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Date : 12/04/2005
Source: Ministry of Sport and Recreation
Title: Stofile: Sport and Recreation SA Dept Budget Vote 2005/2006


Budget speech by Minister MA Stofile, National Assembly

Madame Speaker
Cabinet Colleagues
Honourable Members

In his State of the Nation Address, our President has consistently reminded South Africa and the world that our Transformation Agenda traverses all sectors of society. As such, the Department of Sport and Recreation, like all other departments of State, must contribute to the national agenda to transform South Africa to the society of our dreams.

The Preamble to our Constitution declares South Africa to belong “to all who live in it, united in our diversity.” It also enjoins us to “heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights.” Our Constitution stipulates the VALUES on which our country is founded. Non-racialism and non-sexism are added to the human dignity, equality and human rights mentioned in the Preamble. The values enshrined in our Constitution are consistent with those adopted by our parents in 1955 at Kliptown. Our Constitution is consistent with the broad principles of the Freedom Charter.

The context in which we operate continues to reflect the legacy left behind by years of colonialism and apartheid. Our government has thus been entrusted with the demanding task of transforming our country away from its racist past. At the same time we are tasked to also achieve the objectives of national reconciliation and social cohesion. We are determined not to be side tracked by any polysyllabic pomposity or selfish protection of privileges. We are determined to achieve the objectives stated n the Freedom Charter and in our Constitution.

In correcting the imbalance created by apartheid we cannot leave it to the whims of market forces that are unsympathetic to the poor. Affirmative action (or regstellende aksie) is a tool that we believe will help us level the proverbial playing grounds. It may create pain and hardship to some. But it is a necessary evil for the long term good of our country (or any racially segregated country or society for that matter).

The above hypothesis does not only apply to business and access to jobs. It also applies to access to sport opportunities and facilities. A case which is always instructive to me is that of the Maoris of Aotearoa/New Zealand. They have been discriminated like our black people. Today they are suitably/equitably represented on All Blacks teams. We will catch up too, with time and resolve.

The transformation agenda needs a lot of transformation in those who must drive it in the first place, black and white. We must begin to understand what the Handelsinstituut understood in 1987 already, what the non-racial sports movement understood in 1959 already, what our people understood in the 19th century already, viz.: the success of South Africa is contingent on the success of ALL race groups in South Africa.

Prof Ben Turok correctly argues that “the market favours the strong, so the disadvantaged need supporting institutions”. The state is one of such institutions. The sports federations and sponsors are others. So are other NGOs and organs of civil society. This way we will prevent the legacy of apartheid becoming entrenched for all time in our country.

By transformation we do not simply confine ourselves to the demographics of national teams. Sport must contribute in an improved situation in the health of our people. It must contribute to the reduction of substance abuse and criminal activities. Above all sport must contribute to the provisioning of infra-structure in our communities and in human resource development and participation in the economy. For this reason our development is working at forging linkages with other departments and organisations. Our primary target is to get a buy-in from the Sports federations themselves where the players are. This way, we believe, we can truly make a contribution to the attainment of the Millennium Goals.

The United Nations (UN), through one of its Agencies, UNESCO, declared 2005 the “International Year for Sport and Physical Education”. It markets the campaign by means of a slogan that speaks of “a healthy mind, a healthy body that helps in life”. To my mind, this encapsulates the recognition that is sweeping the world, of the positive role that Physical Education and Sport (PES), can play in all societies.

The UN has motivated the need for an International Year for Sport and Physical Education on the basis of its role as an essential part of quality education that cannot be achieved when PES is being marginalised in the education systems of many, if not most countries around the world. Indeed, it recognises the practice of physical education and sport as a fundamental human right as contained in Article 1 of the International Charter of Physical Education and Sport, UNESCO, 1978. The purpose of the current campaign, therefore, is to raise awareness about the need to improve the role, place and status of PES within education systems. It posits that PES can play a booster role and generate a powerfully beneficial impact on rapidly changing values, attitudes and behaviours all over the world. The campaign articulates the negative impact of physical inactivity on health including obesity, diabetes, cancer, cardio-vascular ailments, dental disorders, osteoporosis and bone fractures, amongst others, and recognises the contribution of sport and physical education to the economies of countries.

Governments are expected, as part of this campaign, to provide grass-roots implementation in the shape of sport and recreation programmes, projects and activities throughout 2005 in order to highlight the basic foundations of education, well being, values and understanding.

