Hon Chair, hon Minister, Deputy Minister, hon members of the House, I greet you all and also wish to pass my greetings to my leader and the President of the Athletic South Africa ...
IsiXhosa:
... tata uMhlanga, ndiyabulisa.
English:
The NFP welcomes and supports the budget reports on sport and recreation. The NFP supports the focus on social cohesion and transformational framework through encouraging sport and physical education participation. It is important that we teach our learners that participation in sport can be enjoyed and not only competitive. We see many learners disengage in sport activities due to the focus elite's sportsmanship. The NFP supports that the positive initiative needs to be expanded. Schools are unable to render a variety of sporting activities to students due to lack of resources.
We support the National Development Plan, NDP Vision 2030 in adequately resourcing schools with the necessary sporting equipment and the provision of adequate facilities to accommodate students. We also encourage that the Minister should look at the Memorandum of Understanding that is between the Department of Sport and Recreation and the Department of Basic Education because we wish to see that school sport should be more effective. The Minister should assist in establishing the national school sport structure like we used to
have United School Sports Association of South Africa USSASA in the past.
In combating non-communicable disease through sport and recreation we support promoting physical activities within our communities and schools and participation in community sport and physical activity programmes. However, we are alarmed that the sport support and sport infrastructure support spend lower than projected. These two programmes are in high demand especially in our disadvantaged communities. The department must fill in those vacancies which are highlighted in the report immediately.
The NFP supports the recommendations to involve traditional leadership in order to promote rural sports development programmes. Our rural communities must not be neglected because we know that these communities are swelling with talented sport in men and women who need the necessary equipment to tighten their skills. We will continue to support and assist our women football teams and we commend them for their resilience and advocacy for equality within sport.
Sport is a global phenomenon and an integral component of modern society. It teaches values and discipline and has a capacity to
touch the lives of all the people regardless of gender, age, language, economic and social status, geographic location or cultural differences. Sport possesses an unsurpassed ability to reach broad sectors of population. We support the budget. [Applause.]
Afrikaans: