Minister on Sport & Recreation 2012 Strategic Plan

Meeting report

Minister of Sport and Recreation 2012 Strategic Plan briefing
The Hon Fikile Mbalula, Minister of Sport and Recreation, presented the Department's Strategic Plan 2012/16 and the 2013 Annual Performance plan. The Hon. Gert Oosthuizen, the Deputy Minister, was also present.

The Strategic Plan was aimed at giving the nation a clear picture of the planned programmes and activities of the SRSA, the budget allocations and estimates for the next 5 years. The Strategic Plan was divided into Annual Plan and the activities aimed at realising the objectives of the 2012/16 Strategic Plan. On an annual basis the Plan would position itself to integrate the National Sport and Recreation Plan (NSRP) 2030 as was adopted by the National Sport and Recreation Indaba (NSRI) in November 2011.

The Department of Sport and Recreation (SRSA) had a legislative mandate to take overall responsibility for sport and recreation in South Africa. It included the promotion and development of sport and recreation, coordinating relationships between National Federations (NFs), intervening to correct the imbalances in sport and recreation and to promote equitable access to facilities and proper governance in sport.

In terms of the National Sport and Recreation Act (No. 110 of 1998) (NSRA), SRSA was empowered to facilitate and regulate all sporting disciplines. The presentation emanated from the January 2011 Strategic Planning Workshop for SRSA, Members of the Executive Councils (MECs)and the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) together with the Sport Federations.

The Strategic Planning workshop saw extensive discussions and conclusions on issues related to transformation, school sport, and facilities and funding. These were finalised at the National Sport and Recreation Indaba held last year where stakeholders and role-players committed themselves to evolving transformation discourse in sport aimed at levelling the playing field and creating participation opportunities for all.

The Department would continue to contribute towards transformation, job creation, rural development, health lifestyles, peace and economic growth. The most significant contribution, however, would be the promotion of social cohesion. The Department was a signatory to the Outcome 12(b) delivery agreement under the guidance of the Department of Public Service and Administration.

Sport had been elevated in the Government Programme of Action from an activity to a specific sub-output and was now recognised as a formidable tool of building social capital. The Department committed itself to ultimately deliver on the Outcome 12(b): increasing opportunities for participation in sport and recreation and facilitating intra-governmental support for major international events hosted in South Africa.
The activities provided citizens with opportunities to interact, to share a common purpose and contribute to nation building. Opportunities for participation in sport would be boasted by seeking to implement the resolutions of the Sport and Recreation Indaba (SRI). The Strategic Plan gave impetus to the implementation of the NSRP by integrating it into the Government Planning Cycle and the Medium Term Expenditure Framework. At the heart of the plan was the transformation Charter and Scorecard, which would enable the sport system to measure whether it was achieving the agreed goals and reaching targets in terms accessibility and empowerment. The Eminent Persons’ Group (EPG) would drive the process on transportation on sport and recreation, which would be appointed soon to monitor and evaluate performance in achieving targets.

The Department recognised school sport as the bedrock or development in which a large pool of resources would be invested. A Memorandum of Understanding had already been signed with the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to define roles and responsibilities. Work was in progress to implement the 2012 school league, which would culminate into the National Schools Competition at the end of the year.

Three pillars would underpin the roll out of the Programme: Capacity Building, the Top School League and the Youth Olympics.

Mass participation would be pursued vigorously as it encouraged community activeness and created opportunities for identification of raw talent in the most remote areas of the country - the rural areas. The programme helped with clubs development while at the same time exposing the realities of underdevelopment, lack of facilities for sport and recreation. A lot of attention would be focused towards transformation, mass participation and schools sport.

The Department was in the process of engaging municipalities on ring-fencing of the 15% of the public municipal service infrastructure component of the infrastructure grant towards building sport facilities in the rural areas as was gazetted in May 2011. Working together with the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, the Department would conduct a national facilities audit to ascertain the state sport infrastructure and was hoping to establish a Geographic Information System (GIS) that would assist in the implementation of the national facilities pan. Currently, the Department was developing 52 infrastructure hubs in 52 districts around the country in line with the Demarcation Board so as to allow municipalities to join resources and built a single vibrant infrastructure facility.

