FREE DAILY EMAIL

Date : 11/05/2006
Source: The Presidency
Title: Mlambo-Ngcuka: Launch of SuperSport Executive Sports Management Programme


  Address delivered by Deputy President, Mrs Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, at the launch of the SuperSport Executive Sports Management Programme, at the Wits Business School, Johannesburg

Minister of Sport, Makhenkesi Stofile,
Deputy Minister of Sport, Gert Oosthuizen,
Gauteng MEC for Sports, Arts and Recreation,
Barbara Creecy,
Members of parliament,
Vice Chancellor of Wits, Prof Loyiso Nongxa,
Chief Executive Officer of Naspers, Koos Bekker,
Chief Executive Officer of SuperSport, Imtiaz Patel,
Director-General of Sport, Denver Hendricks,
SASCOC President, Moss Mashishi,
Distinguished guests,
Leaders of business, sport and the media,
Ladies and gentlemen

This week our country celebrated 10 years since the adoption of the first democratic Constitution in our history. It was this Constitution which ushered in a new era in our country and ensured that our people enjoyed all the basic rights as stipulated in the Constitution. Among the rights that the Constitution guaranteed was that: "Everyone has the right to freedom of expression, which includes freedom of artistic creativity". Sporting activities and expression are firmly located here.

Sport in our country has historically played a crucial role in the struggle for liberation. In the dark days of apartheid our people declared that there could be "no normal sport in an abnormal society."

In that way sport became a major instrument in the struggle to isolate apartheid. It was also a major tool used by the liberation movement in the isolation of the apartheid regime through the sports boycott campaign in which many of our people participated.

Since the liberation of our country in 1994 sport has also played an instrumental role in ensuring that it is an active participant in the reconstruction and development of our society towards a truly non-racial, non-sexist and democratic society.

Among other things, sport has played an instrumental role in fostering a spirit of nation building and enhancing reconciliation by building and nurturing the spirit of patriotism and pride for our country. Perhaps, more than any other sector, sport has contributed immensely in ensuring that the majority of our people identify with their national symbols and colours and develop a particular pride around our national symbols like the national flag and national anthem.

We can never forget the spirit, euphoria and pride that were generated by the successes of our national teams when our rugby team Amabhokobhoko won the 1995 World Cup and our national soccer team Bafana-Bafana won the African Cup of Nations in 1996.

When two of our athletes Penny Heyns and Josiah Thugwane excelled during the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996 by winning gold medals our hearts felt like exploding with pride and joy. Those were the early days when our country first entered the international community of nations and sport played an instrumental role in projecting our nation as a winning nation.

Those were the defining moments for our young democracy.

They were the special moments in the life of our young nation and a nascent democracy that showed South Africans as a people who were truly uniting. Sport clearly played a unifying role for the people of South Africa.

Sport is also one of the sectors which employs large anumbersof talented young people, mostly from underprivileged backgrounds, and thus provides them with an opportunity to move out of poverty through the use of their talents. So the role that sport plays in the economy is also crucial.

As many teams in the sporting field become more professional and are run along business lines, even more employment opportunities are created in various sporting codes for young people to explore and to participate in.

Our role as government is mainly that of ensuring that the playing fields, physically and metaphorically, in all sporting codes are levelled so that every South African who is talented can actively participate in sport. Our role is that of ensuring that we facilitate access of all our people in the different sporting codes. We owe that absolute commitment to all those who struggled and suffered so that we as a uniting nation could unveil our democratic Constitution 10 years ago.

It is for this reason that when we are with people in the sports sector we always encourage them to ensure that access is broadened so that all our young people can have a chance to compete equally.

This must be done with a view to ensuring that the demographic representation of the country is reflected in all the sporting codes.

Our role as government is also mainly concentrated on the encouragement of the development of sport at grass roots level. We would like to see a situation in future where all young people can participate equally and competitively in all the sporting codes that are available regardless of their race, class or gender.

Since the democratic dispensation, our government has moved with speed in the development of sporting infrastructure and sporting facilities in all areas, especially in townships and rural areas so that we can enhance the development of sport in all corners of our country.

I was therefore thrilled when a few days after the public launch of the Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA) in March, I received information that SuperSport and Wits Business School were collaborating in extending the skills drive in our country and more particularly in sport.

