Programme Director;
Deputy Minister of Sport and Recreation South Africa; Mr Oostuizen;
Ministers and Deputy Ministers herewith present this morning;
Businessmen and women who came to grace this graceful gathering today;
Distinguished Guests;
Media fraternity present today;
Ladies and Gentlemen;
Thank you very much for affording us the opportunity to address this august occasion of business people and our strategic partners in the sports and recreation fraternity.
We request of you an opportunity to partner with us, and further deepen our collaboration as we lift sport in this country to greater heights, through improving our local and international competitiveness, fostering national cohesion and shared future.
Distinguished Guests, fellow South Africans, this morning, as you are aware on 8 January 2012, the African National Congress, the people of the Republic of South Africa and the world celebrated the Centenary of African Struggle for liberty and freedom. In this historic milestone, the ANC together with the people of the Republic celebrated 100 years of the fighting spirit of our people to leave a better tomorrow, for themselves and their children.
For many years, black people in general and women in particular have been denied many social and economic opportunities, including active participation in sport and recreation.
Building on our shared and common vision as a people means that we have to tear down the real and artificial boundaries and wall that kept, and still keep many of our people outside sports because of their race, religion; gender, geography; class and cast.
Simply put, the black majority, Africans in particular, did not have equal rights and access to sport and recreation as well as competitive or recreational sport opportunities at school and community levels. There was lack of or no investment in communities where the majority of the people resided.This disinvestment was also evident in areas such as sport infrastructure, sport equipment and attire, sport development and talent identification and/or sport activities especially for historically disadvantaged national groups, and those living in rural far flunks.
Reversing this past shamefullegacy , demands of us working in consort as a collective to pull together to reverse this abomination and social atrocities.
Ladies and gentlemen, in fast-tracking the implementation of such a mandate and vision, SRSA held its Strategic Session in January 2011, and adopted a Road Map to Optimal Performance and Functional Excellence with five key strategic priorities, namely, transformation; schools sport; mass mobilisation; revitalised recreation, institutional efficiency; and improved funding resources.
To concretely implement these strategic imperatives, the delegates at the November 2011 Sports Indaba charged the government and the civil society to move with speed in improving the sporting environment, access to facilities and sustained development.
At the same time Conference observed with diligence views from the Deputy President of the Republic, His Excellency, Honorable Kgalema Monthlante when he said:
“These remaining struggles in the sporting arena are driven by the vision of Transformation, Unity, and Development” and these are positions canvassed in the SRSA transformation perspective document”.
In the same token delegates in the National Sport and Recreation Indaba unanimously concurred with the Ministry of Sport and Recreation in its observations, articulations and commitments that:
“The Indaba acknowledged the challenges and limitations with regard to the implementation of the quota system in its current form and the negative effects of this system in deepening racial polarisation”.
To this end, the Indaba observed the unfortunate and painful stigma imposed on young black athletes and players as a result of the application of this archaic system.
However, a strong case was made for an uninterrupted continuation of the Quota System through the direct selection of black players into National and Provincial Teams; using the adopted Scorecards contained in the Transformation Charter.This means the utilisation of a process of the Reviewed and Targeted Quota System and at the Same Time Devise Means to create an enabling environment for a winning nation that will support merit in the long run.
Very importantly, we concluded in the Indaba with the adoption of a National Sport and Recreation Plan that is the collective expression of sports people in South Africa. The Plan is focused on increasing levels of participation in sport and recreation, as well as achieving success in international sport. The Plan focuses on these two internationally recognised pillars for a successful sport system as well as the enablers required.
To effect this position, the Indaba observed the working relations between SRSA and SASCOC, but further proposed an establishment of the Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (M and EC) that will assist both SASCOC and SRSA to effect an effective M&E mechanism in the implementation of the National Sport and Recreation Plan.
We are fully aware that transformation and change is painful and others use it as a contested ideological and political concept and want to resist it.However, the majority of sport loving South Africans have pronounce on the issue; that speedy transformation and change in sport and recreation is a pre-requisite.
We need to make a case for sport as we are called upon by the whole nation to demonstrate tangible benefits of sport to society.We need to collectively display these tangible benefits to the country and its people that sport make, if sport is to compete with many other strategic sectors of our society.
Our belief that South Africa uses sport as an instrument to teach African values and values of human solidarity and human civilization is a case in point.Indeed, our country uses sport as a tool to instill social cohesion and nation building, whilst at the same time imparting discipline and build a vehicle to touch the lives of all ordinary people, regardless of race, gender, class, disability, language, and age as well as geographical location.
In this context we would like to call upon all the private sector, companies and businesses as well as civil society to join hands with us in the Schools Sport programme, to roll it out to make all our schools in South Africa to be incubators and nurseries for sport development and talent identification.We want to use schools sport as a platform to encourage social integration and integrated social inclusion.We would like you all to put your valuable time and money to assist all our young athletes especially in schools and our educators with the necessary coaching and officiating skills as well as sport administration and management, among other things.
