Honourable Speaker
Esteemed ministers and deputy ministers
Honourable members
Compatriots
Friends and all
In his letter to the FIFA President in 2003, President Mbeki emphasised that the foundation of South Africa's bid to host the world cup was "a resolve to ensure that the 21st century unfolds as a century of growth and development in Africa". This he said was "an African journey of hope, hope that, in time, we will arrive at a future when our continent will be free of wars, refugees and displaced people, free of tyranny, of racial, ethnic and religious divisions, and conflicts, of hunger and the accumulated weight of centuries of the denial of our human dignity".
The same sentiments were definitely, in the minds of soccer officials, like the late Solomon "Sticks" Morewa, when they mooted the idea of South Africa as a host of the FIFA World Cup. These leaders will be the first to confess that they were inspired by the release of Dr Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela from prison and the subsequent and historic democratic elections of 1994.
The announcement in Zurich on the 15 May 2004 that South Africa would host the 2010 FIFA World Cup was met with great exuberation. South Africa went amok with excitement. Africa and most countries flooded us with letters of congratulations and our embassies hosted celebration parties that had to contend with many gatecrashers, a historic day!
Since that day, South Africans have proudly risen to the task of preparing for organising and hosting a memorable world cup. We needed to make sure that such a world cup should also be a project of the nation that will contribute to nation building, unity and patriotism. We have succeeded!
South Africa, Africa and many parts of the world burst into joyous celebration! But that joy was soon dimmed by questions of our readiness, transport capabilities, questions of suitable accommodation and of course, crime and security questions. All very legitimate concerns but raised with such venom and distortions that were clearly born of Afro-pessimism.
We confounded all pessimists and "plan B" harbingers. The resilience and patriotism of South Africans has been exceptional. Our people never took their collective eye from the ball. Our hopes and those of the continent continued, as it still does, to be our loadstone, our source of courage and inspiration.
We have come to within 49 days of the tournament. The biggest in the world! Congratulations to all of us. We must remain united in our resolve to deliver a world class event, a unique and memorable world cup that will position us as significant global players in all fields of human endeavour.
Recently, the murder of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) leader was enough for a British tabloid named Daily Star, to boldly declare that "world cup fans face bloodbath" in our country. Honourable Speaker, despite this and many other attempts to cast doubt in the world, FIFA, our continent and our friends elsewhere in the world, have rallied behind us because they know that with their support, we can and we will, deliver the best football fiesta ever!
The 2010 FIFA World Cup presents us with an ideal forum to extend an unforgettable South African welcome to the world. It offers us a golden opportunity to collaborate with all stakeholders in a dynamic partnership based on integrity and excellence. It is a strong catalyst towards the building of national and continental pride and unity. It is already boosting tourism and our economy. The world cup must make South Africa a favourable destination to visit and to conduct business. It must reduce Afro�"pessimism.
In June last year, South Africa hosted eight teams playing 16 games in the 2009 Confederations Cup. For the first time South Africans and the world had a first hint of what awaited them in 2010. Millions were glued to their television sets to watch Bafana-Bafana play Brazil in a semi-final of that tournament. The electricity that gripped the world during the 2009 Confederations Cup forced all to concede that Africa's time had arrived. When Egypt beat Italy, one British newspaper reported: "Africa Defeats the World". What an accolade.
In just about 49 days, South Africa will play Mexico in the opening game of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Here Emzantsi! Our President, Comrade JG Zuma graphically describes the situation: "We have been working hard towards bringing this event to Africa. We have built new and revitalised our existing stadia and we have upgraded our transport and accommodation facilities. We have demonstrated our pedigree by successfully hosting the 2009 FIFA Confederation Cup and the final draw for 2010”.
Here, the president opens a window for all to see the huge investment our government made in infrastructure development and in reconstructing the image of South Africa and Africa as legitimate members of the family of nations. For once, we should not be shy to give ourselves a big pat on the back all of us.
The world cup has opened many people's eyes to other countries and their cultures. As our youth is inculcated with a sense of national pride and are exposed to other cultures, their respect for unity in diversity gets stronger. This is good for good citizenship that is non-discriminatory and non-xenophobic. This is good for internationalism and a peaceful world.
Our department is doing an audit on the socio economic benefits to our people that have accrued from hosting this great event. We will also do an assessment of the spiritual and political legacies of the world cup to South Africa and Africa. This work should be completed by the end of August 2010.
In the words of our president: "We urge all South Africans to support our national team". Let us all support all African teams. Yes, let us also support all teams. Football and Sport are more than a game. Sport is a great catalyst for national unity and cohesion.
The coordinating task of our Department has made sure that the Inter-Ministerial Committee and Cabinet get regular reports from the Technical Coordinating Committee. The Technical Coordinating Committee in turn made sure that all spheres of government delivered on their guarantees. It also acted as our cutting edge in negotiations with the Local organising Committee (LOC), FIFA and other players. We salute the cooperation we received from all. Nothing came easily.
At this juncture, we can proudly pronounce that all stadia have been completed. As we speak, these world class facilities are being handed over to municipalities by contractors. We are on course to meet the FIFA requirement of ensuring that all stadia are handed over to the LOC 15 days before the tournament.
We wish to take this opportunity to salute all the architects, engineers and semi�"skilled workers and other professionals who worked and continue to work in the construction of all stadia and other infrastructure projects for the tournament.
Sport and Recreation South Africa (SRSA), the world and the African Agenda
South Africa has just concluded an unprecedented 10 years stint as board and Executive Committee member of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). The African Union and the Supreme Council for Sport in Africa (SCSA) unanimously agreed to hand this responsibility to Tunisia for one year. During this time we will be unpaid consultants to Africa and WADA on issues affecting Africa on doping.
We have also handed over the role of the chair for the Zone VI of the SCSA to Swaziland, the next hosts of the Zone VI under 20 games. We remain members of the Troika and of the Council of Ministers. South Africa continues to serve through our Deputy Minister on the United Nations education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) committee that approves funds for the elimination of doping in sport.
Our international partners
The size of our budget makes it almost impossible to carry out our mandate. To this end we have had to develop partnerships with other countries and Regions of the world. Together with Southern African Development Community (SADC), the five African nations that have qualified for the world cup, the European Union and other enterprises, we will be putting together a global village during the world cup.
Here different nations and cultures will deploy their country's artefacts and specialities. People will be afforded the opportunity to acquaint themselves with other people's cultures and ways of living. This will be home away for all of us. Other departments like Presidency, Department of International relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), Tourism, Arts and Culture, Education etc. are our local partners in the endeavour.
The existing relationship between our Department and the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) has been a good catalyst that encouraged the European Union to support our development programmes. Amongst the areas of agreement is capacity building, developing a toolkit for sport as a catalyst for development and peace as well as skills in project management.
Our cooperation with the Tourism Department as well as our impressive record in hosting mega sport events has not gone unnoticed in the world. The United Nations, the National Olympic Committee (IOC), WADA and a whole range of sport federations look at South Africa as a preferred host of world events. The International Olympic Committee General Assembly will be hosted at eThekwini next year. It will be hosted in Africa for the first time ever.
The World Anti-Doping Agency is already broaching the possibility of a WADA Conference for all sport bodies and all governments of the world in South Africa. All this because of the impression South Africa makes in the world. Our sector is not lagging behind.
Of course South Africa has always had to work within the African collective. We are pleased with our role here in solidifying the African agenda. The African Union Commission considers South Africa a leading country on the policy development and integration of sport structures.
Local partners
Sport is well and alive in South Africa, but it is struggling to transform itself sufficiently. As early as 1990 the sport movement realised that the fiscus would not be able to meet all the developmental needs of South Africa. We knew even then, that sport and recreation would be a step child in the hierarchy of needs and allocation.
For this reason, we set the process afoot to lobby for the establishment of a National Lotteries to assist the fiscus in funding sport's needs. Somehow we lost any say on who gets what and how the dividends of the Lotteries contribute to the national agenda of reconstruction and development. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. The new Minister of the Department of Trade and Industry and the chairperson of National Lotteries Board seem to understand the issues. We must all support them as they try to bring the National Lotteries Act on the right track. Section 25 of that act must be amended.
Cabinet must still revisit the old decision vis-a-vis the consolidated municipal infrastructure grant (MIG). The record of infrastructure delivery since the advent of the MIG speaks for itself. We are not willing to give up this fight, even if it makes us a lot of enemies. We are willing to listen to compelling arguments that help us build the much needed facilities. Failure here will only entrench the Group Areas Act and the Separate Amenities Act.
From mobilisation to organisation
Mass participation
Our department will continue to pursue initiatives that increase the number of participants in sport and recreation. The department will also broaden its focus to the area of recreation and strengthen its relationship with the Department of Basic Education in the delivery of school sport programmes.
Other important focus areas to assist in broadening the participation base of South African sport will include sports promotion programmes and implementation of more stringent monitoring and evaluation systems, with indicators that highlight the significant impact that these initiatives have on the lives of ordinary South Africans. A more stringent oversight of how the DORA grant is used by Provinces will be applied.
The Community Mass Participation programme addresses among others, government's call for safer communities, lifelong healthy living, and skills improvement. It also contributes to job creation.
Our potential partners here are such Departments as Health, Social Development, Security Cluster and Education. This is where we deal with prevention and correction of anti-social behaviour. We must still do a lot of work to get our potential partners to work with us on this. We are very grateful to the private sector that continues to be the backbone of support for our programmes.
