Minister of Sport and Recreation South Africa, Mr Fikile Mbalula, MP, statement on the aftermaths of the senior men’s team (the Springbok) Campaign in the IRB 2015 World Cup Championships in the United Kingdom
The Deputy Minister of Sport and Recreation South Africa,
The Director-General of Sport and Recreation South Africa,
The SASCOC representative
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media
Fellow South Africans, ladies and gentlemen of the media will recall that during the preparations of our Senior National Men’s Rugby Team, the springboks, to campaign in the IRB 2015 World Cup Championship and at the height of this Championship, there was a barrage of criticism levelled against the team, on pertinent issues ranging from team performance, shape and size of players, the selection of the tried and tested at the expense of young blood.
The Coach and the leadership of the South African Rugby Union (SARU) came under torrential attack, the basis of which, we can hardly doubt that it's rooted in the fundamental disagreements on sports transformation.
It was during the same period the Ministry of Sport and Recreation in South Africa received several formal and informal representations from South African citizens and civil society organisations. These organisations were demanding Government intervention to ensure demographic representation in teams and force the hand of the coach to give black players game time.
We have also witnessed some unfortunate developments, with some sections of the South African populace taking the matter further by openly declaring their support for the All Blacks from New Zealand and declaring their hatred for the Springbok Team for the reasons they stated. It is a matter of historical record that a group calling itself the Agency for the New Agenda (ANA) took SARU and the Minister of Sport and Recreation to court as respondents in that application for a court interdict.
In the midst of all this drama and protest, we intervened and appealed to all South African compatriots to support our national team in line with our constitutional injunction and direction from the National Development Plan to promote nation building and social cohesion through sport. In the same vein we acknowledged that the public concerns about lack of transformation in our sporting codes, rugby included was and will continue to have a plausible justification and it is a matter we are seized with at all material times.
To this end I made a commitment to meet with all structures of civil society and individuals who are keen to engage constructively in the interest of the sport and South Africa.
I promised that I will specifically meet with COSATU in order to discuss their petition submitted to our office and also share with them the concrete steps and strategic interventions in our quest to transform and change the South African sporting landscape for good and for better.
In this melange of great of expectations for immediate striking outcomes and denial of the South African reality, that our present is inextricably linked to our past and in this historical conjecture, it is only us who have the rare opportunity to chart a new progressive trajectory for peace and development through sport. With this context in mind, ladies and gentlemen, what we have surmised is that the message we have been driving home is not getting through to all. This in turn has meant that the discourse and robust debates are informed by the policy choices we have made as the current administration.
There is no better way to address this gap other than to remind you of the foundations we have laid and concrete steps we have taken in order to achieve transformation goals.
In November 2011, Sport and Recreation South Africa convened a sector-wide National Sport and Recreation Indaba (NSRI) with a view to retrace the road traversed since the unification of sport in our country hitherto.
The Indaba's purpose was to take stock of how far we are and having done that, chart a new futuristic pathway for the fundamental transformation of sport and recreation in South Africa. It is now a matter of historical record that the Indaba's adopted three significant and watershed documents:
- The National Sport and Recreation Plan (NSRP). The plan contains the Transformation Charter as a formal policy guiding transformation in Sport in South Africa. This Charter has been adopted by the entire sport sector of our country and has an accompanying Multi-dimensional Scorecard. The Charter put emphasis on the key pillars on which transformation in sport should be measured. The pillars include Access, Demographic representation, Governance, Employment equity, Preferential procurement, Funding, Institutional culture, etc. The Scorecard is then utilised as an effective tool and a decisive instrument to measure the targets that are set against these pillars in a scientific way to determine progress or lack thereof. The whole Sports Plan (including the Sport Transformation Charter and its accompanying Scorecard) were subsequently adopted by the South African government at a Cabinet meeting of 18 May 2012.
- The Plan, the Charter and Scorecard were assented to by the sport movement at the Indaba through the signing of the Declaration by the National Sport and Recreation Department, all federations and the South African Sports and Olympic Committee (SASCOC). This signalled a public commitment by the sports movement to accelerate the implementation of effective, impactful and sustainable transformation plans with, measurable, visible and actual outcomes.
- Resolutions that are currently being implemented monitored and evaluated in respect of each federation.
