Programme Director
Deputy Minister of Sport and Recreation, Honourable Gert Oosthuizen
Gauteng MEC of Sport and Recreation, Honourable Lebohang Maile
President of SASCOC, Mr Gideon Sam
The Chairperson and CEO of SABC
The Board of SASCOC
The SABC Board
The Director-General of SRSA, Mr Alec Moemi
All the sponsors present here this evening
All athletes and sport administrators
Distinguished Guests
The Media
Ladies and Gentlemen
Fellow South Africa
The Department of Sport and Recreation South Africa (SRSA) together with the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC), the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) and the Gauteng Department of Sport and Recreation are gathered here this evening to unveil the official launch of the 2012 South Africa Sports Awards (SA Awards).We are gathered here to announce our intention to host and hold the 2012 South Africa Annual Sports Awards.
The purpose is really to introduce the different categories of the Sport Awards 2012, to open the nomination process to the public as per the Nomination Rulebook and to introduce the Adjudication Panel and the Sponsors who are currently on board.
Ladies and Gentlemen, this year marks the first anniversary of the national sport awards in its new design and format. After the review of the 2011 Sports Awards the Ministry of Sport and Recreation considered the following to improve on the organisation and hosting of sport awards:
- Special attention should be paid to ensure that the 2012 Sport Awards are indeed bigger and even more ground breaking.
- The Sport Awards are part of the strategic plan of SRSA and as such should be properly provided for in the Annual Performance Plan and the Budget.
- SRSA to provide leadership and appoint and contract the Sport Awards Event Manager directly, and monitor closely its progress. The commitments of the host province were not clearly and timeously articulated in 2011 and this should be avoided going to this year’s sport awards.
- SABC as a broadcast partner should step up its involvement and improve its contribution toward the Sport Awards.
- The rulebook should be reviewed to address some of the shortcomings which were noted in the Sport Awards 2011 program.
- School Sport Categories will be included as part of the categories of Sport Awards in line with the Sports Plan’s prioritisation of School Sport.
- In the last week of the Sport Awards, intensive focus should go towards deepening social dialogue. Working with Basketball without Borders, an element of Social Outreach should be brought on board.
I am satisfied to announce today that preparations of the 2012 SA Sports Awards are on advanced stages and all concerns as raised above have been taken notice and implemented.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the SA Sport Awards are about the recognition and acknowledgement of achievement and celebrating achievement and success displayed by all our sportsmen and women. We want to show all South Africans that in sport and recreation we celebrate the spirit of human triumphs not mediocrity. Therefore, these sports awards are about the promotion of excellence and quality in all sporting codes. We do this to unearth the latent talent amongst the youth through the inspiration drawn from local and international role models.
As we celebrate excellence and achievement by recognising our champions and luminaries, it is befitting for us to equally celebrate and congratulate all families who sacrificed time and enjoyment with their loved ones and gave them to the nation to participate in sport for the benefit of the country in a mission to promote the Flag and the country as well as the vision for a Winning Nation.
In that regard, we must re-emphasise that through the SA Sport Awards, we should celebrate unity that sport anchors in our discourse for social cohesion and unity purpose, whilst celebrating courage in the field of sport and excellence in performance. We must further reaffirm the following as fundamental tenets that underpin the outlook of the SA Sport Awards 2012:
- Celebrate sport excellence.
- Reward sport achievement.
- Stimulate interest in sports and recreation, unearthing of talent and promoting development.
- Recognise luminaries in sport in and off the field of play.
We are therefore opening the nominations and invite all South Africans to nominate people who have made a difference in the year under review. This year the SA Sport Awards will be held at Sandton not at the Sun City. We do this because we want to demonstrate our commitment in the interest of all our athletes and sport loving people including the leadership in the sport and recreation sector. These awards are not about the glitz and glamour that the prophets of doom are trying tirelessly to associate these awards with.
We will on 7 October 2012 introduce all the nominees to all South Africans. This event will be held at The Turbine in Newtown on the 7 October 2012. Sequel to the nomination process and the closing date for nomination on 26 September 2012, the finalists in the various categories of the Sport Awards will be announce on 7 October 2012. The purpose of the event is to introduce the different finalists in the various categories of the Sport Awards and to commence the daunting task for the adjudication panel to come up with the ultimate winners for each category.
Alongside the introduction of nominees will be key tenets of recognising and rewarding excellence in the Sports Sector. Some of these tenets will be a program on social outreach through which the respective renowned sport personalities and corporate bodies do reach out to the disadvantaged communities through the power of sport. In this case, the 2012 Outreach program will be done in partnership with NBA Basketball without Borders to promote basketball awareness in the disadvantaged communities through donation of equipment and attire as well as coaching clinics.
The main event for the South African Sport Awards 2012 will be held in the evening of 4 November 2012 at Sandton Convention Centre. This will mark the apex of the entire Sport Awards program and needless to mention, to safely trust us when we say, ‘this will be a night never to be forgotten in the calendar of South Africa’s Sport and Recreation sector!’
This year we will have a total of 18 categories. Over and above the 15 categories as introduced in 2011. The following new categories are proposed:
- School Team of the Year.
