The year 1990 marked the release of the father of the nation – Nelson Rholihlahla Mandela and the unbanning of all liberation movements in South Africa. It also marked the intensification of negotiations for a better political settlement in the Republic of South Africa.
As Mandela put it in his Opening Address at the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) on the 20th of December 1991:
“Today will be indelibly imprinted in the history of our country. If we, who are gathered here, respond to the challenges before us, today will mark the commencement of the transition from apartheid to democracy. Our people, from every corner of our country, have expressed their yearning for democracy and peace. CODESA represents the historical opportunity to translate that yearning into reality”.
Since, the democratic breakthrough in 1994, the people of the Republic and the world witnessed an analogous development in a large-scale sport activism; an expansion and deepening of sport participation at all levels of participation in sport and recreation. Sport and Recreation became a seminal activity in the social pursuit of cultivating a healthy nation through a healthy body and a healthy mind.
Indeed, this period marked a renaissance of a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and united sport in South Africa. In this short space of time, sport activism in our country achieved greater national and international prominence and impact because of its cohesive nature, its public nature and broadcast. This public appeal made sport and recreation susceptible to be drawn into the polity which gave the democratic state access to the passionate commitments of the people towards sport and recreation.
This is a clear affirmation of the Freedom Charter which emphasized that:
“The colour bar in cultural life, in sport and recreation and in education shall be abolished … and that government shall discover, develop and encourage national talent for the enhancement of our sporting and cultural life.”
That commitment as enshrined in the ‘authentic document’ of the people, the Freedom Charter, was translated into the Constitution of the Republic.
Therefore 2011 is almost fifteen years after the adoption of that Constitution and through its contents, our people gave the democratic state an unwavering political mandate to transform all the institutions of the state including sport and recreation based on the will of the people.
The democratic state seized every opportunity to carry on with the aspirations of the people, building a better life for all and finally build on the foundations of sport for nation building and social cohesion. It used the legacies of the World Cups and all other sporting events to encourage continued support towards our nationhood and our national glory by mobilizing society behind the vision of an “Active and Winning Nation”.
What do we mean when we say we are a ‘winning nation?
This year only we participated in cricket world cup, university Olympics in Semgen, China. Our young people also represented us in the swimming championships in Shanghai and our Netball team jetted to Singapore to represent our Republic in the World Netball Championships. This month our youth is sweating and bleeding in the All Africa Games in Mozambique and our rugby team in New Zealand.
Some we have won and collected medals as well, hence we talk about an ‘active and winning nation. We need to build on our achievements in order to succeed in all of this all round active participation. We need a sports plan for our country to clearly define our inadequacies, for an example, the development theory which is underpinned by clear transformation agenda. In this regard, we need a buy-in from the rest of society.We need to guard against the polarization of transformation based on racial discourse.
South Africa is a nation that is thirsty for success; this needs a collective wisdom of our people to excel.
What makes it difficult for us to close ranks and build a united, non-racial, non-sexist and democratic future through sport?
Sport has played a pivotal role in national unity and social cohesion. It has a power to bury hatred. It has a power to destroy manmade lines of division. And sport has the power to rebuild burnt bridges of human solidarity!
In this regard SRSA has produced a Road Map that presents us with an opportunity to change and reposition sport and recreation landscapein South Africa and provide a strategic political direction to reposition sport system in our country; and stimulate serviceable efficienciesand accelerated service delivery.
The Road Map provides a compendium to transform the Department into an agile, athletic and responsive institutional architecture which epitomizes a new paradigm of a vibrant epoch for both leadership and management of Sport and Recreation South Africa to confront a complex set of challenges and opportunities with much vigour, vibe and resolution.
Strategically located in such an approach is the acceleration and acknowledgement of our developmental state’s fundamental tenets and by giving attention and authority to the six priority areas of the Road Map, namely:
“Accelerating transformation; rekindling school sport; reshaping institutional mechanisms; fostering mass mobilization; revitalizing the recreation genre; and mobilizing sufficient funds for optimal programme execution”.
This approach in sport and recreation emanates from the Ministry of Sport and Recreation South Africa together with priority sports federations and a plethora of significant role-players in the sector where we resolved at a landmark Strategic Planning Workshop held on the 10 – 12 January 2011 at Misty Hills, on the outskirts of Johannesburg, to hold a National Sport and Recreation Indaba that will be all inclusive and all encompassing.
The Strategic Planning Workshop further resolved that the National Sport and Recreation Indaba should be preceded by Provincial Izindaba and predicated on the widest and broadest possible consultation, robust engagement, and a brutally frank exchange of ideas with the people and structures at grass-root level. It is envisaged that out of this rolling, interactive and forward looking process will emerge a people-centered, developmental and transformative discourse that will continue to evolve organically from every nook and cranny of the South Africa society, inspired by thoughts and enhanced by opinions of all sport loving people in their organized and voluntary formations, gaining it’s own momentum and culminating in a vibrant debate and solid platform for national dialogue in the national indaba.
