Chairperson,
Ministers and Deputy Ministers,
Members of Parliament,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen.
Honourable Members, on the 21st May 2013 we visited Iqhayiya High School in Khayelitsha and Tafelsig Secondary School in Mitchell’s wherein as part of our school sport programme we donated sport apparels, equipment and attire to encourage all our schools to participate in the school sport activities including physical education.
At the same time, on 22 May 2013 we visited Rocklands, Mitchell’s Plain, the birth place of the United Democratic Front (UDF) 30 years ago, to handover a Community Outdoor Gym facility as part of the launch of a nationwide roll-out of Outdoor Gyms to disadvantaged communities of South Africa.
Whilst we were doing this work we took advantage of this opportunity to honour Gary Kirsten for his role and great participation in cricket, both as a player and as a coach. We presented Gary with a ‘Collage of Pictures and prestige ‘Bouqet of Protea Flowers’ as a symbol of the emblem of our Proteas Cricket national team.
We also took advantage of this opportunity to honour Lusapho April for his sterling work in athletics and for winning the Hannover marathon in Germany twice in three years! We showered Lusapho with a ‘Pack of Athletic Equipment’ and a ‘Bouqet’. I want to take this opportunity to congratulate both men for their achievements. I would also like to congratulate the Springbok Sevens for their historic achievement in rugby by being ranked number 2 in the World Sevens series.
Let me also take this opportunity to congratulate all our sportsmen and women for their individual and collective achievements in sport and recreation during 2011/12 period, you did South Africa proud and we love you. I also want to welcome all our sportsmen and women in the gallery who came here today to grace this important Budget Vote Debate in the history of sport in South Africa with their presence.
Ladies and gentlemen it will be remiss of me not express our deepest gratitude to all spheres of government and stakeholders for the successful hosting of the AFCON 2013 Championship in our shores. We are looking forward to similar success as we prepare for hosting the CHAN Championship in 2014.
Chairperson and Members of this House, let me start by invoking the words of the late African Nationa Congress (ANC) President Oliver Reginald Tambo when he said:
“Racial discrimination, South Africa’s economic power and the use of sport and culture for oppression and exploitation of all black people’s are part and parcel of the same thing.”
In a direct and as a structured response to the assertion of OR Tambo, on the 22nd November 2011 at the National Sport and Recreation Indaba (NSRI) delegates representing the broad spectrum of our sport and recreation sector unanimously adopted a declaration where they acknowledged that: ‘As a country and as people we have inherited an inequitable, unequal and divided sport and recreation landscape. The racial practices of the former apartheid regime resulted in a fragmented sport system that had a detrimental impact on the development of sport and recreation in South Africa.’
Chairperson our Vision 2030 does not only give meaning to our strategic objective of an active and winning nation but it also give purpose to the essence of our existence and spells out the core values that enjoins us as a sporting fraternity to transform and develop sport for the better.
Today we are therefore gathered here to take stock of how far we have traversed in our second year marching towards Vision 2030! We are also aware that as we march towards the vision 2030 of the sport and recreation sector; we are marching in unison together with all our people towards the fulfillment of the objectives of the National Development Plan (NDP) vision 2030.
Ladies and gentlemen we are pleased to report that the National Sport & Recreation Plan (NSRP) has been costed. We will present it to the Treasury for endorsement and thereafter to Cabinet as a matter of urgency. Cabinet will have to budget at least an amount of ± 10 billion rands towards the fulfillment of the objectives of the NSRP.
It is also fulfilling to learn that the NSRP has been anchored in the heart of the National Development Plan (NDP). We are enthused that the National Sport & Recreation Plan rests on the giant shoulders of the national development agenda of this country.
Honorable members, our budget speech 2013 seeks to answer that question that beacons: How far have we gone to foster nation building and nurture social cohesion as we continue to make a “Case for Sport”?
One of the simple answers to such a question is the electrifying experience when amaBhokobhoko won the World Cup in 1995 in extra time with Joel Stransky scoring a drop-goal. Nelson Mandela hoisted the trophy in jubilation with Francois Pienaar symbolizing a non-racial and united nation.
This victory alone was one that made the country dance and sing in unison, regardless of colour, race and ethnicity – indeed the country was united in action. The hosting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa propelled our commitment to build national unity and foster social cohesion.