Recreation, which had not received attention in the previous years, was to be fully integrated and a Ministerial Advisory Team would be appointed in the next two weeks to engage society on feasible projects and programmes so as to speed up the process. In addition through recreation the Department aimed to drive the campaign on healthy lifestyles working in close cooperation with the Department of Health with a broader view of attacking social ills prevalent in the country, for example, substance abuse. In order to achieve the objectives the Department would build sustainable partnership with different stakeholders as indicated in the Indaba. Some of these would include SASCOC, National Federations, Sport Councils, private sector and non-governmental organizations. The Ministerial programme aimed to mobilise society into sport activeness and also to generate dialogue with the stakeholders in defining the new sport landscape. The Minister said the citizens of the country were encouraged to take in the work of NFs through establishing strong provincial and nation sport councils. Among other resolutions taken at the Indaba, it was agreed that there should be a re-structured sport landscape in South Africa which, emphasised access and optimal performance. It recognised the steps taken to improve the performance of athletes and teams through own access integration efforts and coordination of all sport structures and systems. It was a collective responsibility of all to embrace the campaign and provide proper leadership in order to realise the dream of a qualitative and sound sport system. Also, excellence would be rewarded through well-organised South African Sport Awards and the SRSA had been committed to ensure that 2012 ceremony was bigger and better. Progress made since 1994 was recognised in the Indaba and all stakeholders had been called upon to redouble their efforts and commitments in addressing persistent disparities in sport and recreation. As the SRSA moved towards its 18th anniversary, reflections on the road traversed occupied its core business and it was palpable that the vistas gave way to lessons learnt and the long road that lay ahead in order to achieve a better life for all.

The Chairperson thanked the Minister for the presentation that addressed critical issues of transformation and development and would help the Committee in holding the executive authority accountable. The presentation would help the Committee to have an effective oversight of the Department at a political and leadership level.

SRSA 2012 Strategic Plan briefing
Mr Alec Moemi, Director-General, SRSA, presented the Strategic Plan 2012/16. The three-year plan put much emphasis on the 2012/2013 programmes in ruling out the projects that had been presented by the Minister. The Department had designed the Strategic Plan and complemented it with an annual performance plan (APP) as required by the law. The plan was aligned tot the new Sport and Recreation Plan which was adopted in November last year.

The plan covered the Administration programme, Sport Support Systems, Mass Participation, International Relations and Facilities Coordination. The structure had not yet responded to the new mandate in terms of the national plan hence the Department had begun a restructuring programme. The restructuring process would be finalised in 2013 and National Treasury and the Auditor-General had agreed with the Department that such a move was necessary. To improve on the implementation of the plan SRSA had also identified risks for each Strategic Goal, current management controls were considered and where appropriate, mitigating strategies had been developed to improve control deficiencies.

The 2012/16 Strategic Plan was comprised of three sections: part (a) dealt with the strategic overview of SRSA which covered-the Vision, Mission and Values of SRSA as well as Constitutional, legislative and policy mandates and situational analysis of disparities. Part (b) was the most important section that dealt the five major programmes of SRSA and would be the key focus area for the Department; and part (c) was mainly about links to other plans and how the Department had managed to reformulate its relations with municipalities, provinces and major role players in sport fraternity.

The Department was using the conditional grant to deal with issues related to the implementation plan. The mandate of the Department was premised on the Sport and Recreation Act 1998 which would be amended to allow for the effective implementation of the Strategic Plan.

Some of the policy mandates that guided the Department included promotion and development of sport and recreation, coordination of the relationships between NFs and other agencies, provision for interventions to correct imbalances in sport and recreation, and to promote equitable access and proper governance in sport and recreation.

The majority of resources were channelled towards ensuring equity and proper governance in sport and recreation. It was envisaged that the NSRA could be amended to appropriately align with the revised White Paper and the NSRP that was approved at the National Sports Indaba in November 2011. SRSA would continue to contribute towards transformation, rural development, job creation, a healthy life style, peace, economic growth and social cohesion. The new framework for funding NFs was now dual linked –Federations that sought to promote transformation and development of previously disadvantaged groups would be given more funding as compared to underachievers and this was the only tool the Department had at disposal in pursuing the transformation agenda. As a signatory to the outcomes 12 (b) the Department sought to increase opportunities for participation and facilitation in intra-governmental support for major international events hosted in South Africa (SA).

