Minister of Sport and Recreation Budget speech & responses by DA and IFP

Briefing

20 May 2015

Minister of Sport and Recreation, Mr Fikile Mbalula, gave his Budget Vote Speech on 20 May 2015.

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TRANSFORMAITON and Development: Our main priority

Chairperson
Deputy Minister of Sport and Recreation, South Africa, Mr. G. Oosthuizen
The Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on sport and Recreation
MEC’s of sport from various provinces
The Director General, Mr. Alec Moemi
Honourable Members
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

Total budget at a glance

Honourable members, we return to this house this afternoon to present the ninth smallest budget allocation among all the 40 national departments, i.e. the budget allocation for the national department of Sport & Recreation in South Africa! In this particular occasion of 2015/2016, the total allocation for the Department stands at R988.5 million, having gone up only by R18, 1m from the previous year’s allocation of R970.4 million. This constitutes a 1. 87% budget growth from the previous year.

R628, 6 million of this budget has been allocated towards the provision of mass participation opportunities and recreation under the banner of our ACTIVE NATION programme. In practical terms, this means that 64% of our entire budget is channeled towards our development. This prioritization is not by coincidence or some miracle of nature. It is a deliberate and principled stance informed by our commitment that it is only through optimal investment towards development that we can truly achieve transformation in sport. A bird’s eye view of the rest of our budget allocation per programme is as follows:
a)    R628, 6 million to support the provision of mass participation opportunities in sport and recreation.
b)    R133, 2 million to develop and maintain an integrated support system to enhance the delivery of sport and recreation.
c)    R124, 8 million for provision of strategic leadership, management and support service to the department and the sector
d)    R92, 2 million to support the development of elite athletes.
e)    R9, 7 million towards the regulation and management of the provision of sport and recreation facilities

My colleague, Deputy Minister Gert Oosthuizen will later share with this honourable house our plans and allocation regarding Programme 1: Administration as well as other specific sub-programmes under various programme areas.

National Sport and Recreation Plan

It must be noted that this budget allocation will only fund smaller portion of the approved National Sport and Recreation Plan. In order to implement the National Sport & Recreation Plan in full, an estimated budget of R10 Billion, per annum is required over the next three years. Due to other competing priorities and pressures on our national treasury, there is currently no space for additional funding. We are however encouraged by the space and support which we continue to receive from our government to ensure sport and recreation thrives. We implore all potential partners, particularly the private sector to join hands with us in the implementation of the national sport and recreation plan.

Highlights of the Previous Year!

Today, we meet at the time when the nation mourns the untimely departure of our struggle stalwart, former MP, Ambassador and Mayor, Mme Ruth Segomotsi Mompati. As the Sport & Recreation Sector we dip our banners and salute this gallant fighter for her selfless contribution towards our democracy. As we do so, we remember also those from our own ranks who left us in recent times. We remember our recipient of Steve Tshwete Lifetime Achievement and Order of Ikhamanga in Gold, Dr Steve Kalamazoo Mokone. We remember also Joel Magolego, Senzo Meyiwa, Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, Phindile Mwelase, Tinus Linee, Shakes ‘Kasi Flavour’ Kungoane, John Shoez Moshoeu and others!

On the hand, we also meet at a time when love and peace is in the air as the football nation still celebrate the league title of Amakhozi a mahle. Congratulations Abafana bokuthula noxolo! Congratulations also to one of Mzansi’s most decorated and prolific defenders and Kaizer Chiefs Captain, Tefu Mashamaite for the multiple categories he won at the PSL awards. Tefu, you are truly a well-rounded footballer, a disciplined leader and a role-model to the multitudes of our young people out there!

We recognize and appreciate also the outstanding achievement of our cricket captain and the world’s best batsman AB de Villiers. We are inspired by the ever rising performance of our athletes as they smash records after record in local and international competition. The recent performance of Anaso Jobodwana who broke SA’s 200m record, the performance of Steven Mokoka who broke the SA’s 5000m record and the performance of Annemie Smith’s who improved her own SA record in women’s hammer throw, are testimony to the fact that our preparations for Rio 2016 Olympics are well on track!