Our 2010 FIFA World Cup Close out report attest to this when it states that “the social impact of the World Cup include contributions to the image of South Africa and Africa, social cohesion and nation building”. In the same vein, we have together with all South Africans witnessed, during the Super 14 finals in 2011, the Blue Bulls playing against the Crusaders at Orlando Stadium in Soweto for the first time in the history of South Africa.
The clash between the Blue Bulls and Stormers at the same venue also had the same effect of uniting our people. It is said that this was an experience, which many traditional rugby die-hards never stop talking about.
The whole world continue to witness our people Black and White standing side by side united behind amaBhokobhoko at these matches. During these historic events our people black and white are sharing boerewors, pap and umqombothi in the shacks of Soweto; singing ‘Shosholoza’ and Nkosi Sikelela i-Afrika in an electrifying spirit. This is a ‘show of force’ that sport has to unite people and undermine the man-made bridges of hatred.
Our undivided commitment to the promotion and support of women in sport has been one of SRSA flagship programmes and we stood firm behind many women in sport including the likes of Nonhi Tenge, Marcia Meresca, Caster Semenya, Nathalie du Toit and many other icons in women sport.
Our support for Netball South Africa and our ultimate zeal to officially launch the first ever Netball League in South Africa speaks volumes of this commitment. Our noble support for the South African Women Hockey team is an indication of our resolve to change the quality of life of all our women in South Africa. We don’t mince our word when we say “Wathintabafazi Wathint’imbokodo Uzakufa”.
We stood firm behind Mark Boucher when he was accidentally struck in the eye during the match between South Africa and England in Britain in 2012. We continue to stand firm alongside Jooste van der Westhuizen in his battle with motor neuron disease (MND) and even awarded him with the Steve Tshwete Life Time Achievers Award.
We were there when Baby Jake Matlala was embarrassingly faced by huge medical costs during his illness and we hosted a Baby Jake Matlala Fundraising Gala Dinner towards the payment of his medical costs and other related matters. We stood behind Caster Semenya during her ordeal with international sport bodies when she was being discriminated against because of her gender.
We did the same to Oscar Pistorius when he challenged the world and changed perceptions about the inability of the people with disabilities. Inspired by our “spirit of uBuntu”, we knocked at every door possible with cap in hand to raise resources some of whom we have managed to give descent burials and send-offs for many of our sports men and women. Today many family members and friends of these fallen sport icons are convinced that the ANC government cares!
Honourable Members, it is because of this courage and bravery that keep some of us going. It is such commitment to the good of our people that gives purpose to our lives. It is the commitment to work and the spirit of robustness that we are managing to continue changing the face of sport in South Africa today.
We are escalating our efforts of changing school sport landscape since we came into sport and recreation. Schools are not the same again in the history of the Republic of South Africa. Today in South Africa schools are becoming centres of learning and play.
Schools today in our country are fast growing into institutions of education, innovation and recreation. Physical education has been declared compulsory in this country. What we need to do going forward is to make physical education a standalone learning area in all public schools of the Republic.
Last year when we launched the school sport programmes we also announced our Ministerial School Sport Bursary scheme aimed at supporting students from disadvantaged communities who excel in sport but also academically deserving. The bursary is an amount of Hundred Thousand Rands towards the education and sport requirements of a learner. We believe that this intervention is also a life-line and a life-boat to many poor families who cannot afford to send their children into better schools in our country.
The revival of the school sport in South Africa has opened many windows of opportunity for numerous South Africans. It has opened opportunities for sports veterans, legends and retired sportsmen and women.
Many of these veterans, legends and retired sports persons have enrolled and registered in the SRSA database as coaches, technical officials, sport administrators, and the likes. SRSA has opened opportunities to train them further in technical sport skills to assist in the school sport programme whilst at the same time receiving something that will make them at least put bread on the table.
In an effort to recognize our sporting greats, icons and legends, preliminary engagements are underway to investigate the feasibility of establishing a National Sport Hall of Fame. Coupled with this vision, exceptional athletes, coaches, administrators and technical officials will have the opportunity to be profiled while they are living in the Little Green Book, the second edition of this book will be produced in July 2013.
In line with the above, again in November 2013 we will celebrate and reward achievement in sport and recreation and provide a platform for luminaries in sport and recreation (on and off the field) to be acknowledged by the nation at the prestigious South Africa Sports Awards.
