Theme:“giving voice to youth”
Progrmme Director
Dr Zweli Lawrence Mkhize, Premier of KwaZulu Natal
Dr Jacques Rogge: IOC President
Mr Ser Miang Ng: IOC Vice-President
Mr Sam Ramsamy: IOC Executive Board Member, RSA
Mr Lambis V Nikolaou: Chairman IOC Commission for Culture and Olympic Education
Mr Getachew Engida: UNESCO Deputy Director-General
Mr Gideon Sam: President of the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee
All protocol observed
Ladies and gentlemen
Welcome all to the sunny shores of Durban and also welcome to one of the sport capitals of the world, South Africa.
South Africa is a country with a long and rich tradition of sport participation and achievement. Many say we are a sport crazy nation. South Africa has enjoyed international successes from the early 19th Century.
In 1884, E L Williams and E W Lewis reached the final of the first men’s doubles at Wimbledon Tennis, but unfortunately lost.
In 1893, Laurens S Meintjes became South Africa’s (and most probably Africa’s) first world record holder, in the sport of cycling. At the World’s Fair Cycle Meeting in Chicago, he won the sixty-two mile international championship. In the same year in Springfield, Massachusetts, he set a world record in the hour’s race.
In 1896, South Africa won its first rugby test ever, against the British Isles. And we repeated the victory last Saturday against England on their home soil.
You may have discovered in your hotel rooms that we have more televised sport round the clock than most countries. You can watch more English Premiership Football games live here in South Africa than in England. Need I say more?
South Africans have had a long and special relationship with the Olympic Movement. The minority white South Africans first participated officially in the 1908 Olympic Games in London. It is significant that Reginald E Walker, from Durban, won the Olympic gold medal in the 100 metres and equaled the Olympic record of 10.8 seconds for the second time. In the same year he equaled the world record of 11.4 seconds in the 120 yards. As a matter of interest, Walker wrote the first textbook on sprinting in 1910, which was part of health and strength’s series on sports coaching, two years after winning Olympic Gold.
One of the biggest victories at the Olympic Games was in 1912 when Rudolph Lewis won the 320 km cycle road race in Stockholm. This was the only cycle event at these Games and he was the only South African among the 123 riders from 16 countries. At these same Games, Ken McArthur and Chris Gitsham won the gold and silver medals in the marathon. Charles Winslow won the Olympic singles tennis championship beating his teammate, Harold Kitson into the silver medal. Together they won the gold medal in the men’s doubles.
But we also know that the Olympic Movement has played a crucial role by assisting the people of this country in the fight against apartheid. You expelled apartheid South Africa from the Olympic movement in 1970, leading to almost three decades of sport isolation, and helped tighten the noose around the rebel rugby tours from Australia and New Zealand to this country. But you also warmly welcomed the rising new rainbow nation back into the Olympic family in 1991. How can we ever forget our indebtedness to our heroes like Sam Ramsamy, Dennis Brutus, and Jean-Claude Ganga, who with the support of the Supreme Council for Sport in Africa, and the IOC and entire Olympic Movement, mobilised the world to bring about this change through sport? We hope that this liberated and democratic country makes you feel that you have come home. We trust that the next few days will give you the well-deserved opportunity to experience our rich heritage and culture. You will experience for yourself what ubuntu is all about.
Ladies and gentlemen
In June 2001, Heads of States and Representatives of governments met at the United Nations General Assembly Special Session dedicated to HIV and AIDS. The UNGASS recognised that the Aids epidemic had caused untold suffering and death world wide.
The United Nations Special Session also served to remind the world that there was hope.With sufficient will and resources, communities and countries could change the epidemics’ deadly course.
At the meeting the Heads of States and Representatives of government issued the Declaration of Commitment on HIV and AIDS. The declaration remains the powerful tool that is helping to guide and secure action, commitment, support and resources for AIDS response.
Many young people in Africa and across the world are denied their right to participate in education, culture and sport due to their HIV status. HIV and AIDS stereotypes are entrenched in the minds of many who by hook or crook are systematically excluding those who are found to be HIV positive from participation in education, culture and sport.They do this in the pretext of being cautious against being infected too.