Transformation
Many talk about this concept. Some understand it. Some reduce it to colour and quotas, others correctly extends it to the mindset of those in charge. But by and large, Sport Leaders are inward looking. This is why it is so easy to run abroad to buy a readymade player or official even when the country is not depleted of the requisite skills. Together with Home Affairs we are working on tightening the administration of our laws to protect the integrity of our nation and the security of our country.
We have said in the past and we repeat it today: transformation is a non�"negotiable. But we are acutely aware of the role played by control over the economy in accessing opportunities. Apartheid, after all, was never just a political programme. It was an economic and class issue too. At least this is what the scouts from South Africa were told by their role models in Mississippi and in Germany during the 1930's. We are too knowledgeable to ride into this matter rough shod. It needs scalpels, not assegais. We will use our budget to intervene at the amateur levels. Market forces cannot help us here for they have no sympathy for the poor.
School sport and community sport
More than 2 850 schools received sport equipment, training and a co�"ordinator through our mass participation grant in the last financial year. Both junior and senior schools national and regional tournaments take place fairly smoothly. So do winter games. We must get our scheduling and organising of summer games right.
The weakest link in schools sport is the actual organising of schools sport. There are no structures in black schools from the school up. By contrast, the best performing schools do have teachers assigned to run sport, just like it was the case in our schooling days.
In terms of our current memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Basic Education, we are not making progress in getting our children to play sport. We have made very small steps towards school sports structures to date. This is obviously frustrating. We have to find ways of having access to learners and educators without breaking into school yards. We can't assist schools when they have no structures. We can't establish structures without an enthusiastic cooperation from Basic Education and the federations. This challenge is being attended to.
Community sport is coming up nicely. Our Club Development programme is yielding fruit. But there is still a lot to be done. Our partners from the private sector are not always keen to fund sport codes other than soccer. This is a dangerous development of stereotyping us as soccer people. We want our children to diversify participation in sport.
Sport and Science
Modern day athletes can barely attain their maximum potential without scientific support. To this end SRSA created a special directorate to render scientific and technical support to athletics, both developing and elite athletes. For such identified athletes with potential, SRSA pays the higher performance centre of the University of Pretoria to carry out training residential conditioning and camps for athletes. Federations and athletes who compete in international games are beneficiary of this programme.
We are interacting with our international and local partners in our ongoing search for an affordable but effective formula. Many would like us to follow the route of Australia, or England, but we are not ready for that. We are a developing and transforming country. That is our reality. We will review our grants to federations. We will focus on funding development entities that aid transformation.
The impact and reputation of our South African Institute for Drug-Free Sport (SAIDS) is felt by the world all over. SAIDS is South African and Africa's flagship on anti-doping work. They are ably complemented by our Africa regional office of WADA in Cape Town. We can be proud of our work in and through both SAIDS and Rodney's office of World Anti-Doping Agency.
Our scientists have been jolted into a patriotic activism by the events surrounding our "golden girl", Mokgadi Caster Semenya. The "golden lining" of the Semenya saga is that it will always be regarded as a defining moment in the history of athletics and sport. For one thing the debacle brought to the focus the subject of intersex athletes. It also taught us that anatomical, physiological and chromosomal characteristics are not suzerain. What defines a person is how he or she has expressed her or his identity since the date of birth. That is what gender is about. Laboratory tests and medical treatment deal with equity in competition, not gender.
We are pleased with the way we handled such a sensitive situation. We thank all South Africans for their support to Miss Semenya and their respect of the process of getting her back on the track. Let us resist all sensation on these personal matters. Let us also avoid going for short cuts that may nullify all our victories to date.
Legislative framework
We have to come back after the Boxing Convention this weekend and propose ways of strengthening various aspects of our laws. Members are welcome to make their own suggestion of priority amendments to any of our Sport related Laws. I know that we all agree that Boxing South Africa is in a mess which we must deal with, within the Law.
We must also align our regulations and protocols with Home Affairs with respect to foreign players and officials. The directors-general of Sport and Recreation South Africa and Home Affairs are working on this. This is what all countries do. We will also finalise the Combat Sport Bill this year. We earnestly believe that the South African Schools Association will be up and running this year. "Ex fidei feducia"; (From faith, confidence, Jeremiah 29:11).
Our sport policy is being revamped. The White Paper has been redrafted and public participation in the finalisation of the new White Paper will commence soon this year. Our advocacy document; The Case For Sport, is also being revised. All these efforts should assist us to pull together in the same direction, each within their constitutional role.
Conclusion
"Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. Sport can awaken hope where there was previously only despair". (Nelson Mandela).
Let us unite to welcome the world and to support the One Goal campaign that our President and other world leaders have launched. A child at school is a child safe from criminal influences. But mens sana in corpore sano; (a sound mind in a sound body: Let South Africa play!
Ke Nako!! Wanyotha, Wasala! Ifikile iWorld Cup!! Feel it!!
Thank you'
Issued by: Sport and Recreation South Africa
22 April 2010
