House Chairperson, as we consider this budget allocation of Rl 153,6 million for the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture in the 2019- 20 financial year, the ACDP would first want to bring the correction to the report presented to the portfolio committee on page 47 of the announcements, tablings and committee, ATC, reports dated Wednesday, 10 July 2019, which shows the budget for the department sitting at, and I quote, "R1 153,6 billion from the 2018-l9 adjusted appropriation of R1 090,5 billion." Minister, this will solve all of the problems that you have in terms of
finances which will give you some 70% odd of the budget. The budget allocation table on page 48 shows the correct amounts.
The ACDP would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all our national sports teams, without singling out any one team for representing our country well and doing the best that they could in their different sport disciplines. Most South Africans love their sport, and it must be said that South Africa is one of the few countries in the world to have reached World Cup stages in soccer, rugby and cricket. It was the former President Nelson Mandela and an international icon, who said, "Sport has the power to change the world." It has the power to inspire and unite people in a way that little else does. Sports can create hope where once there was only despair. It is more powerful than government in breaking down racial barriers. I believe that Mr Mandela understood better than most that the most effective intervention in fostering social cohesion and bringing about transformation in our country is the intervention called sport.
Developmental sport strategies, plans and implementation are a must if we are to compete and succeed against the best in the world. From sport in schools where talent is identified to our winning nation programmes where this talent is nurtured in order to develop a team
of elite athletes in multidisciplinary codes of sport, development schools must never be overlooked.
There are many schools where the learner is robbed of holistic development because no sport is offered. These learners are denied the opportunity of leading healthier lifestyles, their latent talent lies untapped and a potential gold medal winner in the Olympic Games gets lost to drugs and crime in our communities. The challenges within SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee, Sascoc, must be dealt with speedily. We cannot allow those who want to determine their own terms sitting in Sascoc. We cannot allow those where there are challenges with regards to remuneration and conflict of interest to continue serving in this committee. Our sports teams must be chosen on merit. Thank you, Chair. [Interjections.]
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