bushveld, parks, golf courses and schools.

The Wits Orienteering Club (Witsoc) has training sessions on Saturdays, twice a month on campus that include fun activities to improve map-reading skills as well as fitness and strength. Orienteering caters for all levels of fitness.

On weekends, the club participates in local events hosted by the other Gauteng clubs. The Urban Series occurs in the first half of the year and consists of short, fast races - with longer events happening in more scenic parts of Gauteng and Limpopo, these occur in the second half of the year. Witsoc competes in Gauteng Champs, SA Champs, and the Big-5 Orienteering Week.

If you are interested in a mental and physical challenge, come, and try your hand at orienteering. To find out more about the club and events  email us.

Venue: Orienteering club house, Wits Science Stadium

Practice Times: 12pm

Practice Days: Saturdays, twice a month

Sports Officer: Faith Mashile | 011 717 9403 | Email: faith.mashile1@wits.ac.za

Chairperson: Sibulele Prusente | Email: witsorienteering@gmail.com

To find out more about the club and events email us and follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Tikok

Wits Orienteering Registration for 2023

R80 for students

R150 for Alumni

The Wits Orienteering Sports Club (Witsoc) hosted our annual Christmas event on 04 December 2021 at the Delta Park Botanical Gardens in Randburg. Orienteering is a land navigation sport where competitors use a map and a compass to visit checkpoints along an unfamiliar route. The Christmas event combined this sport with the spirit of Ubuntu – there was no entrance, however participants made donations before the start of the game and all proceedings went to designated charities. This game can be likened to the U.S television show, The Amazing Race. On top of the awesome prizes, both the show and the sport are adventurous, require a sense of direction and open to anyone across all ages.

Left to right: Nhlanhla, Nthabiseng, Dawn, Sibulele, Yonela, Nobuhle, and Charity

Apart from hosting a fun sports day, the event allows us to give back to the community by means of donations. This has been a long-standing tradition of Witsoc that became more than a philanthropic act – through this event, the Wits Orienteering Sports Club could be of service in these stressful times to children and young women.

To promote the Christmas event to the Wits student body, we reached out to on-campus residences by emailing their committees to inform students living there of the event. For further awareness, the club used social networking sites such as Instagram, Facebook and TikTok to inform non-Witsies of this wonderful event – both on Witsoc’s official pages and on each of our personal accounts. Given that we fall under the South African Orienteering Federation (SAOF), we also contacted the administrator of the SAOF and kindly asked for the larger Orienteering community to be informed of this event.

Despite the chilly weather and general health concerns of some, we managed to have a decent turnout with an estimated range of 25-30 participants. This range is just under the maximum amount that the Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo permitted us to have. We were elated to see contestants of various age groups – from pre-school children to senior citizens who all had a great time running around and trying to not get lost.

Just as in previous years, the children’s ward at the Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital was one of the designated places we made donations to. Witsoc reached out and handed over all the children Christmas gifts that were collected at the event as well as toys that were purchased after the event.

Witsoc also donated sanitary pads to the Wits Gender Equity Offices just before the new academic term begins. By doing so, we hope to contribute to fighting period poverty on campus and restoring dignity to young women.

Orienteering is quite a neat sport – it is unique and has a rich history. In fact, prior to the pandemic, the club had several national representatives. Witsoc is also one of the handful of university club representatives under the SAOF, and this fills us with great pride but also gives us huge responsibility. In 2022, the club wishes to expand our membership number and get more students interested in Orienteering. We also wish to make positive changes to the Wits student body and the surrounding community by leaving a mark, no matter how big or small it may be.

Join us!