The Strategic Plan aimed to achieve six goals: to ensure that citizens had access sport and recreation activities, a transformed sport and recreation sector, that athletes achieved international success, an integrated system of enablers supporting the delivery of sport and recreation, to use sport as a tool to support relevant Government priorities and to achieve an efficient and effective SRSA.

The programmes would target mainly the youth through the school sport programme. All role players should rally behind the plan towards common objective. Efforts were being made to get funding from the National Lottery and for the Government to allocate more resources to sport development.
 
The said goals would be implemented through the APPs in the form of strategic objectives, which linked to the goals. The achieve the goals brad partnerships need to be established with provincial departments, SASCOC, NFs, NGOs and the two entities (Boxing South Africa (BSA) and South African Institute for Drug- Free Sport (SAIDS). The conditional grant framework for provinces had been revised thereby aligning their work with the funding allotted.

The Department was in the process of negotiating with NFs on how they would be funded and relations were being strengthened with NGOs working in the sport sector. Discussions were under-way with the National Treasury to re-prioritize funding to LoveLife so that other NGOs such as the Sport Trust could be strengthened to complement Government work.

A turnaround Strategy had been instituted to help Boxing South Africa to become more viable and strengthen the SAIDS through amending legislation to enable it to carry out its mandate in schools. Roles and responsibilities between the Department and SASCOC would be properly delineated - the former was responsible for sport at primary level and the latter concerned with Team South Africa and high performance sport.

The NFs were the key delivery agents for the Department and as such about 25% of the budget was allocated to them, about 50% to provinces and the 25% remained with the Department. The Department would rely on the system of prioritisation in dealing with NFs and all federations would be funded equitably based on potential and contribution to transformation. The focus in many federations tended to be on elite participation at the expense of holistic sports development.

There were no new athletes who were under tutelage or were being assisted under development programmes as most federations concentrated on high performance sport with more commercial value. There was need for a fair balance between continuity and success, which the Transformation Charter and Scorecard sought to achieve, and objectives of the Charter were now linked to the funding formula for federations.

Further focus would also be on the National Sports Volunteer Corps that the Minister introduced in February 2012 - a programme aimed at engaging former sports legends and talented community members to assist in developing sport. A registration process for all volunteers was under-way and could be finished by April and by July the volunteers would be in schools and in different clubs to assist in developing the sport. Volunteers who had been used for campaigns such as the 2010 world cup and All Africa Games (AAG) would be integrated and considered for utilization at the impending African Cup of Nations (AFCON) Games in 2013.

The Strategic plan would seek to address the issue of NFs structures that were not aligned with the geopolitical constitutional boundaries at national, provincial and local levels. NFs would be given two years to do the realignment as determined by the Municipal Demarcation Board and as per Indaba resolution.

The boundaries were important in the redesigning of the sport system for easy allocation of funds by provinces and municipalities and to prevent federations from overlapping provincial and municipal boundaries or even districts. Alignment with political boundaries would be used as a condition for funding going forward.

To prevent the problem of fragmented club development and support the Department working together with federations had introduced initiatives to support and strengthen existing clubs which would joined under one programme to maximise the impact of the interventions. This was intended to ensure a uniform flow in supporting hubs, teams and community clubs.
 
It had been discovered that the majority of clubs remained informal and some did not have even a constitution. Federations would be tasked with identifying the clubs and training them to run their affairs professionally - the more the number of disadvantaged clubs mentored by a federation the more they received. While the Strategic Plan was for the next coming three years the Department had a template looking to 15-20 year period of transforming sport.

School sport remained the bedrock for mass participation and talent identification programmes, which would help the Department to achieve its dual mandate of an active and winning nation. The biggest challenge was how would the talent identification programme be able to capture all talented individuals and ensure that they could be supported going forward.

An MOU signed with the Department of Basic Education (DBE) in December in December last year had improved relations between the two Departments. The Minister of Basic Education had gazetted a school sport policy which would receive final input from the public at the end of March and, if finalised, would be enforced from June onwards. The policy would among other things compel students to participate in sport in schools and would make it mandatory for each school to have one sporting code in 2012.

SRSA would continue to focus on empowering educators in code specific coaching, technical officiating, team management and sports administration through the federations and in line with the SA Coaching Framework. SRSA was on the verge of signing an agreement with Culture, Arts, Hospitality and Sport Sector Education and Training Authority (CATHSETA) and 16 priority sport codes had been identified.

Training for leve1 coaching would commence in the coming financial year beginning with teachers so that they became extensions of federations. Three pillars would underpin the roll-out of the schools programme: namely, capacity building, the Top Schools Leagues and Youth Olympics.

SRSA would coordinate a Top School League Programme, which would involve schools registering their teams to participate in the Leagues’ five competition levels, leading to the National School Festivals. These competitions would be at the levels of Intra-School, Inter-School, District, Provincial and National.

The South African Youth Olympics would focus on talented individual athletes who would have been identified by professional talent scouts, sports clubs and Federations during the roll-out of the Top School League. In 2013 the South Africa Youth Olympics (SYO) would begin and athletes who would demonstrate outstanding performance would be given the opportunity to compete for selection for international championships.

The programme would not be limited to schools only but would see out-of-school youths until the age of 28 years taking part in the competitions. The system would assist SRSA in growing and broadening the pool of new talent from which selection of the best performing individuals would be undertaken. To address challenges of infrastructure backlog the Department had begun an audit process of school facilities together with municipalities. A meeting was scheduled for June to discuss schools infrastructure with municipalities and the Department of Cooperative Governance would be roped in.

The issue had to be attended to as a matter of urgency as the SRSA had no certain statistics of the facilities that belonged to the state at the moment. Strong anti-doping measure would be introduced and the SAIDS Act 1997 would be amended to give the entity power to enforce the law so as the reduce doping in schools.

In mass participation programmes SRSA was using the conditional grant as the key tool to ensure that provinces adhered to regulations and laid down expectations and all provinces had supported the grant tool. More ways of monitoring the provincial grant were being considered and the Department had established a focused task team to manage and monitor the process as well as provide support to provinces that were struggling with spending their allocations.

The Mass Participation Programme would ensure the creation of jobs. Provinces were allowed to utilise 6% of their allocated funds from the conditional grant to employ officials to assist in the management of the grant and the implementation of the Mass Participation Programme at a grass roots level.

SRSA would continue to support Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) service providers through purchasing of gym equipment, sport attire, catering, consultants, information technology (IT) equipment and other services. The Geographic information system (GIS) of the facilities was nearly complete and would be used to finalise the costing of the National Sport Plan. 52 infrastructure hubs would be built in 52 districts. The facilities programme was expected to develop a national facilities plan and to establish the GIS which would assist with the development of the plan.

In rural areas, it was envisaged that the sports hubs would be furnished with a library, a clinic and a youth centre whilst centres located in urban areas could include restaurants, hotels and shops, amongst other necessities.

Organisational Environment of SRSA
The Department had a total of about 210 posts, all of which were funded positions and a total of 6 vacancies that would be filled soon after the finalization of the restructuring process. The number of post could increase with an addition 100, as more staff would be required to man the sport hubs and provincial offices. The restructuring process would be finished by end of April 2012.

Discussion
Mr M Rabotapi (DA) welcomed the building of facilities in the rural areas and in townships; however, he sought clarity on how the Department was going to ensure the ownership of facilities and prevent them from being vandalised.

Mr Moemi replied that prior to the sport money being integrated into the Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) grant the Department had an infrastructure development grant for building infrastructure. Most facilities that existed since 1994 until the grant was integrated were in a state of disrepair, which prompted National Treasury to take away the grant and allocate it under the MIG. The Government had since learnt a lot of lessons from the arrangement and challenges associated with the grant remained. In the past the National Facilities Plan was largely about the roll-out of facilities without looking into how the facilities were to be maintained, as that was the preserve of the municipalities.

Unfortunately most of the municipalities could not afford to look after the facilities but the new facilities plan spoke to the fact that a portion of the total expenditure allocated for infrastructure should be dedicated towards maintenance. The same problem of failing to take care of facilities would be addressed with the building of sport hubs that would allow municipalities to pull resources together towards developing one common facility. The private sector would be pulled in to be part of the developments so that apart from Government subsidies the hubs generated their own income.

