We are delighted this morning to take part in the proceedings of this event organised by the South African Football Association (SAFA) to celebrate two decades of existence since your formation in 1991. Today we remember the long protracted discussion for the unification of football in South Africa over years that gained a crescendo in the late 1990s and led to the birth of the body whose existence we are celebrating today as a milestone achievement for the professionalisation and mainstreaming of football as a non-racial, non-sexist and inclusive sporting code.
SAFA is a product of the transformative amalgamation of the South African Soccer Association, the South African Soccer Federation, the South African National Football Association and the Football Association of South Africa. This unification signalled the beginning of the de-racialisation process within football and paved the way for the recognition of SAFA by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and later by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). As your own historical record would attest to the fact - that a month after the formation of SAFA, a delegation of SAFA received a standing ovation at the Confederation of African Football (CAF) congress in Dakar, Senegal, when SAFA was accorded observer status. SAFA's membership of the world governing body FIFA was confirmed at their congress in Zurich in June, 1992. Membership of CAF followed automatically and SAFA was at last on the world stage.
We know it has not been plain sailing; you have had to contend with a myriad of objective and subjective challenges that sent shockwaves down the spines of many sport-loving South Africans and raised concerns about the future of football in our country. We aware that you are taking measures to address these challenges and we commend you for that. However there is still a lot to be done and government stands ready to join hands with you in dealing with whatever challenge that may come your way as their resolution are in the best interest of the people of South Africa and our country. We are looking forward to exchange ideas with your entire Executive in the near future as part of our on-going consultation with all federations and stakeholders in Sport and Recreation.
We need to meet as soon as possible so that we can share with you our strategic priorities outlined in our Road Map that entails, transformation, recreation, school sport, institutional mechanisms, mass mobilisation and funding. We would also want to brief you about our planned National Sport Indaba in June 2011 so that you are part of the debates and are abreast with the transformative agenda we shape.
We congratulate SAFA for the strides you have made in the unification of South African football and we salute you for placing South Africa and the continent on the world map through football.
- Your vision continues to inspire many young people since the early days when we hosted the Confederation of African Football in 1996 at this grandiose stadium.
- The SAFA vision 2000 unleashed hidden talent in the likes of Aaron Mokoena, Matthew Booth, Siyabonga Nomvete, Benny McCarthy, Steven Pienaar to mention but a few. This is the talent that represented us well in the Sydney Olympics and graduated to serve us in the Bafana Bafana.
- The memories of the 2010 FIFA World Cup are still very fresh in our minds and these are memories we want to cherish forever and out of them develop ideas that will create meaningful opportunities and benefits for all South Africans.
The spirit of the 2010 FIFA World Cup must continue and the all-round support we generated for Bafana - Bafana must now be inculcated into massive and overwhelming support for the Proteas fighting for the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Championships in the Indian Oceans Islands. Our support for the boys is unwavering! We launched the Magnificent Fridays to rally the whole nation behind the Proteas/ South African Cricket Team. This is a rolling, ongoing nationwide and cross-sectoral campaign that will be imparted to the South African Netball Team and the South Africa Rugby Team as we take part in the World Championships in July and September respectively. For now we want to appeal to all South Africans to redouble our efforts by ensuring that the momentum building up towards the ICC Cricket World Cup is maintained! The Razzmatazz that the Proteas experienced when we launched the Magnificent Fridays, when the President of the country gave the boys the final marching orders at a send-off in Mahlambandlhompfu and the support of various government delegations, must now be amplified and propel the Proteas to victory when we meet New Zealand in Bangladesh this Friday on the 25 March 2011 at the Quarter Finals! We are travelling to Bangladesh to issue one message to the boys – FIGHT!
We the Proteas are sons of warriors that gave character and shape to our consciousness! We are the children of Nelson Mandela. We are a winning nation coming from the land of champions and winners. Bring the trophy home!
For comments please contact
Paëna Galane
Tel: 012 304 5255
Cell: 079 509 9833
Source: Sport and Recreation South Africa