Today, it is exactly four days after South Africa as well as the international community commemorated World AIDS Day, on 1 December 2010.
For the past eight years a group of prominent sportspeople, AIDS activists, together with the Sport and Recreation South Africa has taken to the road for sixteen days each year to promote a message of well-being in the face of HIV and AIDS in communities across South Africa, with a special attention to rural areas. They walk and run approximately 1 600km across the country (in both urban and rural communities) visiting HIV and AIDS centres, giving sport equipment to communities using sports clinics and a sports clinic for youth … What is so exciting by the Walk is such that it coincides with the South Africa’s 16 Days of Activism Campaign against abuse and violence against women and children, and is planned so that it ends on the World AIDS Day.
Across the world, AIDS activists, academia, researchers, communities and governments have recognized that, one of the main pushers of HIV and AIDS infections have been the scourge of gender based violence, for an example battering of women and rape.
Sport and Recreation can play a major role in combating gender based violence through involving as many people as possible in sport and recreation whilst at the same time imparting life skills in the minds of participants.
Sport and Recreation have been proven across the world that it can enhance participation of people for health purposes and for healthy life style and result towards a targeted reduction of abuse, crime, violence, rape and stereotypes.
On this matter, schools and education, including culture, are and can be useful institutions and tools in the fight against HIV and AIDS and gender based violence.Sport, education and culture can be used as instruments that play a meaningful role in producing responsible citizens.
“We need extraordinary measures to reverse the trends we are seeing in the health profile of our people.We know that the situation is serious. We have seen the statistics.We know that the average life expectancy of South Africans has been falling, and that South Africans are dying at a young age.We have seen the child-headed and granny-headed households, and have witnessed the pain and displacement of orphans and vulnerable children. These facts are undeniable. We should not be tempted to downplay the statistics and impact or to deny the reality that we face.At the same time, the epidemic is not about statistics. It is about people, about families, and communities. It is about our loved ones. For many families, it is a burden that they have to bear alone, fearful of discrimination and stigma,” President Jacob Zuma, 1 December 2009.
Ladies and gentlemen
On Friday, 3 December 2010, the world was celebrating and commemorating the International Day of persons living with Disabilities.
There is almost seven hundred million people living with disabilities worldwide and all countries are urged to intervene and join hands with persons living with disabilities.
The rights, dignity and Justice, of all persons living with disabilities are enshrined in the Universal Principles of the United Nations (UN). These principles together with non-discrimination and equality are embedded in many instruments of the UN such as the UN Charter and Universal Declaration of Human Rights, along with Treaties such as the International Covenants on Human Rights, and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
This is in recognition that the rights to education, sport, culture and health are also routinely denied to the persons living with disabilities. It is said that 90 percent of children with disabilities in developing countries do not attend school or/and do not get education, play sport and take part in cultural activity.
The continued marginalisation against persons with disabilities highlights a need for all states to sign, ratify and implement the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities and its optional protocol.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will not be achieved if persons with disabilities are not included.Efforts to achieve the MDGs and implement the Convention are interdependent and mutually re-inforcing.
It is in this fact that, the Republic of South Africa, through its legislative institution, the Parliament of the Republic, has honoured the call from the United Nations (UN) by Ratifying the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2008.
In this regard, I would like to humbly take this opportunity to urge all members of the IOC who have not yet, by any reason, ratify the convention to do so, as a matter of progressivism.
Hence, the need to develop a consensus and a deep understanding of sport as catalyst for change and development in order to question; what is meant by both the concepts of change and development?
The latter articulates a multitude of potentially constructive, desirable and envisaged outcomes across a wide spectrum, covering a wide range of phenomena, that is, from informal play, fun events, school games, theatre competitions, community competitions up to mega events such as Olympics, Paralympics, World Cups, etc.
At the same time, sport for development articulates many meanings, depending on the socio-political will and envisioned effects.
