Chairperson of the National Press Club, Mr Yusuf Abrahamjee
Deputy Minister of Sport and Recreation South Africa, Mr Gert Oosthuizen
Director-General, Mr Vernie Petersen
Ladies and gentleman of the media fraternity
Fellow South Africans
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.
Ladies and gentlemen, sport is a national asset! We must jealously guard and protect it against any malicious harm and disharmony. For that reason we hereby state boldly and forthrightly, our intention to root out corruption and monopoly in this community and anything foreign and antithesis to popular aspirations of the masses of our people and our governments’ developmental policy trajectory. In the same vain we remain open and fully committed to working with all sport loving people, administrators and formations who share our vision and are equally committed to our mission.
Today marks exactly eleven days since the State President tasked us with the daunting responsibility of heading the Ministry of Sport and Recreation. True to the President’s marching orders, we hit the ground running and kicked off with a detailed briefing we received from the previous Minister Reverend Dr Makhenkesi Arnold Stofile. This was followed by intensive briefings with my counterpart, Deputy Minister Gert Oosthuizen as well as the Director-General and his top Management.
We have also had preliminary discussions with the President and CEO of the South African Sport Confederation (SASCOC) and also with some leaders in the sporting fraternity with a clear signal that these were preliminary conversations to be followed up in the coming weeks before the end of the year by intensive and rigorous national and provincial road shows.
We are delighted to note the number of the private sector initiatives and partnerships with international development agencies.We have signalled to the department our intention to these collaborative efforts as we seek to streamline the delivery channels and ensure that funding from our partners is properly utilised and well directed.
Alongside these briefings we also spared some moment to witness a ground breaking initiative by a young business entrepreneur from Cape Town who opted to buy a Vodacom Status and established a football team that will hopefully grow to become the pride of Cape Town.
We also visited Banyana Banyana who were in camp as part of their participation in the Confederation of Africa Championship. We wish them well as they prepare to engage Equatorial Guinea this afternoon. We are confident that they will make the country proud by reaching the finals and ultimately lifting that glorious trophy and represent us in the Women’s World Cup!
At this juncture we are convinced that we need to take the following steps that will enable the Ministry to fulfil its mandate and historical mission of transforming and developing our sector.
In line with the national norms and standards, the bulk of the revenue generated and allocated to federations will be revised and redirected to sports development, training and infrastructure. We believe this will free enormous resource to be utilised for building and revamping sports clinics, training the trainers, coach development and sports academies, talent identification and development, scholarships and bursaries.
The legislative and policy framework governing our relations and interaction with federations will be reviewed in order to inculcate a culture of accountability, transparency and good corporate governance. It is in the interest of both government and the federations to protect the image and prestige of sport because sport plays an important role in social cohesion and national unity. Sport is also, as we have seen during our recent hosting of the FIFA 2010 World Cup, a prism through which the world and prospective investors view a country and its people.
In order for us to succeed in our quest to transform sport in South Africa, we need to look at the transformation discourse and its application; we need to look at transformation anew. This calls for a fresh perspective on transformation that will propel us to new heights and a world of sport of which all South Africans will be proud of. We have decided to charge the Department with the responsibility to develop, as matter of urgency and in consulting with all stakeholders and role players, the instruments and levers we need to marshal all of us in the right direction. Transformation will not see the light of the day if we continue pay lip service to a cause to which thousands of South Africans laid their lives. We will not pronounce on quota systems or otherwise until we have a position that takes into account empirical and anecdotal evidence over the past 16 years. Our assumption is that the prevailing material conditions necessitate both qualitative and quantitative measures to leap frog us into the ideal world of sport.
In order for us to be aligned to the noble campaign of sports for all as declared by the United Nations and in line with our philosophy of sport for life, school sport, community sport and competitive sport must be connected into a continuum that leads one to the other thus creating a pipeline for supply of requisite talent and desired product.
We have already reached out to the Ministry of Basic Education with a view to thresh out an operational plan for the rigorous drive and revival of sport in schools. We will also reach out to the Department of Co-operative Affairs and Traditional Affairs to clear any bottlenecks within the municipalities standing in the way of the revival clubs.
We will bring back the vibrant culture of school tournaments, district, provincial and national tournaments! We will create light-houses in selected provinces to serve as hubs of our community multi-purpose centres and mobile gyms. Our intention is also to encourage affluent schools engaged in elite and high performance sport to join hands with less privileged schools and share their expertise and skills with them.
We are at this stage processing the report of the FIFA 2010 Unit with a view to consider the future usage and sustainability of our stadiums. We are looking at various models which we will announce after the report has served before cabinet.
We have declared recreation as one of our strategic priorities and the Department have lined up a calendar filled with activities to leverage sport to promote healthy life-style and healthy living.
When we were given the baton to continue with the race to sporting and recreational victory, we pronounced unequivocal that there’s going to be a vibe, jive and movement – a BIG MOVEMENT. Above all the Unity of our people, using sport and recreation as a tool.That is our dedication and our commitment.
We end by expressing our profuse gratitude to the previous Minister, Reverend Dr Makhenkesi Stofile and a stalwart of our glorious movement for his sterling role in the public service and heroic role the he played in sport activism and all-round struggle against the apartheid regime. We wish Mfundisi and his family the most generous of blessings in their future endeavours.
We would like to thank you ladies and gentlemen of the media for heading our call and attend what we consider as our inaugural press conference. As it has been said before “the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step”. We appreciate your presence and interest on this first leg of the journey.
As we ready ourselves for the implementation of our game plan we hope and trust that you will be our partners and companions.
I thank you!
