Sports and Recreation Portfolio Committee Five-year Review and Legacy Reports

Sport, Arts and Culture

06 July 2009
Chairperson: Mr B M Khomphela (ANC)
Share this page:

Meeting Summary

The Legacy Report focused on the work completed by the Committee of the Third Parliament: the legislation that was enacted as well as those entities that reported to the Committee. The policy issues that were presented were transformation as well as the constitution of the Federations, and the fact that Boxing South Africa was treated differently from the other entities was a contentious issue. Transformation was labeled as a constitutionally imperative policy. School sports was also driving the agenda of the Committee. In the Five Year Review Report, the recurrent disclaimers by the Auditor General was noted as a problem.

Meeting report

Committee Programme
The Chairperson informed the Committee that a programme would be drafted by the Committee and school sports, a very thorny issue, would be discussed. The Chairperson commented that the Committee would meet with the National Department of Education, those individuals who were dealing with school sports and thereafter the provinces. The procedure to be followed would be to split the Committee into two groups, whereby one Committee would engage the Free State, North West, Mpumalanga and Limpopo and the other group would travel to the Eastern Cape, Western Cape and the Northern Cape so that all nine provinces would have been contacted on the issue of school sports. The Chairperson informed members that they could raise any critical matters that needed to be discussed.

Mr Z Luyenge (ANC) agreed with the Chairperson about school sports and noted that the Deputy President of South Africa as well as the Ministers of Sports and Recreation and Education had wanted to use sports legends to promote sports in schools. He suggested that when the visits to the provinces were to be conducted they must look at what the provinces would be doing.

The Chairperson said that when the Committee dealt with school sports, there would be consultations with large sectors of people in schools, those not in schools and those who wanted to volunteer in school sports. He emphasised that involvement in school sports should predominantly remain with teachers.

Mr L Suka (ANC) asked about the impact of the looming strike by workers on the World Cup 2010 Stadiums.

The Chairperson responded that the Committee was usually hands on when it came to such matters. The responsibility of the Committee was to ensure that the World Cup benefit not only a few and the programme would be inclusive of the invitation of the LOC (Local Organising Committee) Board to give a report on the Confederations Cup and any shortcomings and what role Parliament had to play in conveying to government World Cup 2010 issues that still needed to be dealt with. The programme was a working document that was to serve as framework to guide the Committee.

Committee Legacy Report presentation
The Chairperson informed the Committee that the Five Year Review would be noted and accepted as opposed to an adoption which was a completely different matter.

The Committee Secretary, Mr L Phori, outlined the content of the Legacy Report which outlined the work of the Committee over the past five years. He noted the legislation passed by the Committee, entities and Sports Federations that reported to the Minister of Sports and Recreation as thus to this Committee, as well as policy issues that drove the programme of the Committee with regards to transformation of sports in the country. The other sub-issues would be the position of the Committee on national emblems for all sports federations and the resolutions of the Durban Sports Indaba 2008. The National Sports and Recreation Amendment Act of 2007 provided for establishment of a single sports administrative body for South African sports federations; the
South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) was the key player in this regard as a confederation since most sports clubs were affiliated with it. The 2010 FIFA World Cup Special Measures Bill aimed at the promotion of sustainable sources of income for poverty stricken rural areas and to enable the Department of Sports and Recreation to process land tenure in these communities. The South African Institute for Drug Free Sport Amendment Bill sought to amend the original legislation which was the South African Institute for Drug Free Sports Amendment Act. The amendment was meant to align the legislation with the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) as well as to provide powers for the Drug Free Institute regarding matters that were contained in the World Anti-Doping Code. The Safety at Sports and Recreation Bill of 2009 was a Joint Rule 159 Bill referred to the Committee by the Minister of Sports and Recreation. The legislation deals with issues of safety at sports and recreation events.

He continued that Boxing South Africa (BSA) was a statutory body that administered amateur and professional boxing, fights, coaches and trainers in boxing. The Boxing Act governed the administration of boxing by BSA which reported to the Committee annually because the Committee appropriated funds to it. The South African Institute for Drug Free Sport was a creature of statute and also accounted to the Committee. SASCOC, South African Rugby Union (SARU) and Cricket SA (CSA) occasionally came before the Committee but there was no piece of legislation that compelled them to do so. However they did receive some form of funding from the government from time to time.

Transformation was critical and was constitutionally imperative. Transformation should be driven by sports federations, administrators and the Committee was there to ensure that that policy was complied with and reflected in the programmes and projects of all the sports fraternities. Mr Phori said that transformation was relevant to the sports emblem which was the King Protea. Transformation of the federations needed to happen for example SARU and SASCOC. Part of transformation was the recognition of people with disabilities, women and children in sports. A further issue that drove the Committee was that of school sports. The National Lottery was mainly created to ensure that there was funding for sports and recreation, unfortunately it fell within the ambit of the Department of Trade and Industry.

Discussion
The Chairperson thanked Mr Phori for a good, well researched and systematically organised document. Some minor corrections were requested. The Chairperson noted that, with regards to the National Sports and Recreation Act, one of the key elements was the regulation of the inflow of people who would be coming to work in the country within the sporting codes so as to align this with the Immigration Act 13 of 2002. He requested that note of the regulations must also be included in the document.