As we set the scene and prepare to host the 10th edition of the South African Sport Awards, we are proud that we do so in the year when the reigning Sport Star of the Year is a woman, the prolific striker of Banyana Banyana, Portia Modise. Following an impeccable international career punctuated by unparalleled accomplishments, Portia has now announced her retirement. We congratulate her and reassure her of our continued support as our Sport Star! She has served us all and has served us well. More than 113 caps and 100 goals is not a child’s play. It is testimony of ultimate sacrifice and supreme dedication to national pride, Patriotism par excellence!

In this year, G-Sport Awards will also be celebrating 10th Anniversary. Over the years, G-Sport has dedicated itself to raise the profile of South African Women in Sport and most significantly, to encourage Corporate South Africa to back female athletes.

In his state of the nation address President Zuma urged all South Africans to rally behind our national teams. We would like to echo these words by the President and implore all South Africans to wear their national colors or team colors and root support our national teams in the sport battle field:
•         Team South Africa will participate in the Africa Games in Brazzaville, Congo on 4-19 September 2015,
•         The Protea Netball team will participate in the Netball World Cup in Sydney, Australia in August on 7-16 August 2015
•         The Springboks will participate in the IRB World Cup that takes place in England on 18 September – 31 October 2015.

We take this opportunity to also say, ‘Good luck’ to all the runners who will be taking part in the 90th Comrades Marathon on the 31 May. To all 23 000 participants, we say, ‘You have trained hard to make it to that starting line. Whether you arrive 11 am or 5pm at Pietermaritzburg, enjoy the race and cross that finish line with pride!

Emanating from our engagements with the public broadcaster, we have now ensured that boxing returns to our television screens and radio. Boxing is a popular sport with a deep rooted history, a history of triumph over adversity and a heritage that South Africa is proud of. The key idea in the delivery of boxing is to recognize amateur, professional and development boxing across both genders. The first tournament will be broadcasted on SABC 1 at the beginning of June 2015. This initiative will strengthen our boxing turn-around strategy due to increased visibility that will safeguard the return of the sponsors to the sport.

Further to our support to the sport of boxing, we have also set aside R10m towards development of amateur boxing this year. As a result, South African National Amateur Boxing (SANABO) will receive a once-off allocation as part of being chosen as the Federation of the Year. This move will assist to unearth talent that would increase the pool of young boxers, who can represent the country at international competitions such as the Olympic Games.

Our support towards the development of Basketball and Netball in South Africa is yielding serious results. The Netball Brutal Fruit League and the National Basketball League are growing in stature. Our wish is to see these leagues attracting more support so that one day, the athletes participating in them, can be fulltime professionals, who can go and represent our country at national level, without worrying about their time from the office. In this financial year, we shall step up our preparatory processes to introduce two more Premier leagues of Hockey and Volleyball. Announcements to this effect will be made in due course.

Transformation and development

Transformation in sport remains an emotive issue to which many people have attached various interpretations. Imposing quotas was seen as a way to speed-up the process but this has clearly not worked on a sustainable basis. Change has to take place from the ground up and that means it has to start at school and club level. We need to pay particular attention to issues of equity, equality, excellence, access, organizational culture and good corporate governance. The thread that remains integrally linked to all this, is Development. There can be no transformation without development. It is for that reason that our thematic approach to this budge statement is Transformation and Development.

In line with the National Sport and Recreation Plan, a pilot transformation audit was conducted on the big five national federations, namely rugby, cricket, football, netball and athletics and the results were published in 2014. Following this successful pilot, further National Federations were subjected to a transformation review to monitor progress and another transformation barometer was published in March 2015, detailing the findings of this review. The federations that were assessed include all those that are identified as the school sport priority federations. This, to ensure that as financial assistance is directed at them, they also reciprocate with a transformed participation environment and governance.

Because of the importance of transformation for the future of South African sport, this is an area on which we dare not fail. Internal capacity will be empowered during 2015/16 to assist National Federations to implement the Charter and to accurately complete the scorecard. Federations and sport bodies that fail to meet defined and stated targets will be named, and shamed and encouraged to meet these targets. We believe Federations should have key focus on school sport as a starting point towards the long journey of sustainable and transformed sporting codes.

