Chairperson
Ladies and gentlemen
As a specialised agency of the UN system, UNESCO has an important role to play in capitalising on the value of sport and physical education in contributing to the building of peace, the alleviation of poverty, sustainable development and inter-cultural dialogue.
We are all cognizant of the fact that the Intergovernmental Committee for Physical Education and Sport was established in 1978 explicitly to promote the role and value of sport and its inclusion in public policy. Today however, I am hesitant to stand before you and claim that we have maximised the power of sport.
The question is; can we confidently assert that we have truly coordinated international efforts to optimise the tangible socio-economic benefits of sport and physical education programmes and their potential to deliver a high return on investment?
It is therefore my hope that our deliberations here will reinforce sport as a movement for good and for change in a world where we cannot afford to eliminate any sector of society - or any form of human endeavour - from our suite of potential responses or solutions.
I have no doubt that valuable information will be shared that will assist delegates to explore the vast potential of the power of sport to the advantage of their countries.
We have to acknowledge that there is a new international drive to utilise sport and especially mega events to the benefit of countries world-wide.
The intriguing nature of the power of sport emanates from the fact that it knows no barriers of language or culture, spans every sport imaginable as well as every age group.
In South Africa we have experienced the power of sport especially in our hosting of numerous world-class sporting events. As a country we have largely benefited from these events – not only economically but in critical areas such as social cohesion and nation building.
To name a few events that contributed in this regard;
- The 1995 Rugby World Cup,
- the 1996 Africa Cup of Nations,
- the 2003 Cricket World Cup, the Women's World Cup of Golf;
- the annual Million Dollar Golf tournament at Sun City;
- the inaugural World 20/20 Cricket Championships in 2007;
- the Supreme Council for Sport in Africa Zone VI Youth Games in December 2008;
- the FINA Swimming World Cup and the British and Irish Lions rugby tour in 2009;
Also in 2009 we successfully organised the Indian Premier Cricket League in the midst of our own 4th democratic elections within 21 days after this mega event was moved to South Africa due to the Indian national elections, the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup hosted by South Africa was hailed as successful by all major role-players and in 2010 our country hosted the biggest of them all: the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
It is estimated that half a billion viewers around the world watched the Opening Ceremony on 11 June 2010.
According to FIFA, more than three million spectators attended the 64 matches of the tournament. This was the third highest aggregate attendance behind the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the United States, and the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.
This figure excludes the millions of people who watched World Cup games at fan fests, fan parks and public viewing areas across the country, and in various cities around the world.
It has also been acknowledged that our fan parks were so huge that they resembled mini-stadiums, this did not happen in other host countries.
Government recorded that more than one point four million foreigners visited the country during the tournament.
Our people, black and white, were the true stars of the tournament.
The proud display of our rainbow nation flag demonstrated amazing patriotism.
The World Cup tournament revealed that South Africans are capable of working together in unity. We never thought it possible that South Africans could demonstrate their love for our country and one another in such manner before.
We saw young South Africans, proudly wearing their national colours, walking around singing and blowing their vuvuzelas outside Soccer City.
This is the Soccer City near Soweto that could in the past have been said to be a no-go zone, due to the compartmentalization of our residential areas, and even sports, as a legacy of apartheid. Very vividly sport demonstrated its power in peace building and social cohesion. A previous no go zone became the playground for all. (U2, Neil Diamond, Rugby, etc.)
All this are solid building blocks for the future: FIFA, who experienced this “vibe”, remarked that South Africans were the bests hosts, given the manner in which they actively participated in all facets of the tournament.
In 2010 we also hosted a Heads of State Education Summit in support of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals and the 1Goal Education for All initiative.
This included a renewed commitment to the Millennium Development Goal’s of ensuring that all boys and girls complete primary schooling by 2015 and that girls enjoy the same access to education as boys by 2015.
It is our view that Governments can and must use sport to fight the ills faced by our society.
We saw how challenges that are experienced in health, crime and disunity, to mention a few, can be defeated through sport.
We also experienced communities across religious, language and racial lines taking hands, celebrate and even cry together during the FIFA World Cup. This actively demonstrated the power of sport in uniting people, a country and to a extent, a continent.
The intensification of our efforts towards increasing participation in sport and recreation is being done with us being aware that the World Cup has inspired our people to be active participants rather than mere spectators. The renewed interest must assist our efforts to transform sport in our country.
To this end, we are hopeful that our people will rise to the occasion and show that we are not content with only being labeled world-class sport hosts.
In terms of Legacy; like all hosts of mega-events before us, and probably those after us, we have to observe that the leverage of the event loses its luster once the teams have left. Funding for programmes diminishes greatly within a very short space of time; so; the sustainability of programmes has to be assured before the closing ceremony.
We have been lucky in that we have been able to argue coherently that the FIFA World Cup is a catalyst to sports development and to increasing participation across the country with a positive spin-off on the health of the nation.
We have achieved that and we need to keep the momentum going which we are doing through working to hand over several programmes to local and provincial governments to run while from a national level, we move on to another school, town or city suburb.
Maintaining social cohesion, deepening and sustaining it, presents the most important challenge to us as we continue to build the “Rainbow Nation”.
One respondent to our research done after the World Cup said that there is a difference between mixing and integration.
We need to move from mixing to integration. To us sport is integral to us achieving that.
We need to recognise that there is integration on the field of play but what happens outside the field of play is even more critical.
We have citizens who play football from all walks of life in tournaments but when they finish the tournament, they go back home – homes in well-established and new suburbs, in formal and informal housing settlements, in urban and rural areas, in the north and south of the country; to their workplaces in offices or in the open, where they are employers or employees.
Creating the environment of mutual respect through sport is a fundamental building block from which we can move to social integration, upliftment, recalling our humanity and entrenching reconciliation. (In short; Build Peace and Keep Peace! This is true in my country today).
How we do this is not within the gift of sport alone – as I have said, sport provides the building block (Coat hanger).
Other areas of economic development and job creation are essential to integration.
In order to achieve economic growth, sport will play its part by attracting other events, competitions, expos and meetings, to the country.
My colleagues in tourism have seen the contribution sport can make and are now working proactively with us in this endeavour.
Here, I emphasise again that sport is a catalyst – it is not and cannot be a panacea for all economic development.
In conclusion it is my sincere wish that this gathering will forge new networks and friendships between industry players, academics, governments and international organisations.
When we express this wish, we know that it is the wider perspective that this interaction brings that will assist us to do what we do in a smarter way. To fully maximise the power of sport creating a better world.
It is in partnership, working together, that we will succeed!
Thank you.