The South African Sports Awards for 2013 will take place in November at the Sun City Superbowl.
As we will engage with our counterparts in the Ministry of Higher Education to re-introduce Sport and Recreation Education in the Teacher Training Colleges as well as into the curriculum of Further Education and Training (FET) Colleges; SRSA together with CATHSETA has launched a Post Graduate Bursary Scheme for Post Graduate and PHD students in sport and recreation to the tune of three million to study towards a Master and Doctoral Degree in sport and recreation.
The Post Graduate Development Programme (PDP) in sport sciences is supported by providing access for students to SRSA administrative resources to assist them with their studies. This wealth of knowledge will be shared with coaches and sport science professionals to assist in school sport, grassroots sport development and high performance.
Chairperson, we will this year as part of building social cohesion and nation building give a fitting “Tribute to Nelson Mandela” for his contribution in the struggle for freedom and democracy.
This event will be consistent with the government programme to observe 67 minutes of our times in honour of Nelson Mandela and the United Nations resolution on the Nelson Mandela International Day. We will honour the work of our struggle heroes by hosting an inaugural Nelson Mandela Sports Day which will be launched in June 2013 in partnership with the South African Rugby Union (SARU) and the South African Football Association (SAFA).
Honourable Members, it is important to first reflect that we did all of the above with a simple Budget Allocation of only R848.4 million for 2012/13, with an increase of only R45.7 million from the previous financial year 2011/2012. R525 million of this amount was allocated to the Mass Participation Programme which was making 62% of the budget.
This was mainly due to the Mass Participation conditional grant with the focus of increasing participation in various sporting codes by supporting school sport, club development and hubs. During the same period the school sport budget within SRSA increased from R27.3 million in 2011/12 to R42.6 million in 2012/13 with an emphasis on supporting the delivery of sport programmes to learners and to continue empowering educators in code specific coaching, technical officiating, team management and sport administration with the focus on the 16 priority sporting codes.
Chairperson and the House with these limited resources at our disposal; SRSA is progressively improving the delivery of sport and recreation services .as outlined in our opening remarks. We must all redouble our efforts to vigorously continue making a “Case for Sport”. The government’s swift response to our “Case for Sport” will allow us to continue to deliver our programmes as expected in the face of competing priorities.
Although resources allocated to SRSA in 2012 were meager; the department was able to successfully deliver the following flagship programmes, services and activities:
- Sport and Recreation Equipment and Attire to schools and community clubs
- Construction of Multi-Purpose Community Fields in poor communities and schools
- Roll-Out of the School Sport programmes
- National School Sport Championships 2012
- Support our Olympians and Paralympians before, during and after the 2012 London Games
- Reviving of Netball and support of the Netball Diamond Challenge
- Reviving Basket Ball and support for the Basket Ball League in partnership with the interim structure of Basket Ball SA and National Basket Association (NBA)
- Enhancing the work of Boxing South Africa as well as South African Institute of Drug Free Sport (SAIDS)
- Support the work of AFCON Local Organising Committee (LOC) before, during and after the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations
- Hosting of the South Africa Sports Awards, and many more projects.
Honourable Members, it is against this background that we commend before you this afternoon that the 2013/14 budget allocation for the department remains very minimal in real term. Of the current year allocation of R1, 073 billion; 73% of this amount which is R815 million is transferred to Provinces, Municipalities and Sports Federations. Therefore, only R258 million will be utilized by the department for all its activities including salaries.
The department received a special allocation of R156 million for the 2014 African Nations Championships (CHAN). This amount is divided between the CHAN Local Organising Committee (LOC) R36 million and R120 million for Host Cities.
In order to breath life to the above statement SRSA tabled its Strategic Plan for the Fiscal Years 2012 to 2016 to Parliament in March 2012 and again presented the Strategic Plan at the beginning of this year as well as our Annual Performance Plan (APP) 2013/14 Financial Year on 7 and 8 May 2013 in both Houses of Parliament.
These documents aimed at giving the nation a clear picture of the planned programmes and activities of SRSA for the next five years as well as budget allocations and estimates for such years. They are broken down into annual plans and activities that are aimed at realizing the stated objectives on our plans going forward. At the same time SRSA will on annual basis position itself to integrate the NSRP as adopted by Cabinet.
