Hon Chairperson, hon Minister, hon Deputy Minister, hon members, sporting family, guests, comrades and friends, thank you for allowing me to participate in this debate on Vote No 20 of the Department of Sport and Recreation. Colleagues, I rise on this occasion on behalf of the 100-year-old liberation movement, the ANC, in support of this Budget Vote allocation to the department.
As we know, sport is an indispensable and treasured social activity amongst humanity, dating back to the beginning of human civilisation. In South Africa sport has a particularly interesting history because of its intimate link with our struggle against apartheid. It is for this reason that we must celebrate our achievements in sport since South Africa's readmission to the international sporting family. In a very short space of time we managed to win the Rugby World Cup in 1995 and 2007, and the Confederation of African Football Cup of Nations in 1996, and successfully hosted the Cricket World Cup competition in 2003 and the Fifa World Cup competition in 2010, as well as scoring many commendable achievements in the Olympic codes.
All these achievements have gone a long way in uniting the nation behind the project of building a united, democratic, nonracial, nonsexist and prosperous society. Sport thus occupies a special place in the minds and hearts of all South Africans, not only as a form of recreation, but also as a core force for uniting our nation.
We are a sport-loving nation, something we share with other nations throughout the world. Sport is a common language spoken across racial divides and across class differences, shared by men and women alike, and enjoyed by all sectors in our society.
We have witnessed many changes taking place in Sport and Recreation over the past 18 years. Many of these changes have sought to elevate and transform sport from what it was under the apartheid era sport policy which prevailed before, to a transformatory, nonracial, integrated and co- ordinated sport policy.
Central to the National Sport and Recreation Plan is the Transformation Charter, which was formulated to bring about the establishment of a competitive and demographically representative sport system guided by a value set based on equal opportunity, fairness and just behaviour, equitable resource distribution, empowerment and affirmation.
The ANC has always recognised sport as the single biggest "healer" in a country that was torn apart by race and cultural differences. With the introduction of the Transformation Charter and Scorecard, it is anticipated that transformation will be better understood and effectively applied to all sports organisations.
This transformation process will hopefully see the establishment of a sport system focused on the principles of: human capital development; equitable resource distribution; elimination of all inequalities; increased access to participation opportunities; greater community involvement; empowerment; respect; fair and just behaviour; innovation; sustainable internationally competitive performance; and good governance.
It is envisaged that collectively these activities will provide citizens with opportunities to interact, to share a common purpose and to contribute to nation-building. Sport is recognised as a basic human right and it is an important contributor to the quality of life of all South Africans. It builds an active and inclusive citizenry.
As Adolf Ogi, a special adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General on Sport for Development and Peace, stated, "Sport can help overcome ignorance and discrimination and sow the seeds of integration and equality."
Whilst the government remains the custodian of sport and recreation in South Africa, and has the legislative powers to oversee the development and management of sport and recreation in our country, partnerships with key stakeholders and private sponsors are equally crucial. Commercial sponsorship is an essential source of funding for many sporting activities at the local, national and international levels. Without sponsorship, many sporting disciplines would face extreme difficulties. Through sponsorship the nation's sporting fraternity is nurtured and enhanced, and spectator choice is widened. Mobilisation of funds for sport is thus imperative in order to realise our development objectives.
We recognise that there are numerous challenges facing the development of sport in our country. Many townships, rural areas and rural schools have no playgrounds or sport fields. The committee is concerned that transformation and development are taking place at a very slow pace, and some sporting codes have all but collapsed. Indigenous sport is nonexistent in rural areas, and there appears to be a lack of talented players. Another issue that we want to emphasise is the cancer of corruption that has taken hold in some entities.
The ANC has set the following clear goals to attain by 2016, which is four years from now: citizens accessing sport and recreation activities; a transformed sport and recreation sector; our athletes' achieving international success; an integrated system of enablers supporting the delivery of sport and recreation; sport being used as a tool to support relevant government priorities; and an efficient and effective Sport and Recreation South Africa. We would like to inform the department, hon Minister, that we are going to hold them to these goals.
It is significant that we recognise the determination of the Department of Sport and Recreation to try to comply with all the constitutionally prescribed governance regulations. This view is stimulated by the way they have conducted themselves in the Auditor-General's opinion, both in financial performance and cash flows, where the year ended in accordance with the Departmental Financial Reporting Framework, prescribed by the National Treasury, and other legislative requirements.
On that note, our political obligation is to acknowledge and congratulate the department for the unqualified audit report. The portfolio committee is satisfied with such an effort towards compliance. However, this is not to say that there is no room for improvement, especially on matters raised as matters of emphasis by the Auditor-General.
We are mindful of the fact that the department is mainly a policy-making body on matters of sport and recreation. Equally important is the appreciation of the profound profiling of the department under your leadership, hon Minister. We think the profile of the department has been raised.