In our own country we are off to a flying start with respect to the UNESCO campaign. The landmark agreement signed between the Minister of Education and us with regard to our respective responsibilities toward physical education and school sport in South Africa epitomises our commitment to the campaign. The agreement takes Physical Education and school sport out of the orphanage it has been in over the past few years and commits our respective departments to clearly defined roles in this, the nursery of sport in our country.

It clarifies the responsibilities of the national and provincial departments responsible for education and sport, unambiguously. All that remains for us to do, is to commit the resources and implement the programmes and projects that will consummate the ideals that we have set for ourselves with regard to getting the youth of our nation involved in wholesome and constructive physical education and sport activities. We are confident that it will contribute to meeting the concomitant national priorities that we have identified. For the 2005-06 financial year. Sport and Recreation South Africa will dedicate R15 million to the part of the programme for which it is responsible. We know that is not enough but it will, at least, ensure that every participant that is selected to a representative school sports team, will not be disqualified from participation on the basis of his/her inability to pay out of his/her own pocket, to do so. If we left participation to depend on the ability to pay we would be banishing the poor and the majority of our young people to automatic exclusion. As the President says: “Market forces are not sympathetic to the poor.” I have never been comfortable with the system that requires payment for participation in any case for it meant that we could never have had representative teams based on merit, but rather on the ability to afford such participation.

Last year we announced that we would launch our Mass Participation programme. We are pleased to confirm that this programme was launched in Upington in July last year. It has since been launched locally by a number of our Provinces. The response to the Mass Participation programme is overwhelming! We hope to focus this year on transforming this mobilisation of our people to a massive organisation of community clubs and organisations. This way we will be able to reach every corner of our country and access opportunity to all. These are very important building blocks for the developmental state.

Our co-operation with Local governments and youth structures is going to be very critical. The last year has exposed to us how little is known at the local government level about the Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG). In fact questions in the House have exposed a similar limitation of knowledge even to members of Parliament! This is dangerous for it leads to Municipalities leaving out any plans for sports facilities in their IDPs. We mean to intervene aggressively here to avoid the development of another skewed access to resources. The MIG includes money for sports facilities.

Another area of priority this year is Good Governance in our Federations. Gone are the days when sport was run in a casual way. Our Federations must practice democracy, they must learn to respect their own Constitutions first and then apply the values of the Country’s Constitution. Gone are the days when Federations were run by single powerful individuals who are well connected politically and economically. Our contribution to the African Renaissance and NEPAD will be the establishment of integrity in the governance of our federations.

We are satisfied with our contribution to Africa and the world i.r.o. what direction sport must take. Our contribution to the amendments to the Constitution of the Supreme Council of Sport in Africa to bring it in line with the AU will certainly be adopted in Algeria next week. These way African governments will be better placed to implement the AU and Commonwealth programmes in sport. Our contribution in the doping penalties for athletes was accepted in Athens last August. This led to the coach and manager of the Greek sprinters ALSO being criminally charged. This is a watershed achievement. Also the acceptance by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) that substances used to produce foodstuffs (chicken pieces etc.) could introduce prohibited substances to poor athletes. This could lead to unintended use of prohibited substances. This phenomenon will not be a subject for research. We believe that we are representing Africa well on these fora. Within the international context South Africa has been playing a major role in combating the scourge of doping in sport through its association with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). South Africa is a member of the Foundation Board and the Executive Committee of the organisation as a representative of the African region along with Tunisia and Nigeria. WADA has recently established the Regional Office for Africa in Cape Town and has appointed a South African Director to manage it. The Office is doing sterling work in conveying the anti-doping message across the continent. The South African Institute for Drug-free Sport (SAIDS) is, similarly, supporting countries on the continent with their anti-doping programmes, while our Laboratory in Bloemfontein, one of only two accredited by WADA in Africa, continues to analyse samples for many African countries that would otherwise have paid a fortune for having it analysed in Europe. They are also doing sterling work in South Africa in the field of testing and the education of our athletes and young people, warning them against the dangers of using chemical and other performance enhancing substances. I am concerned about what appears to be a growing number of athletes in South Africa who are testing positively for substance abuse in sport. I trust that SAIDS will step up their efforts to curb the tendency.

