Chairperson, hon members, hon Minister and Deputy Minister - Deputy Minister, welcome home after being stuck in Europe due to a volcano cloud - today, we are talking about working together towards sports excellence. Hon Minister, you raised an important point when you were talking about the "six-pack". I want to raise this before I start.
The people of this country who are going to watch the six African countries that qualified for the World Cup do not even know who is leading those teams. I think the SABC must turn that around by saying that the World Cup is going to be in Africa and these six African countries have qualified for it, rather than showing us other things that may be good but not related to the development of sport in the country. Our people would like to know the background of those six African teams. At least our people must say, "We hope that one of the African teams will end somewhere in the quarterfinals of the World Cup."
The department has six programmes. All of them are critical and fundamental to transformation. One of these programmes is the 2010 Fifa World Cup, which is programme number six. It is going to be taken out of the department's budget from June 2010. Therefore, the budget for the Department of Sport and Recreation is going to go down tremendously after the World Cup. Although we are boasting about the budget, it was increased merely because of the work for the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
It is fitting and appropriate that the department's strategy of participation in sport and recreation aims to improve social cohesion, nation-building and the quality of life of all, while sports transformation should be interpreted to denote a rapid and fundamental change in the relations, systems and partners in respect of ownership and control of and participation in sport.
So, the objective of the strategy is social cohesion, nation-building and development. Taking our national background into account, it will not be correct for us to say where we come from and not engage in talk about that past. No matter how painful it is, we must talk about that past because we are a country and a people who are destined not to make that mistake again.
All anticolonial struggles are about two things: the repossession of the land and the restoration of the centrality of indigenous culture and social cohesion. To deepen one's appreciation of this statement, one has to look into the depth of the colonialist's use of sport to subdue and conquer populations. They used tribal, ethnic and colour subcultures to submerge that which cut across cultures and characterised all tribal or ethnic groups' ubuntu, or human solidarity, in the case of Africans.
The superprofiling of ethnic or tribal subcultures by colonialists was deliberately meant to create competition and conflict among them. Divide- and-rule tactics generally deepened the subjugation of ubuntu, the overarching way of life of our African people, which is integrally linked to social cohesion and nation-building.
Any attempt to restore ubuntu without a concomitant restoration of land and social cohesion is doomed to fail, because social cohesion is important for us to build a country and become one people. Social cohesion is a direct function of the restoration of land and indigenous culture. It is not just about allegiance to the national symbol, national anthem and the flag - although they are very important.
Social cohesion is built around a people's culture. In this country, as a multicultural society, social cohesion means we stay and play side by side as a people. Despite cultural apartheid strategies and differences, members of a community share the same values and same taboos. They tend to use those values and taboos to develop the hybrid or subculture which combines them. Such people stay together.
Colonialism and apartheid brutalised black people, turning them into hostages to perennial hunger, related diseases and social strife. Sport transformation, rural development and land reform must be catalysts of the ANC government in its mission to reverse that situation. Colonialism was inflicted on black people for centuries, and it is going to take quite a while to address, but it will be done.
Hon Minister, regarding the wrong spatial planning, I heard you talking about schools today. However, as members of the portfolio committee we are saying that we have looked around. Ninety per cent of black schools do not even have a yard for those children to be able to play in, whereas 90% of white schools have a yard and everything for children to play.
How do you hope to build social cohesion with, on the one hand, a community that has nothing and one that has abundance, on the other? We are saying to that community, because you have abundance, stretch out your hand so that we can build this country together and transform it. [Applause.]
A hundred years ago, on 31 May 1910, after the bloody South African War, the Union of South Africa was formed as a white man's country, where the black majority was deliberately excluded, denied universal franchise and denied being able to play side by side with their counterparts in a simple thing called a game.
The Union finally formalised political unity between the British and the Boers, and that constituted a white political establishment. For more than a century, South Africa was to remain a white man's country, where race was to play a decisive role and where the diversity of South Africans became a source of pain. Their division was caused by colonialism and the Union of 1910.
Our country has travelled a long journey to where we are today. We still carry with us the painful imprints of our past. Today, we are a nation and a people steadily committed to the RDP - a new future based on unity, equality and respect for each other's rights.
Truly, a democratic Republic of South Africa was born 16 years ago. Colonialism was entrenched in apartheid 101 years ago. What was done more than 101 years ago cannot be eradicated overnight - or in the 16 years of this government being in power. It is utterly impossible. It's not going to happen. It is a tall order, but the people of this country are united in saying that all of us, together, will be the South Africa that we can all be proud of.
The Department of Sport and Recreation, which has the honour of tabling its Budget Vote today, is part of that vision. We are determined that we will do all we can to affirm all our people's yearning to belong to a common nation, share a common identity and toil towards a common future.
We in the ANC remain resolute in our commitment never to allow sport to be used in a scheme to divide South Africans; even Stellenbosch will not succeed. We are part of that broad movement to affirm a common identity and citizenship of our people. The pace of transformation is very slow and our people are radically impatient out there. They are saying they don't see any movement.
I want to say it is time for us "lokuba sigalele amafutha, ngoba umonde wabantu uphelile." [to pull up our socks because people have lost patience.]
It has been a long time. Regarding the 2010 project that the hon Minister has just spoken about, I want to be honest with this House today and say that this project is one of the projects that has kept the sport and recreation committee together. I mean all parties.
Lying cold in bed in Port Elizabeth, on the verge of death, Donald Lee asked: "Hon Minister, is everything around the 2010 Soccer World Cup going well?" He knew that the project the country had invested in was extraordinary, one that cut across colour lines; one that unites our people. Donald, you are here today. We are doing this budget with you. [Applause.]
