Hon Chairperson, hon Deputy Minister, hon Members of Parliament, all the Whips who are present this morning to grace this important gathering, sportsmen and women, fellow South Africans, ladies and gentlemen, and distinguished guests, this morning we addressed business people, civil society and our fellow citizens at our breakfast session at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. The breakfast session was organised to engage business and other strategic partners in the delivery of sport as part of our dialogue to make a case for sport and recreation in South Africa.
Key to the breakfast session was the announcement of the 2012 National Sports Awards, to be hosted in November 2012. We are hosting these awards to honour the excellence continuously displayed by our sportsmen and women. We aim at making the 2012 South African Sports Awards bigger and better than in 2011 - "blistering", in fact! We do this fully convinced that our athletes deserve more recognition and appreciation in order for them to reach higher heights in sport and recreation.
We also do this to recognise the sacrifices made by both the hon Andrew Mlangeni and the late Minister of Sport and Recreation, Comrade Steve Tshwete, in the fight for a united, nonracial, nonsexist and democratic South Africa, as well as equality in sport and recreation. We do this, too, as part of a collage of equally significant awards in recognition of the talent of our athletes and to celebrate excellence, quality, and success in sport in all its facets.
Ladies and gentlemen, our mere material existence and quest for survival as the ultimate ambition is at times intercepted by forces beyond our control. We in the sport and recreation fraternity have in the recent past experienced tragedies and misfortunes visited upon us by the sad loss of several athletes and sports administrators. To all those heroes and heroines who once graced our sporting fields, stadiums, surfing waters, boardrooms and Parliament with their scintillating performances and mesmerising skills we collectively say, "Go well, comrades! Go well, fellow countrymen and women!"
We refer here to hon Sicelo Shiceka, Roy Padayachie, and Mama Florence Nyanda, as well as our sporting heroes like Zithulele Sinqe, who passed on in December 2011, the six rugby players from the Motherwell Rugby Club, David Lilienfeld from Cape Town, Braiber Ngozi of Port Elizabeth, and Sibusiso Duma from KwaZulu-Natal. To all of them we say, "Rest in peace."
Chairperson, this year is an exceptionally good year for South African golf. Our young golfing stars have enjoyed huge success on the European Tour, with Louis Oosthuizen winning the Africa Open and the Malaysian Open, and narrowly coming second in a play-off at the Masters Tournament. Jb Kruger showed that dynamite comes in small packages when he outclassed the field by winning the Avantha Masters. The new star of South African golf, Branden Grace, in his first year on the European Tour, has won the Jo'burg Open, the Volvo World Match Play Championship and the Volvo China Open. We must applaud and congratulate these ambassadors of South African sport.
Hon members, the department's total budget allocation for 2012-13 amounts to R848,4 million, with an increase of R45,7 million from the previous financial year.
R525 million is allocated to the Mass Participation Programme, which makes up 62% of the total budget. This is mainly due to the Mass Participation Programme Conditional Grant, with the focus of increasing participation in various sporting codes by supporting school sport, club development and hubs.
The school sport budget in SRSA has increased from R27,3 million in the last year to R42,6 million, and the department will place the emphasis on supporting the delivery of sport programmes to learners. It will also continue to empower educators in code specific coaching, technical officiating, team management and sport administration, with the focus on the 16 priority sporting codes.
The Sport Support Services Programme also received a significant increase, of R25 million, from R162 million to R187,3 million. This is mainly to support sports federations in sports development projects.
The budget of the International Liaison Directorate sees a decrease of R26,6 million, mainly due to the adjustment budget received in 2011-12 for value-added tax refunds on 2010 Fifa World Cup tickets.
Compensation of employees is slightly above the inflation increase, mainly due to additional staff in the school sport component. The budget increased from R79,9 million in 2011-12 to R91,9 million in 2012-13.
For the 2012-13 financial year, the department allocated R470 million to the Mass Participation Programme Conditional Grant, which has been allocated as follows: R211 million is allocated to school sport programmes, which makes up 45% of the grant, and club development and community hubs receive R106 million respectively, which makes 23% each. The remaining budget is allocated for the compensation of employees in provinces working on the MPP projects and the district academies of sport.
Ladies and gentlemen, as we accept the 2012-13 Budget allocations for Sport and Recreation from the national fiscus, we equally acknowledge the competing priorities of the country to which the developmental state should respond as a matter of urgency. We must also acknowledge the reality of the potential contribution of sport to social cohesion and nation-building, as well as to attracting indirect and direct foreign investment and to the economic regeneration in our communities, cities, regions and provinces.
The reality that sport is a tool to foster social stability, patriotism and increasing levels of health, social consciousness and inclusion has been widely realised by local and international leaders, both in sport and politics, and among academics and the intelligentsia. In this era of hope we must continue to popularise sport and recreation, until we realise our dream of South Africa's being a national sporting nation.
Hon members, last year, on the occasion of the Minister of Sport and Recreation's speech during the debate on Budget Vote 20 of the Ministry of Sport and Recreation South Africa, we announced a new vision for the Department of Sport and Recreation. Embedded in this new vision were five key strategic priorities, with a strong emphasis on transformation, school sport and mass participation in South Africa. That was to develop and unlock the potential grass-roots talent, nurture such talent and sport skills, and ultimately produce athletes with an international competitive edge.