To solve the issue of ownership of facilities the Department had formalized the role of sport councils and in future provinces would be required to spend 10% of their grant on the councils to support their everyday operation and talent identification programme. Sports hubs and sports councils would be linked, with the later taking ownership at local level through municipalities.  

Mr M Dikgacwi (ANC) said the Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) was not going to work. He had been to a number of municipalities where he had asked about facilities. People asked if it was logical to build facilities when people were toyi-toying [demonstrating]. Before the ring-fencing there were visible facilities, which disappeared when the system was introduced. What action would the Department take against federations that would not comply with the scorecards on conditional grant specifications and the transformation agenda because some of the federations were able to raise their own money without the SRSA? Was there a tool that could be used to deal with non-compliers?

Mr Moemi said it was a fact the funds allocated to bigger federations such as South African Football Association (SAFA), Rugby, and Netball, were very minute as opposed to what they received from sponsors. While the federations did not depend on the Department to do their operations they needed political premium to host their tournaments without which they could not take part in international competitions. The premium would be issued on the condition that the federation linked high performance with development in sport and in some cases the Minister had the power to de-register a federation only in extreme cases. Although there was enough leverage for dealing with stubborn federations, SRSA preferred to work well with all federations by motivating to do things properly.

Minister Mbalula said it was the first time in the history of South Africa that a transformation commission was adopted which would monitor, develop guideline and ensure that all federations were signatory to the new arrangement. Federations had tended to treat transformation as optional and could decide whether to impalement of leave a transformation requirement. The commission would at the end of each year give the Department a report. Previously, the country had been paying lip service to development without a proper plan, which integrated everything that ought to be achieved. The National Sport Plan sought to achieve that by setting targets. The country needed a Strategic Plan for the next twenty years and the Cabinet was busy costing the plan. Scorecards would be reinforced but balance would be ensured between merit and whether federations followed an outcome to ensure that there was transformation in sport. The majority of people who paid lip service to transformation were instead concerned about serving their interests. All the youth must be afforded an opportunity to develop their talents in sport. The biggest problem was that administrators were not seized with transformation but were concerned about money; most of the battles being fought in sport had nothing to do with transformation but much about mismanagement of resources. Instead of attending to development issues the Minister spent time mediating greediness in sport.

Mr G MacKenzie (COPE) thanked the Minister for the outline of the sport plan going forward and for recognising the importance of schools sport. He suggested that the Department develop fallow facilities in some former model C schools so that they could be shared with other schools that did not have any facilities at all. He questioned the practical reality of the strategy of rewarding better performing federations arguing that swimming had won the highest number of medals for the country but finance was chaotic.

Mr Moemi said that the Department had pans to upgrade dilapidated facilities. Existing infrastructure would be reintegrated into regional hubs where the land allowed for expansion. The Minister said that it had not been brought to his attention that Swimming South Africa was in financial crisis but he was aware that funding had been withdrawn. A meeting had been held with SASCOC to set up a Committee between it and the SRSA to foresee funding for athletes that would be going to the Olympics. It was imperative that resources be channelled to supporting Swimming SA as it had brought a lot of medals to the country. He had been asked to look at the matter. The Government could not invest much in sport since it had competing priorities nonetheless; a number of people had indicated willingness to sponsor sport. Going forward the Government would have to sponsor sport as it was addressing both social ills such as crime, poverty and teenage pregnancy, and encouraging social cohesion. The Minister was not responsible for running federations; the fact that matters were being directed to him indicated that SASCOC was not doing its job. Corruption must be rooted out in sport irrespective of federations; the law was to be applied consistently.

SASCOC must be strengthened to be able to run sport in the country. The Committee was urged to empower the Minister to take decisions so that federations did not behave, as they liked. The game of people protecting themselves with flimsy autonomy was over and the law must be enforced to transform sport. Money must be given to the athletes to support them so that they could bring medals to the country.

Mr S Mmusi (ANC) wanted to know if the Minister had managed to secure Funds from the National Lottery, how serious was sport in creating jobs and whether the Department was working together with sport councils in conserving facilities.

Mr Moemi said that the Minister had asked the lottery to provide R200 million for the school sport programme and the Sport Trust had been chosen to be the receiving agent and administer the fund. The lottery had indicated that the term of office of other members of the sport chamber in the distribution trust had expired and the Minister had requested that the term of office be extended or that the resolution be passed to the incoming Board. The Department was making constant follow-ups on the matter and the appointment of the new Board was in the process and the Minister had made his nominations already.
 