All of us, as Members of Parliament, are going to play a very important role by ensuring that we participate in all sporting activities! Here in Parliament, hon Lee, it is important that we do that as Members of Parliament, in order for us to remain very healthy. This will be by participating in different sporting activities. [Laughter.] We shouldn't lead a society in regard to sport if we ourselves are not participating in any sporting activities! It is, therefore, very important that all of us play this role!
Again on profiling, a case in point is the Cabinet approval of the National Sport and Recreation Plan this year.
Obviously there are other landmarks, such as the school sports revitalisation, and the promising organisational changes to the departmental structure which at face value do seem to be rational. The point that we want to emphasise, hon Minister, is that the changes that are taking place in your department should assist us to ensure that the department becomes the best department. There is no reason why we can't do that. We wouldn't argue that only the private sector is efficient and government is inefficient. It wouldn't be correct for us even to entertain that idea. We think the department must assist us to address the problem. Obviously, of course, this is within the limited resources allocated to the department.
The Sport Plan is a major milestone for the country, as it paves the way for South Africa for the first time to have a unified sports sector with all the role-players working towards the same objectives and sport transformation which will be addressed in a holistic way.
The committee also noted that the approval of the plan will result in the need to review the legal framework of the South African sport system, and for an improved institutional mechanism and a new funding model.
The portfolio committee notes that, central to the effort to mobilise our society and galvanise social cohesion, the Cabinet approved South Africa's hosting of the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations tournament and the 2014 African Nations Championship.
The above demonstrates the pure hard work done to normalise our country. However, in no way does it seek to suggest that all is well in our society with respect to transformation and integration. The point that we always raise is this: What is making it difficult to transform sport? If we all love sport, surely it shouldn't be difficult for all of us to transform it? Therefore, there is a bigger issue that needs to be addressed and we think that development must facilitate that. We are all sporting persons. We love sport, all sectors, but it can't transform sport. Therefore, there is a bigger problem that we should face and confront, and certainly, hon Minister and our leadership, we must defeat it, because we must transform sport in our country.
In the spirit of integrative thinking and common sense in uniting the people, we recognise a need to ensure that talent from Schools of Excellence is managed professionally to the benefit of the country. It is a very important point that we are making, Chair, because it can't be right that 100 people are taken to a School of Excellence but all of them end there - they don't progress. We think that that should be monitored and that we should be addressing this matter seriously, because it has a tendency to demoralise a large number of people.
Underpinning this endeavour will be a robust oversight function, monitoring to ensure that we do not lose track and that there are checks and balances, in trying to make a significant contribution to the future of our children. We will hold federations accountable, particularly regarding transformation, leadership, governance and sports development.
We think every federation that appears before the committee must be prepared to answer these questions, because they need to address some of the issues around transformation, leadership, governance and sport development - anything else is a sideshow. We are taking this view because we understand that there is difficulty and some organisational decisions require the ability to integrate diverse facts, ideas, issues and connections to solve problems sensitively.
We believe that we should take full advantage of new opportunities which the South African government provides, using them as a springboard to reignite nation building through the use of sport as an effective mechanism. Sport and recreation should be viewed as one of the pillars of the national democratic society we seek to build. All of us must view sport as a contribution to the national democratic society that we need to build.
Hon Chairperson, I think, without formalising my opinion on this one, that there is a need to place a premium on legislative amendments which I believe the department may want to consider in future in regard to strengthening our sport Act.
In that process there may be a need to persuade each other to consider the following: the insertion of a clause that will compel local authorities to have sport and recreation facilities or a sport desk in order to find ways to deal with the municipal infrastructure grant, MIG, funds; the persuasion of provincial sport councils and rugby unions to align their independent constitutions with the National Sport and Recreation Amendment Act, Act 18 of 2007; and, what is going to be critical, the insertion of a clause that specifically grants-provides the ministerial powers to oversee major sponsorship transactions to avoid wealth maximisation through sponsorship commission at the expense of broad sport development, and this must not be labelled as, or confused with, interference in sport.
All of us know what France is doing, hon Minister. The Minister there can intervene strategically and deal with the issue of sponsorship. France is a democratic country. I don't think it is a dictatorship! It is a democratic country. Therefore, as a result of that, Chair, I think we should be able to address this issue seriously. We hope all the sport federations will assist us to address some of these matters. It is a critical issue, Chair.
I am preparing to bring my speech to a close, hon Chairperson, as you are touching your microphone! [Laughter.] We wish to take this opportunity to wish the SA Olympic team well in the upcoming games in London, hoping that they will make the nation proud and bring back all the medals we expect, unlike before. We wish them well.
Hon Chairperson, I would like to express my thanks and deep gratitude to the Minister and Deputy Minister of the department for making themselves available to appear before the committee and share with us their strategic plan and strategic thinking in taking sport forward in our country. Thank you very much. [Time expired.] [Applause.]