Release of 2016/17 Transformation Status Report
It is indeed a pleasure and privilege to release the 5th EPG report on sport’s transformation status today based on the analysis of data submitted by 19 federations. These reports have, over the past 5 years become part of the annual sport landscape and have contributed significantly to understanding and qualifying those factors impacting the rate and extent of sport’s transformation initiatives. These reports, have after more than 23 years shown there is light at the end of the transformation tunnel.
The national development plan envisions a South Africa where all people will be more conscious of the things they have in common, rather than their differences and where shared experiences will cut across divisions of race, gender, space and class. The plan furthermore recognises sport’s role in promoting wellness, social cohesion and fostering nation building by treating it as a cross-cutting issue, with related proposals in the plan’s chapters on education and health.
Sport related objectives in line with the NDP imperative targeted at ‘equal opportunity, inclusion and redress’ includes:
The need for each sporting code’s participation profile to reflect the population demographic of the country by 2030 on the basis of expanding sport participation opportunity for all. This will require national sport teams and structures to represent all sectors of society producing results that mirrors the country’s passion for sport.
The department of Sport and Recreation’s National Sports Plan and Transformation Charter, adopted by the sport’s movement at a National Sport Indaba in 2011, is in harmony with the sport related objectives of the NDP.
The purpose of sport’s transformation charter is to –
‘level the playing fields that enables the majority of South Africans to have equitable access and opportunity to participate and achieve in all areas and at all levels of sport’ whereas
The goal of the charter is to –
Ensure the evolvement of a demographically representative, equitable, sustainable and competitive sport system.
The inclusion of all South African demographics is not just a moral issue but it’s in the core of the very survival of sport in particular the white dominated sport. I must put things into perspective, the current South African population of about 55 million is 80% Black African, 9% White and 2% Indian with black African birth-rates increasing fast, and the birth-rate among Whites declining.
Like in every aspect of our lives, the future belongs to the youth, South African sport’s future is intimately linked to gaining access to and successfully develop the 20 million under-18-year-old segment of the population. In this group 17 million or 85% of the total are Black African increasing by 24% over the next 25 years whereas on the other hand, a much smaller 1.4m or 7%, of the group, is White (the historical resource base of sport) is decreasing by 31% over the next 25 years.
Therefore federations must bare in mind this reality, if they don’t transform and become inclusive, majority of sporting codes will follow bowling whose average player is 74 years old.
Transformation must respond to these 5 areas –
- Demographic representation in key categories,
- Access to participation and involvement in sport,
- Skill and capability development and improvement,
- Governance performance in selected areas; and
- Economic empowerment in the sports industry.
In adopting the Transformation Charter at a National Sport and Recreation Indaba held in 2011 it was resolved that ‘if the objectives of the charter are to be achieved there will be a need to monitor and evaluate the implementation thereof’.
This resolution led to the Minister of Sport and Recreation appointing an independent sport transformation committee, the EPG, and (Eminent Person’s Group) to monitor and evaluate the implementation of the charter. To date 5 transformation status reports have been completed and published and work on a sixth report covering the 2017 calendar year is in progress.
Thus far the process has identified and commented on two sets of reasons motivating the need for transformation. The one set based on moral reasons is driven by the need for -
Correcting the ‘wrongs committed in the past’, by doing the right things right’
Efforts in this regard have, for 23 years, been largely unsuccessful in bringing about an effectively transformed sport system and causing substantial consequential damage for many in the process.
Many of our generic black cricketers have proven that, they are not tokens of transformation or a replacement of a white face with a black face. The inclusion of Hashim Amla, Kagiso Rabada, JP Duminy, Lungi Ngidi, Vernon Philander, Temba Bavuma, Robin Peterson and many other cricketers have made South Africans to see themselves in Proteas, and the demographic profile of cricket supporters is starting to reflect that of our country.
The annual EPG audits to date have shown that more than 50% of sport federations have reported senior and underage representative teams and high performance pipelines featuring demographic black African profiles well below 50%. It is possible that some of these federations could be faced with longer term sustainability challenges if this issue is not more proactively dealt with.
There should be little doubt that the foundation source of South Africa’s sport’s historical human capital is diminishing which will require the inescapable need for more proactive intervention in optimally shaping the demographic profiles of sport structures.
Demographic change within the under 18 population grouping is intimately linked to the state of school sport in the country. Audit reports over the past 4 years have suggested that an effective school sport system, the ultimate source of sport’s human capital, will be the definitive platform on which to transform SA sport from a dominant minority representation position to a majority inclusive reality. However, it has been shown that the existing school sport system has become the achilles heel of South African sport for a number of complex reasons.
To address these and other issues the existing MOU between SRSA and DBE is in the process of being reviewed to address the challenges preventing the establishment of a coordinated and seamless school sport system to improve access and delivery of school sport.
Once completed and agreed the effective implementation of this MOU will ensure a functional school sport system that will form a robust foundation for the successful transformation of sport in the country. Therefore, federations must respond how they are going to use schools to draw and unearth talent.
The funding structures (Government, SASCOC, Lotto, Sport Trust etc) must make funding available in line with the Transformation Charter. We must review cost beneficial impact of government funding relative to number of sport participating schools, number of teachers involved and a number of underage teams, leagues and facilities.
A special focus must be given to township and rural schools through the establishment of new community based sport structures at district level and sport infrastructure need assessment must be made. CATHSSETA must provide a strategic partnership in providing coaches, mentors, trainers and instructors in a mass scale. We need qualified personnel to unearth talent not rhetoric.
The measurement system monitoring transformation progress comprises a two-tiered and based on the achievement of prescribed one size fits all charter targets as well as federation self-set targets which forms part of a ‘barometer’ which take into account the significant differences existing between federations. We expect other federations to join netball, rugby, athletics, cricket and football to set their own targets informed by their own conditions.
At a governance and decision making level, the report shows that more than half, 60%, of federations audited have elected black presidents into position whereas almost, 70%, have reported the election of boards that are more than 50% black.
Women representation at board level has also been shown to be improving in that seven out of the nineteen federations have reported female representation at board level larger than that prescribed by the charter.
Demographic representation in national senior male teams of athletics, cricket, football, volleyball, boxing and table tennis have all achieved the charter target with netball, chess, gymnastics, hockey and rugby moving in the right direction to achieve this interim milestone.
Year on year change in the black demographic profile of senior representative teams demonstrates the progress made over a short period. Cricket’s % black profile has improved from 45% to 60%, hockey from 20% to 45%, whereas rugby has moved from 34% to 42% and netball from 37% to 56%.
The detailed report released today shows that transformation as measured in terms of the 5 dimensions of the transformation charter is taking place, proving once again the value of Hewlet Packard’s Adage ‘that only those things that gets measured gets done’.
In conclusion, the efforts of federations who are diligently supportive of the tedious process of gathering and submitting the data required to complete the report, has to be acknowledged. Without it we would not have come thus far over the past 5 years.
The remainder of this current political administration must be about, school sport, active nation and transformation. South Africans must see themselves in all our national teams.
