Thank you, Chairperson. We do acknowledge that we are coming out of a campaign where people were misled, so we accept that we are a bit off track here.
The Minister alluded to the fact that this was the first Budget Vote from our department after successfully hosting the 2010 Fifa World Cup. I have no doubt that our successful hosting of the 2010 Fifa World Cup changed the thinking of many South Africans regarding the normal social and economic values for sport in our country.
There is no doubt that the World Cup has changed South Africa's international profile, affirmed its potential and manifested our capacity to host world-class events. In terms of nation-building, social cohesion and leaving a legacy, no other event has ever or could come close to this one. The event has proven once again that sport is big business, making substantial contributions to the national GDP.
Our department fulfilled its mandate by monitoring the construction of stadia to ensure that they complied with Fifa standards and ensuring that the deadlines were met. Further, we facilitated the training of volunteers and mobilised South Africans and African support. Another key area of responsibility of the department was to oversee the delivery of the 17 guarantees signed by government departments with Fifa. This was done successfully, and all 24 projects emanating from the guarantees are now part of our proud legacy. In fact, we claim that the ANC government did deliver timeously for our people.
The challenge now is to take the 2010 Fifa World Cup experience forward, to invest in this experience for the future of the children of our country. The tournament has ended but the legacy must live on and inspire us, and it must inspire the way we work. After the 2010 Fifa World Cup there has been increasing interest in the potential contribution of sport to inward investment in the economic regeneration in communities in our cities and our regions.
Globally, more and more policy-makers realise that sport and recreation are more than fun and games. World leaders increasingly acknowledge that sport and recreation touch on virtually every aspect of a nation's ethos. If the department in the country does not embrace the potential benefits of sport and recreation for the entire nation, we will do an injustice to every South African.
To fully benefit from the social and economic opportunities of sport, it is essential to have an integrated sports system in place that is effectively co-ordinated, aligned, functional and performance oriented. Our department's publication, A Case for Sport, our recently updated White Paper, the Road Map to Optimal Performance and Functional Excellence, our five-year strategic plan and the envisaged National Sport and Recreation Plan will pave the way for such a sports system.
The department successfully completed the development of our strategic plan and road map. As the next step, we have started the process of developing a National Sport and Recreation Plan - the first ever in the history of our country. This plan will be developed in wide consultation with all relevant role-players. In order to have a national impact, it is important that all sporting entities in the country align their strategic planning with a national framework. The success of sports development in South Africa is dependent on the smooth operation of the system, with clear definition of authority, responsibility and accountability, combined with seamless progression. There must be one driver in one direction, which must be consistent with government policy.
Underpinned by the White Paper and the road map, the National Sport and Recreation Plan will address the key strategic issues that can take South African sport to the next level. The Draft National Sport and Recreation Plan will be discussed at nine provincial izindaba, scheduled for 16 July 2011. We envisage having feedback from the provincial izindaba on our website, which we will evaluate and use to update the National Sport and Recreation Plan accordingly.
One of the key components of the National Sport and Recreation Plan will be the finalisation of a transformation charter and a scorecard. After 17 years, sport's efforts to transform have been largely unsuccessful. In its attempts to transform and reinvent itself, the concept of transformation and the motivations for and against the need for transformation, have been oversimplified, were often emotional, not clear and sometimes totally misunderstood.
This has led to confusion and, at times, confrontational situations between different stakeholder groupings, which spilled over into the public domain, with damaging consequences to sport's image and our reputation. A greater sense of urgency and proactive and co-ordinated engagement with the problem is long overdue. The transformation charter and the scorecard have been developed and will be finalised against the policy framework of government with regard to transformation. Without a level playing field such as access, opportunity and support, transformation cannot be realised.
I am sorry that the MEC of the Western Cape has left us now, because he was boasting about a CD here. It is not about what we have, it is about the need in the areas and communities where we don't have. [Applause.] That is what we want to see. We do not want people coming here to tell us what we have. We know what we have. We can access that with Google; we do not need a CD. We all have computers, and we can even do that through cellphones these days. [Applause.] What we want to see here is where they don't have it in the poor communities that are deprived. That is what we want to see. [Applause.]
At the heart of the transformation charter is the prerequisite to ensure that the playing field is level. As a department, we are committed to correcting this and to ensuring that our national teams are representative of the total South African population. To have a real and lasting impact on our nation, we cannot compete with the exclusion of certain parts of our population. With true transformation, as a country, South Africa could become an even greater force in the world of sport, as more people will have an opportunity to compete and to excel.
To implement, manage and monitor sports transformation, a multidimensional transformation performance scorecard will be used. The scorecard will enable the sports system to measure where it is in its transformation journey and whether it is improving. It is intended to reflect a balanced and timely view of sports performance in implementing transformation strategies in each of the proposed dimensions. It will also guide us as to where we must use our budget to intervene and to interfere, if we have to, to ensure that we have a catch-up strategy to bring our children to the same starting line.
At our strategic workshop earlier this year the department resolved to finalise a transformation audit in order to get a clear picture of transformation progress, and this includes facilities; drafting a transformation charter with clear deliverables; developing a transformation perspective, informed by the transformation charter, that will incorporate transformation action plans, progress and service level agreements; and reconfiguring the institutional budgetary mechanisms to achieve transformation priorities.
The first drafts of the National Sport and Recreation Plan, our transformation charter and scorecard are completed. We will now embark, in partnership with our provinces, on an extensive and inclusive consultation process. We are on track to finalise a National Sport Plan as well as a transformation charter at the National Sport and Recreation Indaba towards the end of this year. We are planning to have this in the last part of August this year. If we cannot make that, hopefully it will then be in the first week of September. The envisaged theme of this indaba is "From policy to practice" and the tagline we are popularising is "More than just playing".
Without a co-ordinated, integrated and aligned sports system within which all component parts are focused towards a common set of goals and objectives, the potential value of sport to the South African society cannot be fully realised. All sectors must buy in and commit to the strategic direction that will emerge from the widely consultative sports plan emerging from the sport indaba. To this end, the responsibilities of all role-players in this process are substantial. It is therefore clear that success will never be adequately realised without formidable partnerships in place.
Furthermore, it is important to recognise that sport on its own cannot fulfil all the sport development needs in this country. The aim is to establish strategic alliances, ensuring the appropriate co-ordination and alignment of programmes, structures, strategies and, more importantly, of our funding. To this end, our department will liaise with other government departments and sectors, corporate and private, to ensure that we have optimal performance from optimal use of every rand spent in sport.
Finally, I am happy to report that in cognisance of the audit findings of our 2009-10 annual report, we have tightened our internal control systems to ensure optimum and impeccable accountability, underpinned by our commitment to good corporate governance.
Now, it is quite fair for hon members to engage here in private discussion. However, if an hon member, like the hon Faber, accuses us of not having shared with them the financial statements of the department, and accuses me wrongly of misleading this august Council, then, when I quote to him that we had a good audit report, he should listen, not engage with his partner.
We shall not rest until we can present to you a report that is not only unqualified, but completely clean. As we present this Budget Vote we are proud to intimate that this year we will be reporting expenditure in excess of 99% of our allocated budget. It is therefore clear that as a department, under the leadership of Mr Fikile Mbalula, we are on the march to maximise the potential of sport and recreation in South Africa. My invitation to you - not only to members of this august House and our MECs in the provinces but also to the guests in the gallery - is to come with us. We are on the road to unlocking and unearthing all the potential of sport in this great country. I thank you. [Applause.]