Honourable Speaker,
Honourable Members
I stand here as one part of the team which has been appointed by the President, to the sport and recreation portfolio. I am honoured to be continuing to support Mfundisi Stofile as we march not only to 2010, but beyond. I am also delighted that another key part of the team is in place and congratulations to the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on sport and recreation.
In the State of the Nation Address (SONA) President Zuma said:
"Sport is a powerful nation-building tool. Working together we must support all our national teams from Bafana Bafana to the Proteas and the Springboks; from Banyana Banyana to Paralympians."
In this time of relative depression, sport has become a panacea for our people who remain sports-mad. We have had the privilege of being exposed to a surplus of sport taking place recently at an international level with our cricket team giving a more than creditable performance losing to the eventual winners of the ICC T20 World Championships; the Springboks outperforming the British and Irish Lions not once but twice and Bafana meeting their destiny against Brazil, the hosts of the 2014 FIFA World Cup and Spain in the third and fourth play off in the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup.
Let me say- We are all proud of Bafana-Bafana!
However, we are also preparing for the Deaflympic Games, the global games where our deaf and intellectually impaired athletes will compete later this year, the World Games in Chinese Taipei where we hope our team will perform strongly and the World Student Games currently underway and a host of other events in which all our federations participate on a regular basis.
As the President said: "Our teams can only do well with our support" Let me add; with the invaluable role played by the media in getting the information out to the South African public, we will support our teams fully, confident in their ability to deliver.
In recognising our teams, we also need to pay tribute to the other quieter successes, which have taken place. We have hosted a number of successful events in recent months, which have almost taken place back to back. Tribute must be paid to the security sector for ensuring the safety of spectators and teams alike. This is one part of the Government support system brought to bear in hosting major events.
Taking but one example, the IPL brought an estimated 50 000 spectators into the country and injected in the region of R1 billion into our economy with, among other things, over 25 000 bed nights being sold which otherwise would not have happened. Six thousand flights were booked locally over the 40 days of the event. The fact that this is happening in the midst of our recession, can only be good news for our economy. Fifty-nine matches were broadcast with a cumulative total of television coverage of 177 hours of positive images of our country with the most wonderful backdrops of mountains and seas to an international audience with ratings being 11% higher than the inaugural event held in India. 800 000 people watched the matches in the stadia, 40% of whom were doing so for the first time.
There is no doubt that many visitors who visited us for the first time will be back! Not only was this event a boost economically but it also reinforced the good sporting, trade and international relations between South Africa and India. The good news continues with Cricket South Africa undertaking to put much of the surplus they made on the event to development and, in line with Government policy, I sincerely hope that the majority of this funding will be used in rural areas.
We also had the privilege of hosting the Supreme Council of Sport in Africa Zone VI U20 Youth Games in Potchefstroom, Tlokwe from 3 to 12 December 2008. Six hundred volunteers were trained; over 700 children of North West province were trained for magnificent gymnastraeda displays in both the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. Local economic development was given a boost because many teams purchased what was available in the shops to take home.
Local infrastructures, particularly sports facilities, were upgraded through a much-appreciated grant from the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund. I would like to thank our colleagues from other Ministries who contributed to the success of the games and to enabling South Africa to lift the bar on the quality of organisation.
I hope sincerely that the Chairperson of the Zone VI Council of Ministers was duly impressed by South Africa's performance, on and off the field! Team South Africa topped the medals table with 56 gold, 40 silver and 14 bronze medals. I am particularly indebted to former Deputy President Mbete for presiding over the closing ceremony.
This is what we need to encourage more of through our sports tourism strategy which is being developed in close co-operation with the Department of Tourism and South African Tourism. I look forward to the strategy and policy being delivered for implementation next financial year. This will ensure that our economy benefits from increased hotel occupancy, more internal transport being booked, more purchases being made and invaluable word of mouth marketing bringing more tourists to South Africa for sports events and the myriad of other activities and sights we have to see in our wonderful country.
However, there is life after 2010 and the FIFA World Cup and we are delighted that Cabinet threw its full weight behind the bid by the South African Rugby Union to host the IRB 2015 or 2019 Rugby World Cup. I would like to acknowledge the co-operation received from National Treasury. With Government's full support, we hope that the IRB will announce that South Africa's bid is successful on 28 July 2009.
As we move towards that decision, it is appropriate to expand on why this is an important bid for South Africa. We have spent billions of rands on accelerated infrastructure expenditure, significantly on stadia. Hosting the Rugby World Cup will provide additional high profile opportunities to use those world-class stadia with all the ICT and other investments, which more than meet the requirements of the Rugby World Cup. This is where we need to ensure that there is a continuous, planned and sustainable return on the investment made by South African taxpayers. Hosting major events can provide integral support to this endeavour.
The economic impact study done for the Rugby World Cup bid indicates that the total economic impact will be in the region of R9,5 billion of which direct expenditure equates to R5,2 billion of that total. SARU and we hope that there will be at least 110 000 foreign visitors for the event who will spend, as they predict, at least R2 000 a day.
Our colleagues from South African Revenue Service (SARS) will be happy to note that there will be estimation of R740 million additional tax revenues occurring to the State. The value that is more difficult to estimate is the goodwill generated by South Africa in our interaction with visitors and with visiting teams. Add to that the media impact of the tournament being broadcast across the world.
Another significant aspect which is intangible is the contribution the tournament will make to the development of the game of rugby with funds being contributed, focusing on South Africa, Africa and rest of the world in priority order. This is yet another contribution South Africa can and must make to the development of sport on the continent.
I am able to report that we have finally been able to implement an initial pilot project for sport for peace and development. The Minister and I were approached by colleagues from Burundi late last year requesting South Africa to contribute a variety of sports balls. We worked closely with the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) and our Mission in Burundi and the balls were finally handed over to the Minister of Youth, Sport and Culture as part of our Freedom Day celebrations in April this year by Ambassador Lembede who, at the handover ceremony, referred to the work South Africa has done in conjunction with others to bring peace to Burundi with the focus appropriately moving from our military support to our support through sport as the respective federations promote reconciliation through sport.
Their Minister indicated that "sport is life". That is a powerful statement from someone who has experienced division in his own country. He said that, according to the youth of Burundi: "when I play, I live".
This is a contribution that South Africa must continue to make to our brothers and sisters in Africa. We are obliged to do this for those who supported our struggle for a free, democratic, non-racial and non-sexist society.
We must go further by ensuring that our Defence Force personnel and national federations are empowered to leave a lasting social legacy in nations who have overcome war. We need to promote sustainability of sports clubs and federations when we leave that particular country.
Most of all, we need to contribute in whatever small way to an integrated society which values all its citizens, men and women, those with and without disabilities often caused by internal strife, as well as those who have opposed each other over a barrel of a gun rather than on the field of play of their chosen sport.
As Mfundisi Stofile has said, it is fine for us to contribute to sport for peace and development in other countries but we also need to refine that concept here at home. I am delighted that our Department has now taken this message on board and is working closely with the SAPS on what SAPS calls "sport for safety".
I have to acknowledge our thanks to the pioneering work done by our partners from the UK: the British High Commission, British Airways, the Metropolitan Police (specifically the Southwark police station in London) and Charlton Athletic Football Club. They have been partnered by Ajax Cape Town with the South African Police Service (SAPS) stations in Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain; by Bidvest Wits in Hillbrow and in Alexandra; and AmaZulu has recently joined the programme in Kwa-Mashu.
With the focus on schools, it is imperative that we work with both SAPS and the Department of Basic Education in close cooperation to ensure that we collectively meet our Government's commitment to reducing crime, particularly among the youth.
This is a national imperative and we are committed to working in this collaborative way to ensure the programme takes root. We hope that we can roll it out in the near future with additional partners in the shape of our provincial colleagues; the nascent provincial sports councils and local government.
Indeed, research in the United Kingdom (UK) by the Association of Chief Police Officers indicates that for every GB£1,00 spent on youth leads to a saving of GB£18,00 on future criminal justice activities. With this "return on investment" evident in the UK as a developed country, South Africa can expect at least the same benefits.
This, Honourable Members, bears out what we have been saying for years: the full value of sport is underestimated and with increased investment from the State and private sector, we can at present only imagine what an enormous impact we could have on the fabric of our society.
This developing relationship between SRSA, SAPS and the Department of Basic Education is something we will be monitoring closely and for which, with the assistance of the Portfolio Committee, we will provide budget and other resources for this and future financial years.
The President, in his State of the Nation Address stated: "It is clear that we need to invest on a large scale in sports development. We will speed up the revival of school sport and ensure that it forms part of the school curriculum. In addition we will ensure that the provision of sport facilities in poorer communities receives priority."
The Minister has spoken eloquently on school sport and its importance to the health and future welfare of our nation and the transformation of our sport, teams and federations. It goes without saying, but I will nevertheless address this, that we need basic sports facilities in our communities, particularly in our rural areas to enforce our commitment to rural development.
Last year, I reported on the failure of Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) to address the need for basic facilities. I can report that we are making slow but inexorable progress towards getting funding allocated to our department to fund this dire need. More than this, we need to ensure that the Department of Human Settlements incorporates sport and recreation facilities in new housing developments, failing which, we will continue to have "inhuman" settlements "if we play together, we stay together" as the saying goes.
Similarly, any new school needs to have sport and recreation facilities not only incorporated in the designs but actually built. For too long now, we have not delivered and this must change. We are no longer able to address this issue piecemeal by placing five or six mobile gyms in areas of need when we know that this is not even the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
We will be presenting to National Treasury a bid for new funding for facilities for the 2010 to 2011 financial year of R440 million and I implore the Portfolio Committee to support us in the last lap towards achieving this aim. We intend to increase the amounts for facilities incrementally each financial year.
We cannot hope to support rural development or sports development and transformation without adequate sports facilities in places of need. We must contribute to poverty alleviation and the "Building for Sport and Recreation Programme" has a proven track record on this. This is fundamental to our ability to deliver on our mandate.
One part of our mandate, which still has to materialise, is the amendment to the Lotteries Act to restore to our Department its responsibility for funding for sport and recreation while also relieving the Department of Trade and Industry of an activity which is not part of its core business. This we will attend to this year together with the appointment of new members of the Distribution Agency to avoid clear conflicts of interest.
If we are to increase spending on sport and recreation, we need to provide tangible evidence of the benefits we can expect in return. We have spoken about this previously, but we have made significant progress in providing that evidence through the "Case for Sport". This is about sport's social and economic value to South Africa.
The benefits that come from high levels of physical activity are numerous and well documented long term health benefits, stronger and more secure communities, closer family units, breaking down social and cultural barriers, bringing people from different backgrounds together, providing venues where people can meet and interact, providing an opportunity to volunteer in the community, teaching people about respect for other people and property, getting people of all ages involved in their communities, giving people a sense of purpose and the list goes on.
There is ample evidence to demonstrate that sport and recreation do make a difference to people's lives as well as the larger communities in which they live. It has been shown that for every unit of monetary investment there are multiple returns in terms of national, regional and local community development; community regeneration; health; disease prevention; psychological well-being; learning and productivity improvement; poverty alleviation, social policy areas (women, youth at risk, marginalised youth and the aged) and employment opportunities. Emerging evidence highlights the impact of sport in relation to creating stronger communities and addressing issues of community safety, including reductions in anti-social behaviour, in the propensity to commit crime, and in the 'fear' of crime amongst the wider community.
Early experience of sport, particularly in schools, is crucial in winning hearts and minds. Promoting sport and physical education in school is important in creating motivation for, and commitment to, life-long participation in physical activity. People who exercise regularly in their youth are more likely to resume exercise in later years.
Additionally, sport can have wider benefits for the education sector. Research in the United Kingdom (UK) since 2002 showed that Specialist Sports Schools and schools with physical education and a sport focus have demonstrated improved grades and reported reduction in truancy. It has also been suggested that playing fields at school contribute to better learning with less disruption.
Learning within a sports environment has proven to be more comfortable and less threatening to persons who have not participated in learning for some time.
A report on sports participation trends released in 2008 by BMI Sponsortrack which is part of a series published annually since 1986 tells a story of juniors in the 13 to 18 year old category, in terms of sports participation:
* The total number of 13 to 18 year old sports participants exceeded 8,1 million in 2007 but this includes those who participate in more than one sport.
* The top five sports codes on the list account for 48% of all participants, while the first ten account for 67% of all junior participants.
* There are four sports (soccer, netball, athletics and cricket) with more than 500 000 participants (all categories), a further six sports with over 200 000 participants, and a further 11 sports with over 100 000 participants.
* White juniors (13 to 18 years) account for 50% or more of participants in nine sporting codes, while there are 18 sporting codes where Black juniors account for 50% or more participants.
* The overall junior sports participants profile is 61% black, 19% white, 14% coloured and six percent Asian.
These statistics are important because the department and our federations have to ensure that young athletes with potential receive proper support to reach higher levels of performance. Ultimately, they must ensure representative teams who return victorious!
Our strategy outlines our approach to fulfil our responsibility in such a way that we contribute to transforming South Africa into a country that truly reflects the diversity of our people. We can make an important contribution in realising the vision as expressed by President Zuma on 3 June 2009, namely to create "an inclusive society, a South Africa that belongs to all, a nation united in its diversity, a people working together for the greater good of all."
To succeed in this, we have a responsibility to use sport and recreation to transform and develop all parts of the country and people equally, in line with the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa.
As per our electoral mandate, working together we can do more to build a better life for all. Our people not only demand and expect it, they deserve it!
I thank you.
Issued by: Sport and Recreation South Africa
1 July 2009