Therefore, the key is to put sport in the equation for ‘change’ and that change can in turn be channeled to stand for ‘development’.
The “One Goal” campaign, (1Goal), is a living example of this symbiotic link between sport and change in the context of sport and development.
Thus, we believe that Education beats poverty and give people the tools to help themselves.This campaign is seizing the power of sport to ensure that education for all is a lasting impact in all sport activities, especially in football.
The key overall strategy in initiatives of this nature is to institute a significant mass which will be utilised to call upon everyone in the world in particular governments to deliver on ‘Education for All by 2015’ and reach the UN Millennium Development Goals for Education.
In the same vein, the benefits of sport reach beyond the impact on physical well-being and the value of the educational benefits of sport not be under-estimated. Efforts should be concentrated towards the leadership training, the process of training both professionals and volunteers who are likely to lead such programmes. Coaches and physical educators have the potential to provide strong leadership if they fully activate this aspect of their work with young people.
Positive social interaction between peers also links strongly with sporting and educational outcomes and as such, peer educators and leaders also require quality training and support.
There is also relevance in the relationship between sport and attitudes towards school among children and young people. A number of studies show that once sports are introduced, learners’ attendance increases. But, the distinction between recreational and competitive youth sport and physical activity must be drawn to understand the extent to which sport acts as a magnet or repellent to school.
Evidence among those at risk of being excluded from school shows that an increase in the availability of sports activities would make the prospects of attending school more appealing. In this sense, sports activities in schools act as a gateway, if presented in appropriate ways, to drawing children and young people towards attending school.
On the other hand, research has shown that excessive and intensive training for competitive youth sport can act as an obstacle to fulfilling educational and academic pursuits among youth athletes who compete in higher-level sports competitions.
Concretely, cases in which adults, including sports coaches and even parents, push young athletes to abandon their studies to focus almost full-time on their sport pursuits are prevalent in competitive youth sports.
Ladies and gentlemen
Human culture is linked to the biological evolution of human beings.Thus, cultural diversity is the result of geographical location, religious beliefs and lifestyles.
That is why a healthy relationship can be a great way to add stability and companionships to one’s life. Several studies show that men and women in happy healthy relationships have an increased overall satisfaction with their lives in general.
Most of couples strive to have compatibility and fulfillment in their relationships. Achieving true compatibility is the ultimate goal for many relationships, so the question is; if you are in an intercultural relationship how large a role does culture truly play, specifically as a sport person?
Compatibility can be based on personality. But, there are great ways to continue to nourish your already healthy relationship between you, education, culture and sport.
Therefore, the importance of cultural, educational and sporting experience is evident in the lack of human development characteristic of socially isolated children and youth.
In this sense, if early childhood development is devoid of educational, cultural and sporting experience, the young person may fail to develop normal language, traditional, and cultural skills leading to limitations in other social learning, like language, sport and recreation.
It is true that, we all enter this world as potential social beings that are capable of doing anything that nature commands on us. It is said that when we are born, we are essentially helpless and must depend upon others to fulfill our most basic cultural and physiological needs.
As we grow and mature, we experience an ongoing process of cultural, educational, social and sporting interaction which enables us to develop the skills we will need to participate in human excellence.
The process of culture and sport is embedded within the context of our family. The family has primary importance in shaping young persons’ attitudes and behaviour towards sport and recreation, because it provides the context in which the first and most long-lasting intimate cultural and sporting relationships are formed.
While the family offers the young person intimate cultural and sporting relationships, the school offers more objective cultural, educational and sporting relationships.
School is a social institution, which orientate youth to many social activities that involve culture, education and sport. As such, it has a direct responsibility for instilling in, or teaching, the individual the information, skills, and values that society considers important for social activity.
It tells you about the skills of interpersonal interaction, learning to share, to take turns, and to compromise with your peers. I am responsible, we are responsible, and South Africa is responsible!
May the spirit of Olympism be spread across the length and breadth of our beloved land South Africa, so that all our people are exposed to its philosophy and the positive lessons, values and attitudes.
I thank you!
