Chairperson;
Members of National Council of Provinces;
Distinguished guests;
Ladies and gentlemen;
Chairperson and the House since the adoption of the National Sport and Recreation Plan in November 2011, South Africa and its people became more ‘alive with possibilities’ in sport and recreation. For the next twenty years our people are ushering an era of hope and triumph in sport and recreation in the Republic.
In this era of hope and accomplishment we would like to pay tribute to one of our own in the field of Sport in the Republic of South Africa and a stalwart in Rugby in our country. We are assembled here, today, to say well done to Mr Joost van der Westuizen who committed himself to make South Africa proud and happy by his selfless honour of our colours and flag whenever he represented South Africa abroad. We want to pay our fitting tribute to you Joost for your sterling work in our country and for your unreserved dedication and commitment to the ideals of a united and non-racial South Africa.
We are inspired by your selflessness conduct on and off the field. We are also rejuvenated by your loyalty to South Africa and her people. We are equally impressed by your display of the spirit of uBuntu in your conduct of sport. Well done, we join you in prayer for you to heal and join us in future.
Chairperson, Segotje Ludwick Mamabolo who hails from Limpopo province in Ga-Mamabolo village the far flung area of our country have after five years of South Africa’s dismal failure to claim the South African born Comrades Marathon won the race with flying colours against all odds. He finished the race in 5 hours and thirty one minutes-three seconds which is major achievement for any sportsperson who comes from a poor rural background utilising his own rural facilities and resources which are natural for the prestigious achievement. Mr Mamabolo has definitely demystified the myth that champions and outstanding personalities in sport come only from the urban areas.
Mr Mamabolo got his confidence and dedication from another humble rural fellow, Mr Jerry Ramohlale who spent most of his time training and preparing Segotje for victory and triumph. Bra Jerry identified Segotje in a soccer street game at a tender age of six years including other sports stars like Ramahlwe Mphahlele, Hlompho Kekana and many more. He did this out of passion with no financial resources and support.
He used his own money for petrol and other necessities to keep Mr Ludwick Mamabolo focused on his athletic training. We want to salute him for his bravery. We join him and all other South Africans in the celebration of his achievement and excellence. Indeed the era of hope has arisen for all South African Sportsman and women.
We have said that school sport remains the bedrock of our entire development continuum. To this extent the Local School Sport Leagues have begun in various provinces in the prioritised codes of Rugby, Cricket, Netball, Football and Athletics. We have further begun the planning and preparations for the first schools sport Olympics in December this year.
It is going to be ‘work unusual’ because as government we have invested enormous resources in sport and recreation thus far especially towards our school sport programme as a result we have now finalised our engagement with the National Distribution Agency on Sport and Recreation to allocate 200 million rends towards our school sport programme. This amount will be administered and managed by the Sports Trust and will be utilised for only the purpose it is intended. Not for nefarious reasons of greedy individuals. Ohlohlesakhe! Oosiswana sibomvana!
In this financial year we are going to harness all the resources in support of the National Sport and Recreation Plan (NSRP). a Department we have realised that we have not successfully implemented the sport development continuum which will ensure a well coordinated and seamless development of athletes from talent identification to the elite levels.
For such a purpose, we have restructured the Provincial Conditional Grant through Division of Revenue to support all the objectives of the National Sport and Recreation Plan (NSRP). A sizeable amount of the Conditional Grants will be allocated to school sport, community sport development and club development. As from this year, funding to National Federations (NF) will be divided into two tiers, that is Guaranteed and Conditional. The Conditional Funding will be outcomes based.
The measurement will be as per the Transformation Charter and the Score-Card as outlined in the SRSA National Sport and Recreation Plan as well as good corporate governance and value for money.
I am pleased to announce that, SASCOC has so far registered more than 112 Athletes for the 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics. This will obviously increase as other athletes are still fighting for their tickets to London. We will therefore make an official announcement of the exact number of qualifying athletes at the end of this month. Therefore, nation building and reconciliation in South Africa should benefit from the positive attitude of our athletes especially their attitude to succeed and excel as well as their found seriousness for our national symbols and the constitution including our national anthem.
Today our athletes and Olympians will represent South Africa with pride; we are pleased that King Protea has found resonance in the minds of every sportsmen and women in our country. We should be proud of this.
We must now force everyone in the manufacturing industry to put the King Protea where it belongs. On the hearts of our athletes; not to have our national symbol anywhere they like without respect. To this extent we will in due course publish Ministerial Directives on the National Symbols especially the national Anthem and the King Protea.
Ladies and Gentlemen this year we will give more support to predominantly black national federations in order to strengthen them to deliver more quality athletes for South Africa. We are talking to Netball South Africa to launch the first-ever South African Professional Netball League in our country. We call on our nation to invest more in this beautiful sport of our women. We are rolling out the first ever South African Netball league in our country. We are now committing ourselves to “less Yada Yada but to More Action”.
Notwithstanding the fact that unlike other countries such as New Zealand and Australia that have professional netball leagues, South Africa with only a pool of 50 non-professional players continue to be very successful and currently rank 6th in the world. To remedy this situation and to ensure that we broaden the pool of netball players we will in cooperation with Netball SA host a quad-nation netball tournament, called the Netball Diamond Challenge which will include South Africa, Botswana, Tanzania and Malawi in August this year.
To further promote women and sport SRSA will be hosting a National Women and Sport Conference later in the year wherein women across the board will be invited to tackle all strategic matters relating to challenges faced by women in sport. This Conference shall include, but not limited to, women athletes, players, administrators, coaches, technical officials, fans as well as sport women in business, sport women legends and veterans, sport academia, sport women journalists, women’s organisations and etc.
We will in the current financial year, add as part of recognising excellence and service, launch the ‘Little Green Book’ to honour the Top 100 Sports Personalities in South Africa.
The Ministry of Sport of Recreation in partnership with South African Rugby Union will kick-off the Solly Tyibilika Rugby Academy in the Eastern Cape in July 2012. The National Lottery Distribution Agency on Sport and Recreation have already allocated thirty five million rands towards this important initiative that will see many young people benefiting from development and high performance levels. Our intention is to replicate these academies to all the Provinces in the long run. We have already mobilised the rugby veterans in the Eastern Cape to support in the implementation of this programme.
Members are no doubt aware of the interest and premium we attach to the well being of all Federations in our country. We together with SASCOC resolved on a number of countless occasions and platforms to support all Federations in the interest of the athletes, good governance and our country. By now members are aware of the decision that has been taken by SAFA to terminate their contract with the Coach of Bafana-Bafana, Mr Pitso Mosimane. We respect SAFA’s decision and applaud them for not shying away from taking a bold decision when things where not going well with our National Team. We thank Pitso Mosimane for holding the fort and keeping the home-fires burning in his brief stint as the National Coach of Bafana Bafana. The exit of the coach signifies a much deeper challenge with the South African Football landscape. The challenge will not be simply solved by the removal of the Coach. In our meeting with SAFA, we had agreed that they will institutionalise the developmental leagues in all their regions. It was further agreed that they will develop a common philosophy around the South African style of play and train all developmental and professional Coaches in this style and philosophy of play. This is key to addressing our deeper challenge as the poor performance of all our junior teams as well as the Men’ Senior Team - Bafana-Bafana bears testimony to this deeper challenge.
Other countries with fewer resources achieve far better, due to the case of the player spirit and underlying commitment to their countries. Zambia is a case in point. We therefore call upon the leadership of SAFA to deploy wisely the resources in the FIFA World Cup Legacy Trust towards achieving the re-engineering of the football landscape for the better. We will actively utilise our participation in this Trust to ensure that this new development-focused agenda is vigourously pursued. This emphasis and commitment to development is key if the country is to be leap-frogged from its current slumber to new opportunities presented by the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Now is the time for SAFA to announce and pronounce on the long over-due turn around strategy for football! We want a winning team as part of the winning nation. This is the defining moment and please act now!