We further announced our intention to organise Sport Awards in South Africa, which will be the first of their kind, to honour our sportsmen and women who have made an immense mark on the history of sport and recreation in South Africa.
We also announced our intention to host a National Sport and Recreation Indaba, NSRI, later that year, in November 2011, to allow all South Africans to give an input regarding the direction and life of sport and recreation in the Republic.
The NSRI was aimed at consolidating the values and virtues of our renewed vision for sport and recreation, as espoused by our overarching strategy, the Road Map to Optimal Performance and Functional Excellence.
I am pleased to inform the House that the indaba adopted the first ever National Sport and Recreation Plan, with the Transformation Charter and its stated scorecards. The Sport and Recreation Plan is the end product of a structured process of more than ten months of consultation and robust debates with diverse and representative sport and recreation stakeholders. The Deputy Minister will elaborate on the concrete steps taken regarding the indaba resolutions and implementation.
The Sport Plan seeks to reposition our functional efficiencies, accelerate service delivery, enhance organisational excellence and inject new performance energy, whilst at the same time capitalising on the renewed commitment by all our stakeholders in sport and recreation to transform and improve sport and recreation. Furthermore, it provides the basis for our 20- year strategy to reposition South Africa to use sport and recreation as catalysts for socioeconomic transformation and it makes the case for sport.
The National Sport and Recreation Plan will be an eight-year sustainable implementation plan for the Sport and Recreation Policy Framework, as captured in the White Paper on Sport and Recreation. Whilst it is envisaged that the White Paper will remain relevant until 2019, the National Sport and Recreation Plan will be closely monitored annually to identify any hindrances which may negatively impact on implementation, and will be reviewed in its totality in 2020.
It is important to note that the National Sport and Recreation Plan has further been adopted by Cabinet as an integral part of the programme of government. It is also currently being costed to ensure its successful implementation. For the very first time we have a concrete and integrated plan that will deal holistically with sport and recreation development in South Africa.
Once costed and implemented, the Sport and Recreation Plan will give South Africa a clear indication of how many jobs the Sport Plan will create to fight unemployment in our country, whilst at the same time providing the country with all the strategic elements of the plan, which will assist the nation in the fight against poverty.
For example, through the roll-out of the infrastructure development plan announced by the President in his state of the nation address, Sport and Recreation South Africa, together with the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Recreation, should provide the Ministry with a concrete plan to roll out the construction of recreation facilities in South Africa and its maintenance plan for a two to eight-year tenure. It is the strategic and bold decisions that a country takes that ensure multiple effects on that society and its future. Australia, for example, decided more than 20 years ago that it would invest in sport and recreation as a means to effect socioeconomic development and position itself as a major sporting nation. It would be incorrect to mention investment in monetary terms, as Australia is a developed country and mature market. However, the results of the bold decisions it took then are evident for all to see. Today its athletes in different codes, such as athletics, swimming, cricket and rugby, are performing well, and Australia hosts some of the most prestigious sporting events in the world, such as a major tennis championship and a Formula 1 race.
South Africa today is faced with similar challenges to those that Australia faced 20 years ago. We believe we need to plan for the next 20 years, and focus on school sport if we want to drastically change the status quo on the sporting landscape.
John McKnight and Peter Block, in their book entitled The Abundant Community, suggest that, and I quote:
Communities (and institutions of learning) are abundant with the resources we need for the future; and this is necessity, not luxury.
In this narration there is a suggestion that: It takes a village to raise a child and in an increasingly commercial world children are often surrounded by cell phones, big brands and institutions. Young people today are much less socially connected than their grandparents were, with the result that in both poor and well-off communities gangs, mall-centred children and negative behaviour are growing. In communities with strong connections both child development and school performance improve.
Hence the School Sport Programme has been identified by our department as a priority area for delivery in the 2012-13 financial year. This programme is the bedrock of our Sport Development Strategy and the cornerstone of the National Sport Plan going forward. The aim is to ensure that all learners in South Africa are provided with access to an organised and structured system of sport that offers opportunity for mass participation, talent support and high performance.
The ultimate goal in increasing access to school sport is to increase the athlete base in the country, thus improving the talent pool and improving South Africa's performance internationally. This is one of the ways in which we will deal with the problem of transformation.
To achieve this, the starting point is with learners in schools. The South African Schools Act guarantees all learners access to physical education and sport programmes. In supporting this ideal, SRSA and the Department of Basic Education signed a memorandum of understanding for the delivery of physical education and sport programmes in all schools in our country.
The roll-out plan of the School Sport Programme is underpinned by the following three critical components: physical education, top school leagues and youth Olympics.
Chairperson, it is pleasing to announce that we have already completed the process of registration of the schools that wish to participate in the School Sport Programme, especially in the national school sport leagues, which will culminate in the national top schools' final championship in December 2012. Thus far we have managed to register 11 000 out of 27 000 schools for participation in the 2012 school sport leagues and competition.
