Chairperson, Minister of Sport and Recreation, MECs, members of the Council, ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to address you today, and I am thankful for this opportunity.
The vision of my department is one of a social, cohesive, active and creative Western Cape. There are many factors which mitigate against us achieving this vision, but there are many factors which assist us. Today, I want to talk about some of the progress we have made in this regard.
Social cohesion is a measure of the extent to which people live together harmoniously, feel a sense of belonging and ownership as citizens and participate in the civic and social life of their communities.
As practitioners of sport and recreation, it is our challenge to try meeting these conditions and make our people feel that they are meaningful contributors to our society.
Research suggests that the advent of technology, the high penetration rate of television and other electronic communications forms and a worldwide emphasis on high-performance sports have all contributed to a shift by citizens of the Western Cape from being active participants in sport and recreation to being consumers of sport and recreation.
The decline in the economy has also impacted on the ability of citizens to participate in sport and recreational activities. In addition, a decreased emphasis on school sport, a lack of adequate opportunities to engage in sport, the advent of professional sport and the crowding out of amateur sport have all conspired to making our task even more challenging.
These factors have resulted in the decline of participation rates in the fields of sport and recreation. The socioeconomic implications of these shifts are important since it means that more effort and more emphasis has to be put into improving healthy lifestyles whilst at the same time involving youth in social life, including sports and recreational activities.
The challenge for the government is to build a socially cohesive Western Cape community by creating opportunities for all to unite and fully participate in society at large. Sport is a tool that can be used to assist in building this united and cohesive Western Cape community.
We have determined the following main indicators for measuring progress made by the Department of cultural affairs and sport, DCAS, in providing opportunities for social cohesion: the increase in the number of participants in sport and recreation; the increase in the number of beneficiaries of the services of DCAS; and the increase in the number of learners participating in school sport. We have a plan to achieve these outcomes. I want to share some of them with you today.
We believe that excellence in sport and culture arises where talent meets opportunity and is nurtured, supported and sustained. We believe that talent is evenly spread across all communities, but that opportunities, facilities, structures and support are unevenly distributed. We know that our past inequalities and resource allocation live on in our current circumstances, and that these inequalities limit our talent pool dramatically. Therefore, we commit ourselves to creating conditions for talent to emerge from across all communities in an equitable manner and to be nurtured and supported so that excellence can flourish.
According to the current statistical analysis, 36,1% of the population of the Western Cape can be classified as youths. It is this area of the population that needs to be targeted to ensure a healthy lifestyle, social cohesion and the building of a responsible society which is productive, active, goal-directed and has a sense of belonging.
Therefore, the nucleus of our efforts will be engaging the youth in meaningful sport and cultural activities. The DCAS has developed an idiomatic saying, "A child in sport is a child out of court" - and I noted yesterday that the Northern Cape is following us!
Whilst we believe that our first objective should be to get our people to participate in sport, be it as athletes, coaches or administrators, we also believe that having our youth involved in some kind of meaningful activity will give direction to their lives, whether such activity is physical or not.
This view has seen us also engage in strategic activities which boost our spectator numbers in sports: the promotion of fan clubs and fan support; making provision for nonphysical sport and recreational games, for example mind games, war games, board games, etc. In particular, we will use the following programmes, projects and activities to help us achieve more outcomes and achieve social cohesion.
With regard to sport development, we will use the Siyadlala programme; the Mass participation programme, MPP; Club Development Sport and Recreation 2010; the Social Legacy programme; and school sport.
With regard to events, we will use sports event to ensure demographic, regional and language integration and to build a shared appreciation for the things that bind us together as a nation and as a society.
In combating substance abuse, we will utilise school sport and sport programmes to raise awareness of the dangers of substance abuse, messaging around social inclusion.
I want to take this opportunity to thank Minister Stofile and his department for the R40 million funding which was made available via the sport conditional grant. We could not have executed these programmes to the extent that we have without that assistance. We thank you, Reverend.
The 2010 Fifa World Cup is a mere 21 days away, and the Western Cape is working hard to ensure that all our citizens do touch the World Cup. We are aware that eight games will take place at the Cape Town Stadium. People from the City of Cape Town will view these events either from inside the stadium, at the fan fest at the Grand Parade or from four other public viewing areas dotted around the metro.
Our focus as a province has been on the peri-urban and rural areas and consequently we have provided five public viewing areas, one in each district of our province. In the Western Cape, we call them "fan jols". These are places where our people can watch soccer, have a good time and feel the spirit of the World Cup. These five fan jols will be held in the towns of George, Beaufort West, Worcester, Bredasdorp and Vredenburg.
We will use our local football ambassadors to entertain and teach kids the skills of football during these fan jols. Our province will also display and host three teams, namely Japan, Denmark and France, who have chosen to base themselves in the Eden district of our province.
If you manage to visit this area, you can feel the excitement of the World Cup with flags, street banners, vuvuzelas and kuduzelas being the order of the day.
My department has entered into a partnership with the South African Football Association, Safa, and the Dutch coaching programme called "Stars in their Eyes". This programme has trained 40 coaches and they have ploughed what they have learnt back into the sport of football.
My department also ran volunteer training, referee, and sport administration courses, all of which have seen the sport of football being put on the map. These activities have built, and continue to build, sport and football as well as developing our young people in general, and deepening democracy in particular.
More importantly, all of these actions and activities have assisted our people to touch the World Cup, and will help us to achieve our vision of a socially cohesive, active and creative Western Cape. I am confident that with your assistance and our effort, we will bear fruits.
In conclusion, I want to take this opportunity to wish our team, Bafana Bafana, all the best for this Cup. The nation's hope, dreams and aspirations are riding on them. May they achieve the highest possible success. Qala, gqiba qhubeka [Start, finish and keep going]. I thank you. [Applause.]