In recent days we witnessed relentless aggression and notorious behaviour by some faceless individuals, gargantuan dwarfs, and imbecilic creatures questioning government’s involvement in the resolution of the Cricket South Africa saga. The masterminds behind the mafia have the audacity to question our loci standi and bona fide in relation to our sovereign laws and the articles of the International Cricket Council. The Acting-President of Cricket South Africa, Dr Basson have assured me recent reports about CSA reneging from the total implementation of the Ministerial Committee of Enquiry into allegations of corruption are not true and that CSA will investigate who is peddling these falsehoods. I want Dr Basson and CSA to unmask this mercenary and lay this mischievous creature’s motive and handlers bear to the open for South Africa and ICC to see the type of animal we are dealing with. I did not wake up one day ranting, raving and baying for Cricket South Africa’s blood. I did not invite myself into this debacle. I was invited by Cricket South Africa to their meetings individually and times collectively. Now some people cry foul, government interference, hiding behind the broomstick of autonomy when it suits them. I was invited by sponsors, supporters and players who said Minister please do something to stop this impending doom of Cricket. Whoever is trying to derail the implementation of the Nicholson report must be advised to read Jose’ Marti’s I have lived. “It was duty that I pledged my arms; and not once did the sun drop behind the hills; That did not see my struggle and my victory”
Our National Sport and Recreation Plan is anchored by the Transformation Charter and Scorecards. The Deputy Minister, Mr Gert Oosthuizen (Oom Gert), will elaborate on specific salient points in this connection.
Chairperson we announced on the occasion of our Budget Speech to the National Assembly the appointment of the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) on Transformation in South Africa. Our announcement entailed the names and Terms of Reference (ToR) for the Group. Through this Group we will have the possibility to implement the transformation charter, monitor and evaluate the implementation or lack of it. We will receive scientific research and empirical evidence supported by sound advice on what is to be done to drive and achieve transformation goals. The first meeting of the EPG is taking place tomorrow and we looking forward to open and frank engagement with the EPG members.
This National Sport and Recreation Plan justifies our claim of a ‘Case for Sport’ which is supported by growing evidence that sport is an indispensable tool to fundamentally alter the quality of life of all our people and it is a vehicle for progressive human advancement and socio-economic upliftment. As part of entrenching the Sport Plan, we are now in the process of integrating the Sports Plan in the National Plan of the country as facilitated by the National Planning Commission of the country. This will synchronise Sport and Recreation at all spheres of government.
In line with the commitment we made in the 2011 Budget Vote Speech in the National Assembly and the NCOP Budget Policy Statement to turn around the state of Boxing in South Africa, we have already commenced with our multi-pronged approach to strengthen institutional and programmatic capacity of boxing in South Africa.
I would like to thank every South African who have make our work a success especially the Deputy Minister, Mr Gert Ootsthuizen, the Director General, Mr Alec Moemi and all those senior managers who continue to ensure that the grinding mill produces the products and supply including all our sponsors and partners who go all out to see that sport succeeds in South Africa. To the department, I say, we must always remember our central drive in this year of action: “Making a Case for Sport to put the foundation blocks for the elimination of Inequality, Unemployment and Poverty”.
I thank the Select Committee on Education and Sport for its leadership and camaraderie. We look forward to the continued constructive engagements.
Honorable Members, allow us to therefore present to the House Budget Vote number 20 of the Department of Sport and Recreation South Africa.
I thank you !
Budget policy statement of the Minister of Sport and Recreation South Africa (SRSA), Hon. Mr FA Mbalula (MP), on the occasion of the sitting of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), Parliament of the Republic of South Africa, Cape Town