In our quest to deepen the transformation drive, in May 2012, the Ministry of Sport and Recreation appointed a Sport Transformation Commission aptly called the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) on Transformation in Sport to advise the Ministry on measures necessary to quicken the tempo and effect meaningful transformation as well as changing the sporting landscape.
The EPG through its Secretariat also administers the Scorecard as a tool to monitor and assess progress on an annual basis. Since its appointment, the EPG has released two Sport Transformation Status Reports called the Sport Transformation Barometer.
The first of these reports was a pilot study to establish a baseline study on the 5 biggest codes in our country, Netball, Football, Cricket, Athletics and Rugby (so-called the Sports ‘Big 5”). This allowed the EPG to set and recommend targets over a medium-term period to be met by these five sport federations for transformation in their codes. The second report released earlier this year sought to establish baselines for the 11 other codes and to commit the ‘Big 5’ to transformation targets.
This paved way for the signing of Transformation Agreements with the ‘Big 5’.
The next Sport Transformation Barometer will now begin to track the performance and meeting of targets or lack thereof of the ‘Big 5’ and also set targets for the 11 others, thus also paving way for the signing of Transformation Agreements with the 11 other sport federations. These reports are a culmination of the ‘EPG Annual Transformation Audits’.
The transformation agreements further stipulate targets set for each sporting codes, compliance requirements and punitive measures on failure to meet the targets. These punitive measures are progressive depending on the extent of non-compliance with provisions of the charter and not meeting the set and agreed to targets. The punitive measures include among others the following:
- Suspending or withdrawal of Government’s funding to a defaulting federation in terms of section 10(3) (a) of the National Sport and Recreation Act;
- Withdrawal of Government’s recognition to the National Federation in terms of section 10(3) (b) the Act. Such a decision will mean that the National Federation will be de registered and that such a decision be published in the Government Gazette;
- Revocation of the National Federations authority to host and bid for major and mega international tournaments in the Republic in writing in pursuance of the prescripts of the Bidding and Hosting of Major Events Regulations Gazetted and Published in line with the National Sports and Recreation Act and also as a result of not recognising the federation:
- Withdrawal of the federation’s opportunity to be awarded national colours via SASCOC to players who participate under the auspices of the federation in order to represent the Republic internationally and nationally in writing;
- Terminate the existing five year agreement in writing due to non-compliance; or
- Request the Minister in writing to consider issuing a directive in terms of section 13 (5)(a) of the Act as SRSA deems fit and appropriate, which may include but not limited to the withdrawal of political support and endorsements for sponsorships.
This information has been shared with all federation and the South African public. However some elements with sinister agendas mischievously ignore this empirical evidence of what is being done and what is to be done. The measures put in place are not perfect and we on our part have not made such a claim.
Like all social process, there are twists and turns, weaknesses and challenges. The critical question is how respond to the aforementioned in a decisive way.
It is our understanding that all federations are on course towards the realisation of the set targets. It is also our understanding that as they prepare for all their games at club, provincial and at national levels, be it women or men sides that they are at all material times cognisant of their commitment and the consequences thereof. We are under no illusions about the daunting challenge presented by the fact that 84% of under 18 years old South Africans are black and (part of the historically most disadvantaged group in the country) and only 16% is either coloured, white or Indian.
This sad reality is our foremost preoccupation as the leadership of the sports movement as we make the case for sport and motivating for shaping the longer term future of our sporting codes and athletes. We hope we all appreciate that the South Africa is a signatory to the Olympic Charter and this prohibit governments from interfering with team selection. Further the National Sport and Recreation Act contains no empowering provisions to enable the Minister to interfere in this specific matter of team selection and appointment of coaches.
We are all agreed within the sporting movement that transformation is a strategic and moral imperative and therefore a non-negotiable. Furthermore, it has now become a necessity and an imperative than ever before due to the above highlighted fact that 84% of under 18 years old South Africans are black and (part of the historically most disadvantaged group in the country) and only 16% is either coloured, white or Indian.
It is counter productive to only put focus on the 16% of the population and not to focus on the majority 84%. We are on a daily basis confronted by recalcitrant relics from the past and tendencies whose ulterior motives are to dilute or derail the transformation agenda.
I can say with good measure that we are dealing with them and they will never defeat the march and drive to a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic sporting. We are delivering sport under conditions that were not chosen by ourselves.
We have accepted the conditions as a given and we are prepared to join hands with all South Africans whose purpose and objective is unity, social cohesion and nation building through sport.