Here was business and education combining their collective efforts to give concrete effect to JIPSA. I invited SuperSport's CEO, Imtiaz Patel, to visit me in an attempt to understand how the Executive Sports Management Programme that we are launching today fits in with the skills revolution that we have embarked on.

I am of the opinion that this initiative by SuperSport should be supported and that ways should be explored as to how the executive management programme aimed at the senior levels of sport administrators could benefit not only achieving excellence in sport but also those, especially youth, who find themselves in the Second Economy. It just made good sense that such a programme should cascade down to lower levels where the needs of the skills drive are the greatest.

A working group has been established under the Tourism, Hospitality and Sport Education and Training Authority (Theta) to consider the integration of sports related programmes that relate directly to the objectives of the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA).

Amongst other things this working group will explore the introduction and co-ordination of mentorship and training programmes. They will put in place exit opportunities for those completing training programmes, all aimed at complementing the objectives of JIPSA.

It is such initiatives that give us confidence that we will succeed in our efforts to use JIPSA as the driving force in meeting the targets of the AsgiSA.

It is my contention that this programme and sport in general could be the vanguard of what we want to achieve with JIPSA.

While sport is still greatly dependent on volunteers, the shift in world sport has resulted in increased reliance on both professional and technical skills.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup that we will be hosting will require a degree of professionalism that will far surpass anything that we have done thus far in the organisation of sport. It will be a new benchmark of excellence for us to achieve.

It is an opportunity that we cannot allow to slip through our fingers.

Every aspect of our lives is touched by the scarcity of skills. Sport is no different. And sport can show the way. The imminence of 2010 is the spur to this end.

In fact Department of Sport and Recreation, as a national government department, has in its White Paper identified two priorities if we are to succeed in broadening our sports base and improving our chances of success internationally. Those priorities are developing the human resource potential needed to manage and administer sport and improving the governance of our sport.

Our nation's strength lies in co-operation between public and private sectors. It makes good sense for government to partner SuperSport in this programme and the collaboration is aptly demonstrated by the fact that Minister Stofile is the patron of the programme. Already SuperSport and the Department are working together on government's mass participation programme through the Siyadlala/Let's Play drive.

This is aimed at ensuring that our communities develop active lifestyles through participating in sport. An outcome of this campaign is that millions of our young people, especially women and rural youth, will become actively involved in sport allowing their talents to be channelled into the competitive areas of sport. Those splendid and neglected South Africans with the necessary dedication and talent are out there, also in the remotest hamlets and we shall hear all about them as they take their rightful place in sport.

This means that we would need greater numbers of highly trained and skilled administrators to deal with increased numbers of participants.

It presents great potential for job opportunities not only as professional athletes but also as highly skilled administrators, whether as managers of athletes and facilities or as coaches and trainers.

It also creates vast opportunities in the hospitality and sports tourism industry. We have not yet scratched the surface in realising the economic potential that properly arranged and sustainable sport organisation holds for us.

The skills challenge is the single biggest factor militating against fighting poverty and unemployment. If we do not succeed in the skills revolution, we could be unleashing the most serious potential threat to stability and economic growth. This is something that we as a nation cannot afford.

I am greatly encouraged by what SuperSport has decided to embark upon. The challenge now is for hundreds of other companies in their specific industries to follow in these footsteps.

We welcome the investment of six million rands over the next three years by SuperSport to train in excess of 70 senior administrators. That is JIPSA in action! It is through equipping all South Africans with skills for the market place that we will cement and boost a competitive economy that serves all our citizens.

I applaud SuperSport on this initiative and its contribution and the collaboration with the Wits Business School in ensuring that we work together to build our capacity ahead of the 2010 Soccer World Cup. Let this be one of many interventions in which you make a difference in the exciting industry in which you operate and do your business.

In conclusion, allow me to express my deepest condolences to the family and friends of Patrick "Ace" Ntsoelengoe, who passed away this week. Ace was truly a legend of South African soccer and a positive role model and inspiration for many of our people especially the youth. We say to his family and to soccer lovers: may his soul rest in peace; we will always remember his contribution to the development of sport in our country.

I thank you.

Issued by: The Presidency
11 May 2006

SPONSORED BY

Advanced