- Developing School Team of the Year.
- Best Recreation Body of the Year.
The following are retained but amended categories:
- Administrator of the Year.
- Federation of the Year.
- Ambassador’s under the Minister’s Awards.
While the abovementioned categories will still be retained for 2012, the selection criteria and focus will however be amended in line with the National Sport and Recreation Plan (NSRP) priorities.
Ladies and Gentlemen, since the adoption of the National Sport and Recreation Plan in November 2011, South Africa and its people became more ‘alive with possibilities’ in sport and recreation. For the past months since the 2011 Sport Awards South Africans have achieved a lot in the field of sport and recreation and are still achieving success in the Olympic and Paralympic Games in London. As we promised in the National Sport and Recreation Indaba, for the next twenty years our people are ushering an era of hope and triumph in sport and recreation in the Republic.
Of course the Sport Awards Rulebook has been reviewed drawing from some lessons of the prior year and also in alignment to the new priorities of the NSRP.
In the previous year, the Sport Awards consisted of a total of fifteen categories. In this year, we have three new categories, as unveiled above, to make the total of eighteen. Hence, the following are the 2012 Sport Awards Categories:
- School Team of the Year (New Category)
- Developing School Team of the Year (New Category)
- Best Recreation Body of the Year (New Category)
- Administrator of the Year
- Sportsman of the Year
- Sportsman of the Year with Disability
- Sportswoman of the Year
- Sportswoman of the Year with Disability
- Team of the Year
- Newcomer of the Year
- Coach of the Year
- Volunteer of the Year
- Indigenous Games’ Star of the Year
- Federation of the Year
- Photographer of the Year
- Journalist of the Year
- Sport Star of the Year
- Steve Tshwete Lifetime Achievement
- Minister’s Awards (Andrew Mlangeni Green Jacket, Excellence Awards and Ambassadors’ Awards).
In this era of hope and accomplishment we would like to pay tribute to all our athletes, men and women in sport. We are assembled here, today, to launch a road map towards the 2012 Sport Awards which will confer fitting accolades to sports men and women who committed themselves to make South Africa proud and happy by their selfless honour of our colours and flag whenever they represented South Africa.
We want to pay our fitting tribute to all of them through these awards for their sterling work in our country and for their unreserved dedication and commitment to the ideals of a united and non-racial South Africa.
It is in the same token that we are reinvigorated by our strength and readiness of our national teams to go and conquer the world and represent our nation in the foreign lands. This is to support our sporting combatants in their endeavours to achieve excellence. Our renewed formidableness in Cricket is a case in point and our great performance in Rugby, Golf and many other sporting codes is a case for celebration.
It is, therefore, in this regard that the Sport and Recreation South Africa (SRSA), the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) and the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) launches the 2012 SA Sports Awards as a token of appreciation to thousands of sports men and women in our country.
Ladies and Gentlemen, in line with the principle of continuity and change, the panel of the previous year has been retained to maintain a fair balance of institutional memory while at the same time introducing some new members to bring in new vigour, energy and perspective.
The panel constitutes of the following men and women of good standing in the sport sector with resounding knowledge, expertise, experience and passion for Sport and Recreation:
- Mr Wire Zondi (New Member and Chairperson)
- Ms Lebo Motsoeli (New Member)
- Mr Alpheus Keonyaditse (New Member)
- Mr Doctor Khumalo
- Ms Kass Naidoo
- Ms Motlatsi Keikabile
- Ms Cynthia Chaka
- Mr David O’Sullivan, and
- Mr Robert Marawa.
You can notice that in our selection of this panel we have maintained gender parity and empowerment of women as we closed the South Africa Women’s month on 31 August 2012.
True to our commitment of maximising direct benefit and empowerment to the athlete themselves through the Sport Awards, the total prize money for the category winners has been significantly increased to a grand total of R3,7 million plus a brand new luxury vehicle for the Sport Star of the Year. The amount is basically broken down as follows:
The Sport Star of the Year will receive an amount of R1 million plus a brand new luxury vehicle, BMW.
All South Africans should take note that this vehicle is not a loan that has to be returned at some point but a giveaway car to the Sport Star with no conditions attached.
Also this year we have put aside two million three hundred and R2, 3 million to be shared by the category winners. Each one of the eighteen category winners will receive a total amount of R130 000. All runners up will receive a consolation amount of R10 000, 00.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Sport Awards 2012 will cover any South African athlete who has excelled as per the stipulated criteria during the period 1 May 2011 to 24 September 2012. This will allow all our deserving sportsmen and women an opportunity to be nominated especially those who are still participating in international competitions.
In order to bring depth into the nomination process, this year, the nomination process will not only be opened to the National Federations but also to their National Affiliates and Franchises. This will ensure that there is a broad base of participation for the nomination process as more structures now are able to nominate as opposed to the previous year.
Building on the success of the Sport Awards 2011 which left many people speechless with envy and adoration, the preparations for Sport Awards 2012 are already underway and the writing is already on the wall that once more we are headed for yet another splendid, world class National Sport Awards Ceremony this year.
Thank you.