This project also involves the ID, the FF Plus, the DA and Cope. This time last year, Cope did not know what to say because they were fresh and didn't even understand what was going on with the budget. But today, they know what is going on and they have been through the process.
The ANC has embraced Cope, and the only battle we have in that committee is the battle of ideas. There is no vote there. If you can't win it with your brains, you are going to lose it. You can't get it.
Modula setulo, ke batla hore ke bontshe hore le IFP modulasetulo ... [Chairperson, I would like to show you that even the IFP ...]
... i-IFP ayizange yayithetha into engekho mthethweni, kodwa aba ndibachazayo ngaba bebeqhankqalaza bengayifuni le nto. Yiyo loo nto ndithetha ngabo. (Translation of isiXhosa paragraph follows.)
[... has never been out of order but those whom I have mentioned are the ones who were protesting against this. That is why I am talking about them.]
Ha mabala ana a bolo a ne a qala ho ahwa, ke nahana hore Portfolio Committee e ile ya fihla moo. E ne e le lepatlelo, ho sena motheo was lebala la bolo, ho se na letho. Empa kajeko tjena ha o fihla mono, re bua ka dibaka tse bitswang 'world class stadiums', mabala a hlwahlwa a bolo ya maoto.
Ke a hopola re ne re ile Durban, Port Elizabeth le Mbombela, re amohelwa ke hlathe e kana, e kgolo; ho se na tsela; ho sena motlakase; ho sena metsi. Ra ba ra re ho tla ba le lebala jwang moo mo ho se nang dintho tseno teng mono. Empa ke re kajeko tjena a ke o jakele Mbombela, o tle o bone hore o tla bonang! A ke o ye Port Elizabeth, mothating wa Nelson Mandela. O tsamaye o ye Thekong, o fihle o shebe hore na o tla bona eng. O tla bona "world class facilities from nowhere", meaho ya mameomo a hodimo ho feta afe kapa afe lefatsheng ka bophara.
Monghadi, nke ke ka etsa hore ke se ke ka bua ka taba ena. Ha naha ene e keteka matsatsi a lekgolo ho ya mohopeng ona wa papadi ya bolo ya lefatshe, re ile ra tsamaya le boraditaba ba ka bang lekgolo le mashome a mararo, 130. Danny Jordaan o ne a ke teng le yena moo, ke tsamaya ha mmoho le mongodi-kakaretso wa FIFA Monghadi Falcke.
Ho na le koranta ena eo o buang ka yona ya 'tabloid', ya mmomori, ya BBC, British Broadcasting Corporation. Baqolotsi ba yona ba ile mane Royal Bafokeng, hlatheng moo ho se nang letho, banka dinepe yaba ba di romela kwana ha bo bona mose. Ba di romella manyesemane, sehlopheng sena se tlang ho nka karolo mohopeng, se tlang ho fihlela sebakeng sena sa Royal Bafokeng. Ba re "bonang he, lehwatata la Afrika moo le tlileng ho dula teng!"
Ke batla ho o bolella hore ke ile ka bontshwa mongadi eno wa moqolotsi, hathwe mongahadi enwa wa BBC, ya romelang dinepe tse fosahetseng mose, ke yena enwa. Mme ra be re re ho yena a ke a etele mane "Sports Palace", paleising ya dipapadi, a ilo lekola hore na ho etsahala eng Rustenburg.
Maobane ho ne ho na le mokete kwana Kimberley, o ketekang matsatsi a mashome-hlano pele ho mohope. Ha re fihla teng, e ne e ka re mohope wa lefatshe o bapallwa hona teng. E seng le maobane feela, empa le beke pele re fihla moo ho ne ho le jwalo!
ANC e tshehetsa "budget" ena, leano lena la tshebediso ya ditjhelete. Ke a leboha. [Applause.] (Translation of Sesotho paragraphs follows.) [When soccer stadiums were built, I think the committee went there. There was just an open field, there was no soccer stadium; there was nothing. But today when you go there, we talk about world-class stadiums - beautiful stadiums for football.
I remember when we went to Durban, Port Elizabeth and Mbombela we were greeted by a huge veld. There were no roads; there was no electricity and there was no water. We even asked how there could be a sports field there when there were no amenities such as those that have been mentioned above. But I am saying today that you can go and visit Mbombela and see what you are going to find! Go to Port Elizabeth in the Nelson Mandela Municipality, and go to Durban and see what you will find there. You will see world-class facilities from nowhere, buildings of the highest standard unlike any other in the world.
Sir, I would never avoid talking about this issue. When the nation celebrated 100 days leading to the soccer World Cup, we went together with about 130 journalists. Danny Jordaan was also among them. I was travelling with the secretary-general of Fifa, Mr Falcke.
There is a tabloid newspaper that you are referring to from the British Broadcasting Corporation. Its reporters went to Royal Bafokeng - to an open veld with nothing. They took photos and sent them to their countries overseas. They sent them to England, a team that was also taking part in the competition and which was going to be based at this place in Royal Bafokeng. They said, "Look, this is the African desert where you will be staying!"
I want to tell you that I was shown that particular newspaper reporter, the reporter from the BBC, who is busy sending false photographs overseas. We then said to him we would like him to go and visit the "sports palace" and see what is happening in Rustenburg.
Yesterday there was a celebration in Kimberley to celebrate 50 days to go before the World Cup. When we got there, it was like the World Cup was taking place there. Not only was it like that yesterday, but even before we got there it was always like that!
The ANC supports this budget. Thank you. [Applause.]]