Mr T Lee (DA) strongly felt that the Lottery issue should be properly included in the Report because it was the avenue for assisting the poor and it was created for that purpose. In order for the Committee to achieve some of its objectives, it needed to interact with the Lottery Board to ensure that it made money available to the federations. He stressed that the Lottery was a big issue as it sat with billions of Rands and the federations kept begging the Committee for more funds.

Mr Z Luyenge (ANC), addressing the issues in the Legacy Report, requested co-operation from the Department of Sports and Recreation as well as the Federations regarding transformation and especially the structural arrangement of the South African Football Association (SAFA) which was not in line with government aspirations.

The Chairperson agreed that the Federations were not structured properly, for example, SARU had a plethora of presidents when only Oregon Hoskins was in fact the president. The government policy of non-interference but policy direction would be adopted by the Committee.

Mr Frolick noted the SAFA matter as raised by Mr Z Luyenge and said that such issues would inform the programme of the Committee. Some of the other issues had to be dealt with because despite these issues having being touched on in the first five years, a conclusion had not been reached on them.

Mr L Soka (ANC) asked why the Department of Sports and Recreation treated BSA differently to the other entities?

The Chairperson replied that BSA was funded by the government. In addition, the Auditor General had commented that it had no management, no respect for the law and therefore it needed to be given priority. In addition, BSA was not a Section 21 Company (Companies Act) and thus was part and parcel of the government. Those federations which had received money from the government either directly or indirectly, e.g. through the lottery, were accountable to the Committee which had a responsibility over them.

Mr Frolick added to the Chairperson’s response and said that in the report it stated that the BSA was established according to the Boxing and Wrestling Control Act 39 of 1954 therefore since 1954 it was a public entity that had been reporting to government. He requested that Mr Phori should conduct some research into why this was the case for BSA.

Mr T Lee addressed Mr Frolick’s enquiry by saying that the Act establishing BSA was created because boxers and promoters were being exploited.

Mr Frolick said that the Committee needed to decide if BSA was achieving its objectives because boxers and promoters were still being exploited and the legislation needed to be looked at carefully.

The Chairperson said that the Act has assisted boxers because some had managed to build their own houses as opposed to artists who were complaining to the Department of Arts and Culture. The intended outcome of the Committee’s intentions needed to be looked at again.

Mr Frolick said that BSA was heavily involved in the provinces and municipalities which provided funding. He asked what purpose would disbanding the board of BSA serve. The Committee had to look at the real state of BSA and how the Committee could observe its day to day operations and provide meaningful ways of strengthening the board.

Mr L Soka (ANC) asked if the document was a White Paper document from 2004 or 2005.

The Chairperson said that the document was never adopted and hence it was dated 2004, 2005.

Mr Frolick further commented that the first White Paper appeared in the nineties. The Department had to still report on how far it was with the White Paper.

Committee Five Year Review presentation
Mr M Mdakane, Committee Researcher, said that he was still awaiting feedback on the composition of BSA in terms of the 1954 Act. He mentioned that major sports events contributed to the economy as well as to the benefit of informal traders. The budget priorities of the Department of Sports and Recreation were to increase the participation of South Africans in sports as well as availability of facilities. R2.9 billion was allocated to the Department for the 2009/10 financial period. There had been a slight decrease in funds; budget trends showed an increase in expenditure however.

The Chairperson interjected that Mr Mdakane mentioned that there was a decrease in the budget allocated for the Department of Sports and Recreation, whereas World Cup 2010’s revenue had increased the budget.

Mr Mdakane referred to the Confederations Cup as a case study and gave his personal opinion, stating that there was a slight disjuncture between what was happening on the ground and the Department’s annual report.

The Chairperson responded that as Committee members, with the Auditor General being critical of the Department and for two years issuing disclaimers, it seemed to them as if the Auditor General was in fact stating that the personnel of the Department of Sports and Recreation could not live up to the  expectations of having to deal with the disclaimers from the Auditor General.

Mr Mdakane admitted that the Department was not living up to expectations. He wished to echo the Auditor General that the Department had been receiving qualified reports as here had been irregular expenditure and a lack of supporting documents.

The Chairperson asked if Mr Mdakane had a list of facilities built by MECs (sp?).

Mr Mdakane answered in the affirmative and said that they were in the archives.

The Chairperson requested that the list be made available to members of the Committee and this would be discussed in the next meeting regarding the visiting of the facilities.

Mr Mdakane said that going forward, the Department needed to look at the number of events being hosted by the Department, the issue of territoriality between the Departments of Sports and Recreation, Education and Arts and Culture, and the effectiveness of the mass participation in sports programme.

The Chairperson thanked Mr Mdakane and adjourned the meeting.

Documents

No related documents

Present

  • We don't have attendance info for this committee meeting

Download as PDF

You can download this page as a PDF using your browser's print functionality. Click on the "Print" button below and select the "PDF" option under destinations/printers.

See detailed instructions for your browser here.

Share this page: