Chairperson,
As Sport and Recreation South Africa, we can report that we have aligned all our strategic documents 100% with the National Development Plan. Every reference to sport in the National Development Plan is covered in both the National Sport and Recreation Plan as well as our Operational Plan for the 2013/14 financial year.
We have done this because we fully support the National Development Plan that recognises that sport plays an important role in promoting health, wellness, nation building and social cohesion. As indicated by Minister Mbalula, we have identified projects in support of the priorities of the National Development Plan. I want to elaborate on one of the areas, that of international relations.
The National Development Plan acknowledges that in the area of sport there is a need to showcase South Africa and promote its presence and leadership on strategic issues as part of its “soft power” in international relations.
As a middle-income African country we need to have a more comfortable fit between critical domestic socio-economic demands, regional and continental obligations and international cooperation through BRICS and the world. Our foreign policies cannot be disassociated from these demands and obligations.
They should be made through engaging with all relevant role-players which ultimately constitute the relations between countries. We are therefore taking the direction that dictates that international funding of our programmes must be in line with our priorities as stipulated in the NSRP.
To this end we will continue to use international sporting events and exhibitions to showcase and market South Africa as a sports tourism destination. We opened 2013 with the successful hosting of the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON). We wish to once again thank fellow South Africans and Africans in general for their support of the tournament. Despite the limited time and resources, the collective support of Cabinet and the sport and recreation sector contributed to this success.
In fact, the success of the 2013 AFCON solidified our position as a country of choice in hosting major events. Following the AFCON success, we look forward to hosting the 2014 African Nations Championships (CHAN).
I have no doubt that our people will once again show their pride in being African. During the 2012/13 financial year, we continued to participate in international organisations such as the Commonwealth Sports Ministers' Meeting. On a continental level we have played a leading role in the various forums of the Supreme Council for Sport in Africa.
Honourable members, during the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games, we hosted an Ekhaya Hospitality Centre, to create a home-away-from-home for our athletes and all South Africans who were in London.
The success of our Olympic and Paralympic teams are well documented and we wish to thank everybody who participated, for being ambassadors of our country. We are proud of all the athletes who won medals. There is no doubt that with more support, they will perform even better.
We will also host the World Anti-Doping conference in Johannesburg November this year. The spin-offs from this Conference need to be capitalized upon and integrated into sustainable programmes. We will also host the 19th World Transplant Games scheduled for July and August 2013 in Durban.
Worldwide there is an increasing acknowledgement that sport and recreation has the potential to promote social inclusion, prevent conflict, and to enhance peace within and among nations. In this regard the UN General Assembly has adopted a series of resolutions on Sport for Development and Peace.
In South Africa we have also experienced how national sports teams can be an inspiring force for peaceful change. It is not only our national teams that have this potential - the use of sport to promote peace is extremely effective in programmes at the community level, since they directly involve those affected by conflict and social tension.
South Africa is playing a leading role in the work of the United Nation’s Sport for Development and Peace International Working Group. At its meeting in Geneva in 2011 South Africa was nominated as the Chair of the Thematic Working Group on Sport and Peace. At the 3rd session of the Sport for Development and Peace International Working Group in 2012 South Africa did a presentation on the role of sport in peace building and development since democracy, which was well received by the delegates.
In fact all the inputs from South Africa on the Action Plan for Sport for Development and Peace were approved by the member states. South Africa was also elected as Chair of the Executive Committee of the Sport for Development and Peace International Working Group with Britain as Vice Chair.
The developments within the United Nations regarding sport for peace and development confirm that SRSA is on the right track by including specific outputs related to the sport for development and peace initiatives in the updated White Paper, the National Sport and Recreation Plan and the 2012 – 2016 Strategic Plan of the Department.
South Africa was also requested by the United Nations to provide strategic guidance regarding the thematic group discussion on the role of sport in combating gender violence in October this year.
In 2012 we declared Netball SA as the federation of the financial year. This meant that we have refocused some of our resources to this federation to achieve most of the developmental initiatives that they have been shelving because of a lack of resources.
It was through this elevated support and the need to broaden the pool of Netball players in South Africa that we hosted in August 2012, a quadrangular netball tournament, called the Netball Diamond Challenge, in cooperation with Netball SA.
The tournament included South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and Malawi. South Africa emerged champions of this tournament. Despite the financial and other challenges that we experience towards launching a professional netball league that will ensure that Netball SA will have approximately 220 fulltime professional and elite players to select onto the national team, we are committed to this initiative.
In 2013, the focus federation is Tennis South Africa. Among the benefits to this federation was our financial support for the Soweto Tennis Open which has proven to successfully enhance the development of Tennis in our country.
Honourable members, the ever expanding complexity of doping in sport such as combating organised crime, the classification of health foods, controlling the manufacturing, importation, and distribution of doping products, requires both new capacities and commitments for both governments and national anti-doping agencies.
In recognition of this, the IADA Action Plan will continue to place strong emphasis on projects and initiatives that reinforce the “Sharing of Best Practices” to address these matters.
The department will continue to financially support the South African Institute for Drug Free Sport, SAIDS, and the laboratory in Bloemfontein with the view to ensure that South Africa complies with the code of the World Anti-Doping Agency. Particular attention is given to ensure that SAIDS delivers on its international obligations and to coordinate the responsibility of SAIDS towards the Central Drug Authority.
At a ministerial level we have been appointed onto the UNESCO anti-doping subdivision and the WADA Executive Committee, respectively. SRSA is also represented on the Central Drug Authority and on the inter-governmental committee on substance abuse.
Boxing remains work in progress. With the new direction that is provided by the Sports Plan, we deem it important to call key boxing stakeholders to a meeting to thrash out all challenges that we are still experiencing. To effect this we this effect we will host a Boxing Indaba later this year to be attended by people who can add value to the success of the sport of Boxing.
The Sport for Social Change and Development programme will be repackaged and expanded. Sport will be used as a vehicle to catalize change in sport in the environment; HIV and AIDS, sport against crime, to mention a few. These programmes will be grouped under the banner of Sport for Social Change and Development.
SRSA will continue to fund loveLife, but the funding will be aligned with the objectives of the National Sport and Recreation Plan. The loveLife message which is focused on building young sport leaders for an HIV free future will be spread, by using sport and recreation as a medium. This will form the initial semblance of a genuine sport for change initiative. Specific youth leadership and healthy lifestyle programmes targeting young participants will be delivered at school sport events nationally, junior sport federation championships, community recreation activities and youth camps.
One of the projects we will be engaging in again this year is the National Youth Camp. The department will assist the provincial departments to ensure that the delivery of this project is a success.
It will be held in all nine provinces, and is scheduled for September this year. Its purpose is to teach young people leadership and life skills, national pride and practical lessons on social cohesion in a rural, outdoor environment through adventure and other fun activities. Approximately 3 000 youth, representing diverse cultural groupings, will attend the National Youth Camp.
The national sport volunteer corps programme was successfully launched in 2012. At the end of the 2012/13 financial year 864 sports legends were registered on the national sport volunteer corps programme.
The focus of the volunteers programme is to register and to keep a record of sporting greats in the form of sports legends and former players, athletes, coaches and administrators. This is done to utilize their experience in developing sport in schools. We all know that most public and rural schools do not have specialist coaches to train their teams and to run their leagues, this initiative will assist to overcome this shortcoming
A further novel idea to attract the youth to participate in sport will be the introduction of the “sports bus”. The “sports bus”, will have a retro bus look, working on a similar basis to the old fashioned ice-cream van that attracts people with an easily identifiable tune. We will take delivery of 12 sports busses in 2013 that will transport sports stars who conduct training. We trust that it will encourage the youth to come out and see what is happening in the community, and participate.
In evaluating the Human Resources required to implement the National Sport and Recreation Plan, it was evident that the current structure of our department was totally inadequate and inappropriate in some areas.
The Ministry therefore directed the department to commence with the organizational review process to address shortcomings in the current organizational structure. This exercise is envisaged to be finalized in the 2013/14 financial year in conjunction with the Department of Public Service and Administration and National Treasury.
In conclusion I wish to emphasise that an increased and focused commitment at all levels of sport would be advantageous since this could reap great health, economic, social and international benefits.
In short, expenditure on sport and recreation must be considered as a worthwhile, and indeed, a necessary investment in the future of our country and its people.
I thank you!
