Hon Chairperson, sports and recreation is a vital, key component of any balanced, healthy and prosperous society. The departmental vision of creating "An Active and Winning Nation", with its primary and core focus the providing of opportunities for all South Africans to participate in sport, must be supported and commended.
The challenges, however, necessarily remain ones of budget - efficient roll- out, oversight, management, maintenance and upkeep. Our townships and rural communities are abound with raw talent. There are youngsters who, with the proper training and motivation, could easily compete amongst the world's best. What are we doing to identify and harness this talent pool?
Minister, we agree that school sport is very important, as that is where young men and women are moulded.
There has not been a visible improvement in sporting infrastructure or opportunities in the rural areas. For example, despite so many high profile events that we have hosted, the facilities and equipment available in these areas are still not up to standard.
Whilst we acknowledge the hard work that has been done and the dedication shown by sporting administrators in staging these events, we believe that they have ignored the social aspect. Their social upliftment programmes seem to be limited to short visits by sports teams to underprivileged areas. But this sometimes comes across as an exercise in public relations, since nothing much seems to happen when the cameras are turned off and the media disappear. This is clearly not enough. Partnerships and links with visiting teams, officials and organisations need to be built and maintained. When these events are over, the media attention subsides, and the masses leave our shores, the momentum created by these events must be maintained and used to develop sport in our country, especially in underprivileged areas.
These social implications must also be taken into consideration when deciding on rewarding people with bonuses. Bonuses that administrators and officials receive for successfully hosting an event should be linked to the respective event's success in promoting and assisting sport in the country, including at grass-roots level and in the disadvantaged areas. Hopefully this will serve as an incentive, and speed up the delivery of sporting infrastructure and equipment to rural areas.
We have shown that we have a world-class sporting infrastructure, as well as the expertise to host any event, and this has made our country a popular sporting destination. Some of the past events that we have successfully hosted include the Rugby, Cricket and Football World Cups. These events, and especially the 2010 Fifa World Cup, have raised the profile of our country. The department and the various sports administrators must be commended for this.
A South African national team remains a sporting ambassador, no matter which sport they play. They all deserve equal promotion, coverage and recognition from the department and our country regarding their achievements.
Our disabled sportsmen and women are a credit to the will of the South African people, and are representative of the will that has made this great country what it is today. We can all learn from the example they set and should support them in any way we can.
Transformation initiatives must be supported. Transformation begins with equal access to sporting facilities, and this is one of the single greatest challenges that the department faces today. Promoting sport, sporting events, raising awareness, and providing our youth with healthy alternatives to an idle lifestyle are what the core mandate of this department is. Let us therefore concentrate on making the greatest impact with the limited budget that we have available. The IFP supports the Budget Vote. Thank you. [Applause.]