Hon members, 28 March 2012 marked the official kickoff, at Vlakfontein Secondary School in Mamelodi, Gauteng Province, of the school sport leagues and Magnificent Wednesdays. The direct implication of this is that every Wednesday all schools in South Africa will be expected to practise sport. Learners should be out on the sports fields, practising sport and preparing for competition in the national sport leagues.
With the roll-out of the School Sport Programme in 2012, sport personnel and experience are required across the country in order to make the School Sport Programme a success. In this regard, on 13 February 2012 the Ministry of Sport and Recreation launched a National Sports Volunteer Corps in order to recognise, recruit and utilise the experience, expertise and passion for sport, as well as the abundant reservoir of goodwill, among the sports legends towards the growth and development of the South African child. Hence, the legends will be utilised, among other things, as coaches, talent identifiers, technical officials, sport administrators, and sport and recreation facility managers.
We as government have invested enormous resources in our School Sport Programme. We are now finalising our engagement with the National Lottery Distribution Agency on Sport and Recreation in regard to their allocating R200 million to our School Sport Programme. I was informed shortly before this that our R200 million got the thumbs up from the Lottery yesterday. Thank you, Prof Nevhutanda!
For us to realise our objective of sport development at grass-roots level, SRSA had to come up with a funding framework that was based on the National Sport and Recreation Amendment Act, Act 18 of 2007. This framework was to contribute systematic provision and capacity building for coaches, administrators, athletes, and technical officials in the South African sport system, in order to revitalise sport in schools and contribute to long-term participation development. If we want to realise these objectives over a period of 20 years, the country should at present invest more in sport and recreation.
In this financial year we are going to harness all resources in support of the National Sport and Recreation Plan. As a department we have realised that we have not successfully implemented the sport development continuum, which will ensure a well co-ordinated and seamless development of athletes from talent identification to the elite levels.
For this purpose, as from this year, funding to national federations will be divided into two tiers, which are: guaranteed and conditional. The conditional funding will be outcome-based. The measurement will be as per the transformation scorecard outlined in the SRSA National Sport and Recreation Plan, as well as good corporate governance and value for money.
We have instructed all national federations to submit bids with programmes and projects that address school and tertiary participation, as well as demonstrate effectiveness and sustainability. All these programmes must demonstrate improvement of the national federations' intended progression in regard to their ranking in Africa and the world.
From this year we are committing ourselves to a four-year funding drive for all these programmes and projects, in order to reach our stated goals of Vision 2020. This will ensure that in the upcoming years South Africa will be a really active and winning sporting nation, which has a people living healthy lifestyles and participating en masse in international sporting competitions.
We will also adhere to the quota system, as agreed on by the National Sport and Recreation Indaba, using a developmental approach contained in the revised Transformation Charter. This will be difficult, and cannot happen if South Africa has a skewed distribution of sport and recreation facilities, and there is a disjuncture between national, provincial and local governments.
SRSA, together with the South African Local Government Association and the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, are, in response to the Sport and Recreation Indaba resolutions, hard at work organising the first ever Municipal Conference on Sport and Recreation from 28 to 29 May 2012.
This conference will provide an opportunity for SRSA to present the National Sport and Recreation Plan to all the municipalities of the Republic of South Africa. The conference is aimed at resolving on measures to address the issues of funding of sport facilities, access to sport and recreation facilities, norms and standards of sport and recreation facilities and municipal games, and the pathways of teams and athletes that participate in these games.
The National Sport Plan identified development as a basic building block for transformation in sport, including school sport, access to facilities, training, coaching and equipment. Success in sport in South Africa, particularly school sport, is dependent on access to sport and recreation facilities. There is no question that for our plan to work, it must be supported by a variety of facilities in both urban and rural areas. That is why the provision of accessible community sport and recreation facilities is one of the key pillars of the National Sport and Recreation Plan, and is a critical matter to be addressed by this conference.
With the current shortage of facilities, SRSA has identified the hub system as one of the systems that can, in the interim, deal with the shortage of sport and recreation facilities. Sport and Recreation South Africa has revised the concept of hubs, from being any identified geographical area within a 5 km radius in a community, to being a local sport infrastructure, integrating the local municipality, clubs, community structure and sports councils. This will condense the hubs to being a structured physical participation centre, support centre, advice and information centre, and administration block. Sport and recreation facilities, together with structured sport development programmes, will provide South Africa with a solid base to become an active and winning nation.
As President Jacob Zuma concluded in his state of the nation address of 2012, and I quote:
We must perform better in sports ... And set higher standards in the coming years.
Our star performer, Oscar Pistorius, has set the standard for the year by winning the 2012 Laureus Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability Award.
Chairperson, this is indeed an age of hope. I know that this year we have set the bar for our qualification standards higher than in previous years, to ensure that the team we send to London is a quality team that can bring more medals back to South Africa than was the case in Beijing 2008. We have done this to instil a culture of our being a winning nation.
It is major sporting events, such as the Olympics, the Commonwealth Games and many world cup tournaments, that allow a country and its athletes to assess the extent to which the collective and personal investment put into the respective codes achieves success or suffers failure. [Interjections.]