We are still on schedule with regard to our preparations for hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Our Department has established a dedicated unit to assist us with this. Treasury has also done the same to make sure all the tax and finance matters are properly and professionally handled. Other bids to host international events are still in early days. These include the Commonwealth Games of 2014 and the Rugby World Cup of 2011.

Madame Speaker, Honourable Members, December 2004 marked the dawn of a new era in the governance of sport and recreation in our country. It saw the first steps in the implementation of the recommendations of the Ministerial Task Team (MTT) into High Performance Sport that were approved by Cabinet relating to the rationalisation of its governance structures. The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) has opened its doors and Sport and Recreation South Africa has taken over the functions of the South African Sports Commission (SASC) and all its personnel. The SASC is in the process of closing down its operations, a process that should be finalised when I table their Annual Report for 2004-05 in Parliament at the end of September this year. I want to convey my sincerest appreciation to the Chairperson of the SASC, Mr Gideon Sam, and his Board for a job well done despite the trying conditions under which they were forced to operate. I also want to thank the Chief Executive Officer, Dr Joe Phaahla for his leadership in the organisation.

The expanded Department will now be better equipped from a human resource perspective, to deliver on the goals it has set for itself, in the broader context of Government’s objectives. The role of the department will be focussed on the delivery of mass based sport and recreation at the grass-roots, community level. It will endeavour to make sport and recreation accessible in the most remote parts of our country where people have not enjoyed access to the institution before. Ultimately, all the resources made available for sport and recreation by Government will be channelled into its mass participation programme. Currently there are approximately 96 hubs or centres at which these mass-based activities take place. The vision is that, ultimately, there will be at least one hub in each of the 284 municipalities in our country but, eventually, each ward should have a programme of its own. We have conducted the first phase of a study that will measure the impact of the programme on various social indicators in the areas that have, and will benefit from the programme. It will allow us to monitor and evaluate our performance and measure the contribution that we make toward meeting the priorities that we have set for ourselves as a nation.

SASCOC has taken over all the high performance activities in sport and work in close cooperation with the National Federations that constitutes their primary stakeholders. I would like to congratulate Mr Moss Mashishi and his Board on their election, as well as Mr Banele Sindane, who is in the gallery, on his appointment as CEO, and wish them well with the task ahead. I would also like to thank and congratulate the various stakeholders on their magnificent cooperation in securing the establishment of the new structures and remind them that it is now a matter of putting shoulders to the wheel to deliver on the promises they have made. I would also like to thank Dr Sam Ramsamy, who is also somewhere in the Gallery for his leadership of the Olympic Committee that has also now been incorporated into SASCOC. Of course, Dr Ramsamy will continue to serve on SASCOC as the IOC representative in South Africa. The logo of SASCOC will be launched at a media function on 16 April 2005. SASCOC’s first major challenge will be the hosting of the third South African Games that will take place in KwaZulu-Natal in September this year. They have inherited this project from the SASC.

SASCOC will be working in close cooperation with SRSA to ensure seamlessness in the progression of athletes identified as being talented in the mass participation and school sport programmes, into the competitive aspects of sport where they will be nurtured in order to unlock their full potential. At the same time we have a clear separation of functions between SRSA and SASCOC that will avoid wasteful duplication, replication and the concomitant conflict and turf battles that have characterised our sport in the past. It will improve the efficacy of our sport and recreation delivery systems.

A significant aspect of that delivery system in sport and recreation at the high performance level comprises the National Sport Academy System that will eventually provide the necessary support at the local, regional, provincial and national level, for talented athletes. It will play a vital role in levelling out the playing fields by ensuring that talented athletes from disadvantaged backgrounds receive the support that they may lack in their own homes and communities as a result of the conditions, the legacy of our apartheid past, with which the majority of our people still have to contend. Academies must play a role in ensuring a balance in the talent that they attract to their programmes. Not only should they be representative in terms of racial demographics, they should also reflect the geographic spread of talent across our country. In this regard it is imperative that the Academies work very closely with the National Federations to ensure that the balance is achieved. Government allocated R15 million to Academies for the current financial year. SASCOC is finalising a model of the Academy system that they will present to me for consideration. The stage has been set for greater efficiency and we will now be measured against this more favourable environment for delivery in which we find ourselves. Room for excuses for non-delivery, is shrinking fast.