Good Governance

Chairperson, we present this budget statement with renewed vigor and verve! This is because we do so against the backdrop of a ‘clean audit’ finding expressed by the Auditor General on our 2013/2014 Annual Report. To properly elucidate this point and contextualize our upbeat, we borrow an extract from an article of 20 September 2012 by the South African Institute for Chartered Accountants:

“Many people are familiar with the terms, “qualified” and “unqualified” opinions on audit. These refer to an opinion expressed by auditors on the financial statements of entities. Unlike private sector audits, the Auditor General’s audit scope is much broader. Besides the audit of (1) financial statements, it also covers reporting of (2) performance against predetermined objectives as well as, (3) compliance with laws and regulations. In the South African public sector audit context, an entity needs to be unqualified in all the audit areas mentioned above in order to obtain a clean audit.”

In this context the overall overarching understanding by the South African government and the Office of the Auditor General of South Africa, a clean audit means an unqualified audit opinion with no matters of emphasis.

School Sport

School Sport remains our only, viable and currently structured mechanism through which to truly address issues of development in sport. To that end, we are committed to maximize access to sport, recreation and physical activity in every school in South Africa. The third edition of the South African Schools Sport Championship staged in 10-15 December 2014 saw participants from provincial school teams taking part in 14 different sporting codes, including learners with disabilities. This National Championship has increased opportunities for learners from all schools to participate in an integrated national multi-coded sport event. More than 11 205 participants took part in the 14 sporting codes which formed part of this National Championship. Most of these learners are mostly from previously disadvantaged communities where they had very little or even no opportunities to participate in sport.

Of course, the success of our school sport programme requires well-oiled, motivated and capacitated machinery. By end 2014/2015, we trained 2 770 educators throughout the provinces utilizing the Mass Participation Conditional Grant. These educators together with the 254 school sport coordinators we have employed through the Conditional Grant Allocation will serve as force multipliers for school sport implementation. A total of 726 schools have also been allocated sport equipment and attire as part of our rolling intervention to capacitate a specific number of schools on annual basis.

As part of the many exit opportunities from the School Sport programme, Ministerial Sports Bursary is provided to selected learners from Grade 8 until they complete their high school education. New recruits were identified during the 2014 national school sport championship to join those already on the programme. At the moment the department has already exceded its target of 40 athletes supported each year at an amount of up to One Hundred Thousand Rands per learner.

We will also partner with SASCOC on the rollout of the talent tracking system and ensure that the athletes who succeed at a national competition level are supported to develop into elite athletes. As SASCOC is the implementation agency in this area, the role of government is to ensure that systems are in place from a district to a provincial level to ensure a flow of talent to the national level.

Club Development

A network of club structures integrated into provincial and national sport structures spanning urban and rural areas across the country forms the basis of sports provision in any sport system. There can be no viable and accessible community sport without well run and accessible club systems. In the previous financial year, we piloted the new club franchise model in KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo.

Through the club development allocation of the Mass Participation Grant, over 578 clubs received support in the form of equipment and attire while more than 106 clubs received support in terms of staging tournaments and leagues. Over 3 410 Individuals from different sporting codes were trained on club development in sport-specific areas such as technical officiating, administration and coaching. In this financial year we shall continue to consolidate this process and use the new club system as a change agent for transformation and development.

Community Sport

Through our various sport promotion campaigns and events that were implemented in the 2014/2015 financial year, more than 30 000 had access to sport and recreation. In this financial year, we have set aside R54, 3m to consolidate and strengthen our key community sport progrmmes like Youth Camps, The Big Walk, Golden Games, Andew Mlangeni Golf Development Programme.

WINNING NATION

National Training Centre

Working with SASCOC, the Free State Provincial Government and through contributions from all provincial departments of Sport & Recreation, we have set aside an amount of R26m per annum over the MTEF period to strengthen the National Training Centre based in the Free State Sport Science Institute. This National Training Centre is an Olympic preparatory centre for team South Africa and one of the three components of the National Academy System for elite and high performance sport. It prepares National teams and athletes with regard to scientific, medical and sport specific support. Once finalized, the National Training Centre will be a major game changer in our elite athletes support interventions.