To this end, in order to fulfil the obligations of the NSRP and the Annual Performance Plan (APP) 2013/14; SRSA together with Department of Basic Education are continuing to implement the school sport programme in 2013.
This programme will rest on the giant shoulders of the School Sport Leagues across the country. It will again culminate into the national School Sport Championship in December 2013.
To solidify this foundation SRSA will continue to roll-out the school sport programme underpinned by the following critical pillars: physical education; top school leagues; SA Schools National Championships and national multi-coded age group tournaments. As the national school sport league unfolds, the role of the sport club at each level will be to avail talent scouts to identify talented athletes and officials, as well as to mentor and support coaches, umpires and technical officials.
The league will differentiate between primary school and high school children. Our ministerial sports bursary scheme will still continue this financial year and will continue to offer talented children identified at the national multi-coded age group tournaments an opportunity to study at sport focus schools.
Although we have made progress, the successful roll-out of school sport is currently hampered by among others, the following challenges:
- Absence of facilities and sporting equipment in most rural schools and communities
- Lack of accredited capacity building programmes and skilled personnel
- Uneven distribution of competition opportunities
- Insufficient funding for the coordination, monitoring and reporting on intra- school and inter-school tournaments
- Inadequate parental support for school sport and absence of formal structures to support the delivery of school sport.
In order to support the transformation agenda, SRSA in partnership with SALGA, are building partnerships with Local Government in the delivery of sport and recreation at local government level. Of importance is the matter of the provision of sport and recreation facilities in all the municipalities across the country.
Through this partnership we are beginning to reap some fruits as it is being witnessed in our partnership with the Gert Sibande District Municipality when we delivered the sport equipment on 17 May 2013.
Chairperson, as we announced last year in this House our appointment of the Eminent Persons Group on Transformation (EPG), one of the key components of the NSRP is a Transformation Charter and Scorecard. The baseline of transformation in South African sport needs to be determined and the EPGs work has started in earnest with the cooperation of SASCOC and all National Federations and Sport Bodies. Because of the importance of transformation for the future of South African sport, it is imperative that SRSA delivers on this focus area.
Internal capacity will be empowered for the work of the EPG to assist national federations to implement the Charter and to accurately complete the scorecard. The national federations will be subjected to a transformation review to monitor progress in this regard.
Starting from this year we will announce a transformation barometer on all Federations’ progress or lack of it in the transformation score-card. We will publicly name, blame and shame all those non-compliant Federations and sport bodies. This will include dealing viciously and decisively with corruption and maladministration in sport and recreation.
We will incentivise all compliant Federations and sport bodies. We are providing a secretariat support to the EPG to fast-track its work to produce quarterly consolidated National Federation Transformation Progress Reports based on their interactions with SASCOC, the national federations and play a coordinating role regarding transformation within other SRSA programmes.
These efforts will be supported by the work of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Recreation which is leading our transformation agenda in the recreation sector of our society.
This will include amongst others the resuscitation and development of rural sport. This programme will support a rural sport improvement programme under the guidance of the National House of Traditional Leaders. The programme will involve a ministerial outreach to rural areas to distribute sports equipment and roll-out Outdoor Gyms and other sport and recreation materials and facilities to many rural communities across the country, beginning by one Outdoor Gym per Province.
Over the medium term, the department will develop a single governance framework for recreation to strengthen the delivery of recreation programmes. It is envisaged that these programmes will not be institutionalized but will be community initiatives driven by educational and public promotional campaigns.
In conclusion Chairperson, following the adoption of the NSRP, amendments to the Sport & Recreation Act needs to be considered this year by Parliament to tighten the powers of the Minister, particularly regarding the speedy resolution of disputes as well as amending some of the laws that make it difficult to transform sport in this country.
As we complete the journey that began in 1912 by the Great Generation who travelled on the horse-back from Limpopo and other parts of Africa to grace the occasion of the birth of the ANC, the oldest liberation movement in the continent, we must soldier-on as this current Re-Generation for the next 100 years to fulfil the wishes of our Great-Great Generation of Oliver Reginald Tambo when it concluded that:
“The fight for (total) freedom (and independence) must go on until it is won; until our country is free, happy and peaceful as part of the community of man. We cannot rest.”
Thank you!