Our International Liaison programme is focussing increasingly, on Africa. We have recently concluded agreements with Lesotho, Mozambique, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt and Nigeria amongst others. Beyond the continent we are “renewing our vows” with the UK and with Australia even though they are traditional sporting antagonists. Our cooperation extends well beyond the boundaries of our two countries and aims at benefiting the regional arrangements that we are involved with as well. UK Sport is, for example, funding a project aimed at developing “a case for sport” in the SADC region, aimed at persuading decision makers of the region to invest more substantially in the sector in order to reap the benefits that accrue from it. SADC countries generally invest very little, if anything, in sport and recreation. In our relations with Canada, and the UK we try to apply a regional approach that ensures that countries in the region benefit as well. We maintain strong ties with Belgium that cooperates with us on developing sport at the provincial level, with the Netherlands that have assisted us in the development of hockey and with Cuba where we have young sports scientists training at their universities, the first of whom will be graduating shortly. These are only some of the productive international agreements that we maintain.

Madame Speaker, Honourable Members, as a result of the migration of the BSRP budget to the MIG, the budget of my Department has declined from R294 million in the past financial year to R203 million in the current year. If expenditure levels on sport and recreation facilities in the MIG had remained constant at last year’s R140 million, I would have been able to report real growth in the sport and recreation budget. Instead, the meagre, potential investment of R20 million in facilities by local authorities mean that we have experienced a decline in our budget of some 25% relative to our budget of last year. We will continue to argue for more funds for the sector for we believe that there are valuable gains to be had from such investments. Almost 40% of our budget is utilised for client support services including, amongst others support to federations and communities in various forms, 28% is allocated to our Mass Participation Programme that is run in conjunction with the provincial departments responsible for sport and recreation and the local authorities through the Division of Revenue Act, and a further 9% is utilised for expanding our international cooperation programme in the interest of sport and recreation in South Africa and on the continent. The resources currently at our disposal from government are inadequate. I am, however, in discussion with my Colleague from the Department of Trade and Industry about the more efficient and effective and coordinated utilisation of resources that accrue from the National Lottery Distribution Fund to ensure that it contributes to the actualisation of the national agenda through sport and recreation.

We will be informed through the Adjustments Estimate of the resources that will be made available for the creation and upgrading of facilities intended for the 2010 FIFA World Cup?, as well as for developing the human resource base, necessary for the running of the event.

The following Legislation is being prepared for tabling this year: the South African Sports Commission Act repeal Bill is currently in the Parliamentary process, while the Safety at Sports Stadiums Bill will be submitted to Cabinet shortly. The latter Bill is a response to the Ellis Park soccer tragedy and must be seen in the context of Government’s response to prevent similar incidents from occurring in future. It is, of course, never possible to guarantee that similar tragedies will happen again, but the measures that will be put in place will limit the potential considerably. Accountability structures and systems have been identified so that negligence can be dealt with appropriately. We are also in the process of drafting the 2010 FIFA World Cup? Special Measures Act that will make provision for the implementation of the guarantees that we have provided to the international body for hosting the event. Various Departments will be contributing to the drafting of this composite Bill that will be coordinated by SRSA. An amendment to the South African Sport and Recreation Act is being worked at.

Madame Speaker, Honourable Members, in conclusion I would like to pay tribute to the men and women who have served our country so admirably in sport and recreation. I am mindful of the thousands of volunteers who give of their time so willingly and selflessly to ensure that sport and recreation continues to flourish in South Africa. You epitomise the true spirit of Vuk’uzenzela. We are proud of you. I include in this category sport administrators, coaches, officials and young people who do stadium and other duties purely on the basis of their love for the activity. I want to congratulate our sports teams and athletes who have brought pride to millions of South Africans on the basis of their performances in the international arena. The performances of our swimmers in the Athens Olympic Games and in the ensuing Swimming World Cup events, spring to mind immediately. There were many other brilliant performances throughout the year that are too many to mention here now.

Let me finish by going back to where I started. South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white. This is what led the negotiations in Kempton Park to success. In that settlement, certain understandings were made and expectations created. We expected the goodwill of Kempton Park to exude through the reconstruction and transformation programme of the democratic government. None of us should resist this redressal. Not even those whose ill-gotten privileges are under threat.

This is the direction we mean to lead sport and our society in. This is the journey we must guide our federations how to walk. It is compliance to these objectives and values that we must monitor. All for the good of our children and our country.

Thank you.

Issued by: Ministry of Sport and Recreation SA
12 April 2005

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