The Minister added that the Department was on top of the lottery question because the school sport programme should have had been rolled out. School Olympics would be held this year but the Department was still waiting on the Minister of Basic Education. Little resources had been allocated to the programme, which would be complemented by funds from the lottery.

Ms G Sindane (ANC) thanked the Minister for the political overview and the Strategic Plan in particular. The reference to school sport emphasised health lifestyles for the youth, but how could the old be accommodated because they had problems associated with fitness?

Mr Moemi replied that the Department had decided to start at an elementary level and that justified the emphasis on the school sport system. However, 40% of its budget would be spent on school sports but other responsibilities would not be overlooked. The Department aimed to implement the issue of recreation vigorously in the coming financial year. The Minister would announce a new advisory Committee on recreation in two weeks time. Regulations pertaining to the fitness industry were being finalised.

The Chairperson said the Minister had addressed issues that had been worrying the Committee. There was very slow transformation in sport and most of the noise had nothing to do about development. The Minister and the Deputy Minister accounted to the Committee. It would be appreciated if they would attend strategic meetings to answer political issues in sport. There were questions that when posed by Members would require political answers. There would be nothing personal between the Committee and the Department but there would be healthy tension about issues of development and transformation in sport. The Committee would work together with the Minister to ensure that there was transformation in sport. The idea of a school of excellence was important so that every South African child passionate about sport must have access to the facilities. He was happy that there was a sport plan in place to address critical issues affecting sport.

Mr Moemi said the idea of schools of excellence was very important and the Department had embraced it but he had decided not to go into detail as part of it had been presented on before. The Department was classifying schools into three tiers after conducting a though evaluation of what schools had and did not. The designation of five major codes sport codes had been stated and two schools would be assigned one code bur eventually all the codes would be designated. The tier one school would play any codes of their choice but tier two which consisted of regional support schools with facilities would be accredited and given additional support and would be expected to share facilities with nearby schools that did not have any. In addition, the regional sports hubs would have centres of excellence and universities would no longer be given money to run programmes at their institutions; rather they would be expected to reach out to the community through the regional hubs. The system was also being implemented by Cuba and China. Community based centres of excellence would be established and the Department would be working on the Doctor Khumalo Academy with a view of accrediting it for various sporting codes. Others include the Aaron Mokoena Foundation and the Department would work with such formations through the legends programme.
 
Schools would also be designated at tire three levels which would deal with specialised schools and coaches coached at level 4 and 5 would be used for the programme and exceptional students would be given a ministerial bursary to enrol at the schools of excellence.

SRSA Budget Vote 2012/13
Mr Moemi reported that SRSA had hosted a National Sport and Recreation Indaba during November 2011.The Indaba adopted a new National Sport and Recreation Plan. Therefore the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) did not take into account all the resources required to roll out the plan because of limitations related to the costing of the sports plan. Other key elements of the sports plan had been costed but Chapter 5 which dealt with facilities was proving to be a daunting task because the facilities audit was still under-way. The Department would continue throughout the MTEF period to promote sport and recreation and the mass participation grant would be used to develop sport at various levels by supporting school sport, club development, hubs and sport federations. Funding was aligned to be biased for school sport and rural initiatives and the Department was inviting federations and provinces to indicate their rural initiatives. Sport hubs were different from regional hubs - the former referred to a programme where community activists and children were recruited to play specific games and were provided with equipment to do so as part of recreation, whilst the later referred to actual facilities.

Funds allocated to SRSA declined rapidly between 2008/09 and 2011/12 from R4.9 billion to R820.9 million. This translated into an average annual rate of 45%. The decrease was attributed to the completion of the 2010 FIFA World Cup stadiums because the bulk of the budget was placed with the Department which appointed the Premier Soccer League to manage the fund and currently it indicated a shortfall of R3 million from the stadium building fund programme. The money would be requested when the Department tabled its report. The budget of SRSA was beginning to increase and expenditure was projected to increase from R848.4 million in 2012/13 to R967.6 million in 2014/15 - an average annual rate of 5.6 per cent mainly due to the increase of municipal and office accommodation charges, transfers to sport federations and the Mass Sport and Recreation Participation Programme Conditional Grant (conditional grant transferred to provinces constituting about half of the entire budget transferred).

