Madam Deputy Speaker, with the minimal resources allocated to this budget, we cannot reach our goals and objectives of social cohesion, transformation, nation-building and creating a healthy and winning nation.
The three goals of the department, namely mass participation, sports development and high performance also cannot be effectively achieved with the reduced budget.
School sports has been downgraded as a priority, as the budget has been slashed from R35 million to R22 million. Sixty-six of our sports federations received a total of R27,62 million, yet Lovelife received R28,693 million. Clearly, our priorities are not correct.
As a committee, we agree that school sport, rural sport and development were the key areas of focus. But this budget does not reflect this position. Transformation has been pushed into the background.
We need to create opportunities for the disadvantaged throughout our country. Cope will shortly be forwarding a far-reaching proposal to help address these critical issues. We believe that this proposal will go some way in tackling these vexing issues. We wish the department well and every success in trying to reach the set priority areas.
Cope will not support this Budget Vote. Thank you. [Applause.]