As part of the resolutions of the Sport Indaba, as held last year, the issue of School Sport Programme, as a bedrock of development in the country was flagged. In this regard, through the partnership with the Department of Basic Education and other key stakeholders, we agreed to prioritise and magnify this programme. We will on the 15 February 2012, launch the Magnificent Woensdag, the vehicle that will week in and out drive the School Sport Programme for the country. This is an ambitious yet achievable programme where major business faculty is needed to inject more financial and kind support for a better South Africa.
We would like to use this available platform to exchange ideas on how we, together with you, can fast-track the implementation of our national sports and recreation plan. We hope to discuss with you new modern ways of developing modern sport clubs and teams. We want to share experiences with you on how to use modern technology to advance sport development especially at the level of schools, clubs and federations.
We have conceptualised “Sport economy” as a tool for achieving many fundamental economic imperatives, such as the role of sports in creation of jobs and work, sports in stimulating tourism, sports in encouraging and promoting investments and capital mobilisation. For instance, we have seen in Germany and in South Africa, how the varied football world cups contributed to remarkable upswing in the Gross Domestic products of these countries.
We would therefore like to continue and maximise our efforts in the spirit of the Indaba and build on that foundation for a well rounded and a sound sport system in our country.
We will do so determined to alter the balance of forces in sport and recreation landscape towards a united, non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous sport and recreation system in the Republic; because we believe that seventeen years in our democratic dispensation South African sport is still faced with a huge backlog in terms of transformation, our national teams are still predominantly unrepresentative, distribution of facilities is still skewed and access not open to all.
Armed by the constitution of the Republic which persistently highlights the potential sport has on social cohesion and nation building, SRSA introduced a programme called Mass Participation. Mass Participation contributes to increasing the number of participants in sports and recreation with specific emphasis on participants from disadvantaged communities, rural communities and marginalised institutions from the cradle to senior citizens. The programme started in 2004 within 60 hubs and has now increased the number of hubs to 520 in 2011, 640 community clubs and 3200 schools involved in the programme.
Mass Participation programme has two broad, interdependent, aims:
“The development of sport in communities, and the development of communities through sport. The programme is implemented by the Provinces on behalf of SRSA through the Conditional grant.
The budget for this programme has increased from R20 million in 2004 to R451 million in 2011”.
The majority of participants are school children (74.4 %) of the total 4 million participants. The programme gave life to the dormant talent and enthusiasm for sport and physical activity in communities, and often changed `white elephants’ of under-utilised community facilities into `work horses’.The impact of participation put severe strain on existing physical and financial resources, and local stakeholders cannot keep up with the demand created by active participation.
However, the greatest value of the programme for local communities lies with the generation of human and social capital. Most of the activity coordinators, hub coordinators in communities and cluster coordinators in schools are unemployed youth. Most of them are breadwinners on a stipend of R1 200 per month. The programme is a major boost on poverty alleviation as it contributes in the subsistence survival of destitute families. Some have found permanent employment within Federations and Provincial Sports and Recreation Departments.
The target group in terms of delivery is the youth. While encouraging our youth to be creative instead of using lack of facilities and proper training as an excuse for failure to participate in sport and recreation, the need for proper facilities and good governance cannot be wished away. It therefore becomes critical that the youth and the municipalities are exposed to proper training from the federations, government and other expert providers.
This makes it critical also that as the federations and government come into the fray, we should do so in a manner that encourages access, participation and good governance of sport and recreation.
Therefore colleagues, success for sport activists does not rely on a periodic remembrance of these facts. It does not rely on merely talking about them. What is important for us is the passion in implementing these ideas.
In this regard we would like to leverage on many platforms provided to us and gain weighty evidence to the undoubted ability of sport to make a tangible difference to people’s lives world wide; and to generate a greater awareness of the positive role of sport, brainstorm ideas, make connections and encourage actual policy change if needs be.
In conclusion, these challenges effectively define the need to transform the sport and recreation landscape in South Africa for the better.The transformation of the sport and recreation system intended by the Ministry of Sport and Recreation South Africa (SRSA) is a far-reaching process and it needs the support of the entire South African nation in particular and our broader society in general, especially the private sector and business community.
These are the values and virtues that we all share as a people and as a nation. These are the frontiers that we must salvage together to foster our common and shared vision. Business and government can, and have worked together to continue to lay the bricks of building this nation, a winning nation, united by one cause, that of South Africa nationhood, patriotism, cohesion, livelihood and lasting peace.
Thank you!
Address of the Minister of Sport and Recreation South Africa, Honourable Mr FA Mbalula (MP), on the occasion of SRSA engagement with all the Private Sector and Business Community in the Republic of South Africa. Hyatt Regency Hotel, Oxford Road, Rosebank,