The 2012 MTEF allocations include amounts already in the baseline. Management effected some technical adjustment and reprioritisation in terms of the budget baseline. This was important to respond to restructuring, prioritisation of school sport, and the new tier system that would be implemented.  
The Department received additional allocations over the MTEF period of R1.9 million, R4.2 million and R5.5 million for improved conditions of service within SRSA and salaries, Boxing South Africa (BSA) and the South African Institute for Drug Free Sport (SAIDS). BSA also received R3 million for spending on basic operational requirements. In the current financial year R3.4 million had been transferred to BSA and an addition R3 million would be given in the new financial year to complete its turn around strategy.

Further savings and Cabinet approved budget cuts of R20 million were made over the MTEF (R5.8 million in 2012/13; R5.8 million in 2013/14; and R8.3 million in 2014/15. The cuts had been attributed to the economic turmoil in the world and all conditional grants had been cut. The amount included a reduction of MPP Grant of R13.1 million over the MTEF (R4.9 million in 2012/13; R3.1 million in 2013/14; and R5.1 million in 2014/15) to the Mass Sport and Recreation Participation Programme Conditional Grant. A slide showed allocation of funds per programme in the 2009/15 MTEF periods. In 2011/2012 financial year administration received R108.832 million but actual estimate was R13.196 million. There was no budget for the 2010 FIFA World Cup since the work had been completed and the report would be brought to the Committee. The MPP budget had increased significantly as a result of expenditure on school sports. In the last financial year the programme received R470.758 million, which had since increased to R500.821million in the current financial year. Funding for facilities coordination had been increased significantly from R7.200 million in the 2010/11 financial year to R8.741 million in 2011/12. Another increase was in International Liaison and Events whose budget increased from R14.504 million in 2010/11 to R40.528 million in 2011/12. The increase was to account for the Government guarantees for the 2013 AFCON games in January. The transfers to the non-profit institutions had been increased from R76.062 million to R101.695 million in 2011/12, which accounted for transfers given to sports trusts to administer the inter-school league programme and other interventions. For the first time funding to municipalities was stopped. Generally the budget had stabilised over the MTEF and there were no longer any significant increases. Of the 25% that remained with the Department after transfer, administration costs were reduced from 47% last year to 13 %, which had allowed the Department to fulfil other commitments and allocate resources where they were needed most. MPP received the highest share with 62% of the total budget, including transfers to provinces. Facilities coordination received 1% as it was a prerogative of provinces and municipalities and the amount was earmarked for facilities audit, GIS system and classification of facilities. The International liaison which used to receive 0.7% was allocated 2% of the budge to cover the AFCON and other smaller tournaments.

The SRSA’s spending on allocations per economic classification including provinces was R848.524 million, with compensation taking 10.82%, goods and services 17.5%, public entities 2.16%, provinces 55.35%, capital goods 0.29% and non –profit organizations accounting for 13.86% of the total allocation. The budget estimate over the MTEF per economic classification excluding transfers was R 378.886 million. Non-profit institutions accounted for 31%, capital goods 1%, compensation 24%, public entities 5% and goods and services for about 39%. The allocations were informed by equitable distribution of resources but care was taken to include smaller and challenged provinces particularly the Northern Cape where schools were far apart. As such it was very expensive to run tournaments or play inter-school leagues. Money had been taken from bigger spenders Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal to subsidy projects in the Northern Cape. The Department would continue engaging with business to amass resources to build the sport hubs, run the school sport and hold the sports awards.

Further engagements were planned with local government to ensure co-ordination and alignment of funding and programmes for Sport and Recreation.

Discussion
Mr Rabotapi was satisfied with the presentation as it addressed accessibility to facilities in the rural areas.
The DG replied that the majority of the spending would be used on rural biased programmes.

Mr Dikgacwi wanted to know if the R3 million given to BSA was going to get it out of its financial crisis and he sought clarity on why the allocations to Gauteng (R74.705 million) and KwaZulu-Natal(R 92.079 million) were so big as compared to the Eastern Cape (R66.749 million) and the Northern Cape (R27.691 million) which had more problems.