The genesis of the National Sport and Recreation Indaba is to be located in the context of our plausible and poignant assertion when we outlined the vision of the new administration in November 2010 and we said “ Informed by the torturous journey traversed by our forebears through decades characterised by divisions, disunity and segregation, inspired by the titanic campaigns for democratisation, non-racialism, equality and unity in sport, mindful of the immediate task at hand to democratise, deracialise, unify, enforce parity, resource adequately, promote good cooperate governance, strive for access, inclusivity, equality, quality and excellence, we have decided to take drastic measures whose logical conclusion is the restoration of sport and recreation to its rightful owners – the people”.
When we addressed the joint SRSA and SASCOC Press Conference on the 27th of March 2011, we had this to say, “Seventeen years since apartheid was dislodged from power and replaced with a democratically elected government, South Africa is still beset by inequalities, uneven development in Sport and Recreation.” The meeting agreed that we move swiftly by ensuring that we embark on a broad consultative process that will involve the entire nation in a national and robust debate on transformation that will culminate in a conceptual and contextual transformation framework for the country. SASCOC have already produced a transformation charter which we will incorporate in our process and which we believe will enrich the final product arising from the consultative processes.
The aforementioned assertion and policy positions of SRSA provide sport federations and other stakeholders with the basis to outline to the nation the purpose of the National Sport and Recreation Indaba as follows:
Retracing the road traversed by the people of South Africa since apartheid was dislodged from power and replaced by a democratic, non-racial, non-sexist and free South Africa. Where did we start? How far have we come and where to from here? Reviewing the instruments, policies, strategies and tactics that have been relied upon over the past sixteen years for the transformation of the South Africa society. Is there a room for review and refinement?
Aligning the Sport and Recreation South Africa Road Map strategic priorities to current and future policies and legislation with in the sector. How do we go about this alignment? What are the programmatic and budget implications? Fast-tracking a transformation charter and delivery mechanisms for all sectors and role-players involved in sport and recreation. What is transformation? Who are the drivers and participants in this transformation discourse? What do we want to achieve? Setting in motion campaigns, projects, strategies and tactics that will leap-frog the Sport and Recreation sector into new realities and possibilities. Is this a pipe-dream or an achievable objective? Dealing with the provision of facilities in disadvantaged communities within the context of the two economy analysis, whilst ensuring that there is integration, quality, excellence and global competitiveness.How can this be dealt with?
Our stated and unstated assumptions are placed here in order to canvass public opinion and develop solutions and recommendations to the challenges of our age. In this context there must be no holy cows and we must leave no stone unturned in our quest to transform South Africa for the better. Let us embark on genuine and constructive debates and ‘fire chat’ conversations aimed in the altar of public discourse to be rigorously interrogated and subjected to public scrutiny. The debate is open to all, peasants, farmers, rural and urban women, teachers and students, players and coaches, sports administrators and managers, politicians and bureaucrats, young and old!
Whenever and wherever South Africans meet, Sport and Recreation must exist and the ideals of a sporting and healthy nation should be our pre-occupation and clarion call! Let us all seize the moment and make meaningful inputs and contributions.
This national sport and recreation indaba is not going to be another talk-shop. It is aimed at producing an integrated national sports plan which its implementation will be budgeted for and funded by the state. It will be embedded on the ‘transformation charter which will be formulated to bring about the establishment of a competitive and demographically representative sport system.
This will, in our view, be coupled by a ‘transformation performance scorecard’ in order to measure the extent of transformation trajectory in line with transformation targets.
Hence we believe that the future of sport and recreation in South Africa is not just the responsibility of a single entity, but of all the stakeholders in the sports sector; and now is the time to take a collective action.
Our overall objective is to reach a people-centred, developmental and transformative discourse that will continue to evolve organically from every nook and cranny of the South African society. We hope that these thoughts and opinions of all sport loving people in their organised and voluntary formations will result in a vibrant debate and solid platform for national dialogue.
So, corporate South Africa, sports media, sport administrators, politicians, sport federations, civil society and the likes should engage with us in a constructive engagement for the sake of the future of our country, because if we win through sport then we are heating hard against all social ills especially crime and criminality. This unity in sport has a potential to make a huge impact in shaping the entire social fibre of South Africa.
Let us go to the national sport and recreation indaba to make South Africa an ‘active and winning nation’.
Let us all live to the words of Nelson Mandela when he addressed the 90th Birthday of Walter Sisulu, on 18 May 2002:
“What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.”