Recognition and Honouring Events

Vision 2030 as articulated in the NSRP places responsibility on South African athletes and sports administrators to strive for excellence at all ethical costs and attain dominance and supremacy in whatever platforms they perform and compete at. To complement these pockets of excellence and stimulate a culture of optimum achievement, the department will still continue with its various ‘recognition and reward’ programmes. Key among these will be the introduction of the Sport Hall of Fame and Museum, which we have already committed to open in this current financial year. This year will further witness a special edition of the SA Sport Awards as we celebrate the tenth anniversary of this programme and retrace the impact which this proramme has done over years.

SPORT SUPPORT

In the Sport Support Services the spending focus in the medium term for Sport and Recreation Service Providers is to provide financial and non-financial support to 68 recognized sport and recreation bodies. This will come at a cost of R126.1m which increases to R138.7m in the 2017/18 final year. R107m of this allocation is for transfers to National Federations. Going forward, the allocation to the federations will be linked to their implementation of the Transformation scorecard and compliance with their transformation targets. As we indicated before, we cannot continue to render lip service to this issue of transformation. It must therefore constitute an integral part of our business process and organizational practice.

PUBLIC ENTITIES

The South African Institute for Drug-Free Sport (SAIDS) continues to show improvement in their work. During the MTEF, the entity’s funding will increase from R19.8m in 2015/16 to R23.0m by 2017/18. Special assistance and support will also be given to the South African Drug testing laboratory based at the University of Free State to meet the obligations of the new anti-doping code. This support is necessary as this is the only accredited laboratory on the entire African continent.

Efforts to assist Boxing South Africa in its turn-around strategy and also to implement all the resolutions of the 2013 Boxing Indaba are currently ongoing and bearing fruit. Boxing South Africa plans to host 22 international tournaments in the country in 2015/16, which will not only improve the visibility of the sport domestically and internationally, but will also increase its popularity with all the relevant stakeholders, including athletes, supporters and sponsors.

INFRASTRUCTURE SUPPORT / FACILITIES

One of the worst impediments to sport participation, particularly in our previously disadvantaged communities is the issue of sport facilities. In giving true expression to our commitment to development, we will continue to prioritize the issue of ensuring access to facilities for our communities and schools. Our focus will be on facilitation for the building of 380 facilities by 2019 in line with the National Facilities Plan. We have allocated an amount of R5.1m. We have also allocated at amount of R2, 4m towards Technical and Management support aimed at ensuring that facilities for sport and recreation are delivered according to established norms and standards.

We will continue to monitor the use of the 15 percent of the p-value of the Municipal Infrastructure Grant that is ring-fenced for the building of sport and recreation facilities to ensure that it is aligned with national infrastructure priorities. We will also continue to develop and/or refurbish children’s play parks by facilitating discussions between the relevant municipalities and organizations wishing to invest in corporate social investments. This proved to be very successful in 2014. SRSA will collaborate with the Department of Environmental Affairs who will assist with the greening and beautification of the public open spaces and the accompanying recreation facilities.

African Union Sport Council

The department continues to play an active role in multilateral and bilateral sport platforms, particularly in Region 5 of the African Union Sports Council. Our work through the region and the rest of the continent remains an indispensable instrument through which we can unite the continent and use sport to undermine discrimination in all its varied forms. As the sport and recreation sector we were saddened by the recent acts of Xenophobia and Afrophobia. Such tendencies have no space in the sport sector.

We condemn in the strongest terms any form of violence against other nationals. We will for this purpose, table a special resolution at the Committee of African Ministers of Sport (CAMS) to consider dedicating the African Games to the promotion of a continental campaign against Xenophobia and the promotion of African brotherhood and fraternity. Our clarion call in this regard remains one that says:”There is no place for any form of discrimination or racism in sport. We are AFRICA!”

Appreciation

I wish to thank the Portfolio Committee of Sport and Recreation for their oversight, support and leadership; the Deputy Minister, Mr. Gert Oosthuizen for being his sterling support at all times, our Director-General, Mr. Alec Moemi and his administrative team for their commitment and passion.

Our appreciation also goes to our public entities SAIDS, and Boxing SA; loveLife; the Sports Trust; SASCOC, and all the sport and recreation bodies that we work with, for their continued cooperation and support.

We thank you!