Mr Moemi agreed with the Member that the R3 million would not solve all of BSA’s problems; however the Department’ preoccupation was not to continue giving hand-outs to BSA but was to put it on a pedestal where it could unlock commercial value which would help it to begin licensing and authorizing fights. The Department was insisting that all promoters to register with BSA and no fights would be staged without a license issued by the regulator and all broadcasting rights must be surrendered to BSA. The Minister was putting pressure on the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) to finalise an agreement for the broadcasting of boxing matches. The Department was sending officials to help it prepare for auditing and to strengthen the implementation of the turnaround strategy and since that programme BSA was no longer a going concern. The major concern was to make sure that BSA retained its commercial broadcasting rights and should legislation be necessary to achieve that it would be considered.

Ms Sindane sought clarity on what Mr Moemi had referred to as further savings in budget allocations.

Mr Moemi clarified that savings were not classified as under-expenditure. Cabinet had issued a directive that all Departments were expected to indicate savings where possible. A good example was on Love life, which obtained almost R30 million each year. The Department had made it clear that the entity would no longer get that amount of money and should the Department decide against issuing the funds they must be surrendered to Treasury and that was one area through which the Department realised savings by withholding transfers. The Department was engaging Treasury to allow it to cut the spending and redirect resources where they were needed most. Savings occurred also through transfers to federations. Should a federation fail to provide a business plan, commitment to good governance and consistent reporting the funds would be withheld in accordance with an agreement between the Department and it. Once that had happened, while the Department no longer had the luxury to re-allocate the funds to other federations, it could withhold the money and that amounted to savings. The Department would stick to its dual funding model. Federations would be given money for operation and administration but those that failed to demonstrate ability to transform or achieve certain targets would not get the conditional grant. The only risk of the model however would be under expenditure but it was better than wasting resources when the federations were under performing.

The Chairperson noted that the Department was managing a lot of money but money was not the important issue. Rather the issue was what impact the money had in influencing change in society. He reiterated that it was important that the Minister or the Deputy Minister attend meetings on critical matters so as to prevent Parliament from being unintentionally addressed by officials who accounted to political appointees. He was happy that the political leadership had attended the meeting and managed to shed light on some of the contentious issues that troubled Members. It was clear that the Department was committed to transformation and the Committee would give it the necessary support to ensure that there was transformation in sport. He implored the Department to take seriously the concerns that Members usually raised so as to maintain a healthy tension between it and the Committee. The Committee was going to evaluate the Strategic Plan and where necessary the Department would be invited to clarify issues. The Committee would be conducting an Oversight visit so that it qualified reports of facilities that were in the three provinces (Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng) and the Department would be expected to send an official to explain issues. It was important that volunteers be encouraged to take part in the Department’s programmes to help with the turnaround strategy.

Committee oversight visits and study tour
The Committee Secretary informed Members of the planed oversight visits to the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. In the Eastern Cape, Members would spend two days evaluating sports facilities in Lukhanji Municipality, Queenstown, then proceed to the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality to weigh up progress on facilities that were build as part of the 2010 legacy and SAFA Football For Hope Centres. Lastly the Committee would visit Msinga Municipality in KwaZulu Natal where Members would assess infrastructure and access to facilities. The Committee would also visit Westonaria Municipality and Emfuleni Municipality in Everton, Gauteng, to look at the state of facilities in the areas. The Department of Sport would be expected to arrange a match for the occasion. The application to Parliament for the visits had been made and the Committee was expecting feedback by the end of the week. Study tours would be conducted in July during the constituency period and the Committee management had already decided on vesting Argentina and the United Kingdom. Arrangements had been made with the South African Embassy in Argentina. The visits would be about studying schools sports models in the two countries with a view to see how the models could help in the Minister’s flagship programme to revive School Sports.

Mr Dikgacwi wanted to know if the provinces and Sport Councils been informed of the oversight visits.

The Committee Secretary was in the process of communicating with national sport forums in the identified provinces and municipalities as well as with the MECs.

The Chairperson said that in order for the Committee to correctly exercise oversight function there was need for coordination between departments, and between provincial and national Federations. Members were encouraged to dedicate seven days of their constituency period time to the oversight visits in Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.

The meeting was adjourned.