Programme Director, Councilor Dyule;
Chief Whip of the OR Tambo Municipality, Cllr Nkompela and all Councilors present here today;
Members of the Executive Council (MEC’s) present here today;
SAFA Representative, Mr Danny Jordaan;
Representative of Madolo Security and Cleaning Company;
The Traditional Leadership who are here to grace this event;
Reverend Mabo and other Religious Leadership present here;
Community Leaders as well as women and youth leadership in this gathering;
Sports men and women present here today;
Ladies and Gentlemen;
Fellow South Africans;
Bantu baku-Masipala wase-OR Tambo neeziphaluka; siyanibulisa ngalenjikalanga. Sinibulisa sinelizwi eliphuma kuRhulumente wesizwe nombutho wesizwe, u-African National Congress, i-ANC.
Silapha namhlanje sinovuyo olukhulu ngento enisenzeleyona; yokuba nisimeme sibelapha kunye nani kule nyanga yokuZingca ngobuAfrika bethu, size kulomyadala umkhulu kangaka sigubha lenyanga ngezemidlalo kumdlalo wonobhutyuzwayo; siyavuya ukuba kulombhiyozo undiliseke ngoluhlobo.Sithi mazenethole mawethu!
Ladies and Gentlemen, it is a great honour and privilege for me to rise before you in this important activity of Siyakhula Soccer Tournament on this Heritage Day.
We celebrate the heritage day today through sport to pay a fitting tribute to the son of the soil, the leader of the African National Congress and the father of our nation, comrade Oliver Reginald Tambo who this District Municipality is named after. We also pay homage to all our martyrs from the surrounding communities under the leadership of the OR Tambo Municipality who fought tirelessly against the brutal apartheid system for a better life for all South Africans.
We remember vividly when these martyrs where in combat in the ‘well-known nine frontier wars of resistance or Xhosa Wars in defence of our heritage. These wars were all fought in defence of the land against the pillaging mobs of colonial armies and our forces were under the command of the great traditional leaders of this part of South Africa, the Eastern Cape against the European forces.
It is here in this part of our country that South Africa produced seasoned cadres and leaders of our country as well as matured trade unionists.
Without doubt, Eastern Cape is the land of the well nurtured leadership of our people in the likes of Oliver Tambo, Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba, Steve Tshwete, Chris Hani as well as Thabo Mbeki and many more.
We want to say, this afternoon, their blood was not in vain; in fact, their blood watered the tree of freedom we enjoy today. We want to say again to all these gallant fighters, their war against apartheid was not a lost war; it is the heritage of our living today, it was a victorious battle against powerful apartheid colonial machinery which was defeated in 1994.They did so to defend the land of our forefathers whilst at the same time fighting for a better life for all our people.
Without fear of contradiction, indeed, the Eastern Cape Province epitomises the cradle of the struggle for freedom and liberty. At the same time this Province is an epitome of sport and recreation in South Africa from cricket, rugby, boxing and etc. What we need to do now is to revive these sporting codes from where they were before especially soccer. We need to encourage more young people to participate in soccer in particular and all sports in general.
Ladies and Gentlemen, when I was here in 2009 I watched Veterans playing soccer and rugby in the dusty fields of this Municipality. Together with the leadership of the Municipality we promised the communities of OR Tambo Municipality and its leaders that in the near future we will contribute meaningfully towards the development of sport and recreation in these areas.
I am pleased to see progress and we were not paying any lip service or making empty promises; we came back on 17 March 2011 to donate sport equipment and attire to leading clubs in the surrounding villages. We were here with SAFA and the Lottery to give hope to the sportsmen and women of this place.
We did so because were convinced of the immense challenges that our people in this side of our country are facing. Together with you, want to further encourage all young people to participate in sport and recreation.
It is true that OR Tambo Municipality is overwhelmingly rural with pockets of peri-urban areas. Majority of these people are said to be unemployed and lack sufficient formal education as a result they fall prey to social exclusion and income inequality. The majority of these socially excluded inhabitants are young people under the age of 35; of which the sizeable number being women.
It is in this regard that Sport and Recreation South Africa (SRSA) committing itself to work together with the OR Tambo Municipality to bring services to the people especially young people through sport and recreation activities. We want to help the Municipality to intervene in this situation and develop a programme to take youth out of streets ignorance. We want to encourage the Municipality and all our people especially young people to participate in sport and recreation. We are here, today, to do just that!
We know that by engaging in activities of this nature we will assist this community, through sport and recreation, to deal with all the ills of society including crime and criminality, living healthy lifestyles, fighting against drugs and alcohol abuse, fighting the scourge of teenage pregnancy and HIV/AIDS as well as becoming active in sport and recreation.
I know that this part of the Eastern Cape Province is having a huge sport heritage and many active sports clubs and teams but they lack support and equipment. We are therefore here to support that. We are encouraged by your activism in sport and recreation by involving yourselves in numerous sporting activities in order to develop your sporting skills whilst in the same token contribute meaningful in the development of society. We cannot leave this talent unnoticed!
However, we would like you to establish and strengthen organs of peoples’ power through the establishment strong and strengthening of the Local Sports Councils, Schools Sport Codes Structures and any other strategic organ of people’s power to assist to revive and strengthen sport and recreation in our communities.
We want sport veterans and traditional leaders to help us to mobilise communities to show interest in sport. We want them to register to become part of the Sport and Recreation Volunteer Corps to transfer their sporting skills to the youth especially the sporting youth in schools and communities. We want our sporting veterans to register for coaching courses with the SRSA and SASCOC in order to sharpen their coaching and sport skills for the better.
We have identified the construction of the sports hub or sports multi-purpose centre in this area to accommodate emerging different sporting codes established by young people in this area. In the same token we are informed of the challenges you face regarding to the disqualification of your soccer clubs by SAFA inspectorate due to the poor quality of soccer pitches and other sporting fields in this area.
We know that good soccer teams are forced to be sold to areas with quality standard of pitches in order to play at Vodacom Competitions. We would like to believe by constructing a sport hub in this area we will in one way or the other go a long way to assist the different soccer clubs and/or sports codes to be of quality standard as to qualify to compete in the quality and higher tournaments.
It also came to our attention that the challenge of sanitation and water in this part of this province is one of the things that hinder the development of our athletes. Without clean and healthy water and sound sanitation our athletes cannot prosper. Diarrhea and other related diseases caused by dirty and unhealthy sanitation and water is a hindrance to the success of any athlete.
In our discussions with the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs on issues of sport facilities, we would include this matter as a matter of urgency because we believe a healthy standard of living is leading into a healthy lifestyle.
Notwithstanding the poor quality of roads in this area; where our athletes are exposed to unnecessary car accidents when they practice athletics in the mornings and evenings. Our athletes especially school going youth are hit by unsuspecting drivers because of the poor nature and standard of our roads in this area. The safety of our athletes is high on our agenda. We will also, together with the municipality look at possibilities of dealing with dire challenge of road construction and road safety for safer sport and recreation in our country.
Silivile ikhwelo lenu bantu bakuthi singuRhulumente we ANC, sithe masisabele ngokukhawuleza. Indlebe lityala mzi wakwa Xhosa, sizwe sakowethu! Sisivile iSandi senu!
Enkosi!
Thank you.
Speech of the Minister of Sport and Recreation (SRSA), Mr. FA Mbalula (MP), on the occasion of the Siyakhula Soccer Tournament on Heritage Weekend, Mabalengwe Sports Grounds.
Oliver Reginald Tambo District Municipality, Eastern Cape Province, Republic of
