Report of Eminent Persons Group on transformation in sport: Department of Sport and Recreation briefing

Meeting report

Opening remarks

The Chairperson welcomed all present in the meeting. She said that the purpose of the meeting was to be briefed by the Department of Sport and Recreation on the Report of the Eminent Persons Group on transformation in sport, and the consideration and adoption of minutes.

Brief: Eminent Persons Group

Dr Willie Basson, Member: Eminent Persons Group (EPG), said it was generally accepted that processes to change the ‘face’ of sport over the past 20 years had been largely ineffective when measured against the set goal of ensuring that the majority of South Africans had equitable opportunities to participate and excel in sport, on and off the field of play. The contributing causes were the imbalance on the emphasis placed on the arguments for transforming the sport system.  There were the moral or social justice reasons -- ‘it is the right thing to do’ -- and the strategic reasons -- ‘it is essential for long-term survival, growth, and competiveness’.

It was strategically naive to continue with a head in the sand attitude towards the need for both the social justice and strategic transformation reasons for change, because 84% of South Africans under 18 years old were black African, while only 16% were white, coloured or Indian. Rugby and cricket’s national teams could no longer reflect a black African demographic of only 12%, from a sustainability perspective.

Dr Basson said that the ‘Transformation Charter’ described a process linking key strategic areas aimed at building an accessible and sustainable competitive sport system. The Charter represented a ‘bottom up’ approach, ensuring change in the key strategic areas of accessibility, skill and capability development, demographic profiles of all structures on and off the field of play, performance levels, governance, preferential procurement and employment equity.

Dr Basson said that with regard to the establishment of the EPG, a national Sport and Recreation Indaba held in November 2011 had recognized that implementation of the Charter could be a potential problem. To deal with this issue, the following resolution had been adopted: ‘There is a need to monitor and evaluate implementation of the Charter if the objectives thereof were to be achieved’. This had led to the Minister of Sport appointing an independent Eminent Persons Group (EPG).

The Members of the EPG consisted of Dr Somadoda Fikeni (Chairperson); Ms Ria Ledwaba; Mr Silas Nkanunu; Mr Qondisa Ngwenya; Mr Max Moss; Professor Marion Keim Lees; Dr Sam Ramsamy; Dr Willie Basson; Mr Wimpie du Plessis; Mr Louis von Zeuner; Professor Timothy Noakes; Ms Nomfanelo Magwentshu; and Dr Xolela Mangcu.

Dr Basson said that the mandate of EPG was to:

- Analyze transformation audit reports and advise on appropriate targets.

- Monitor and evaluate the implementation of Sport’s Transformation Charter and Scorecard.

- Provide leadership and direction with regard to the quota/target system.

- Provide an annual transformation status report for sport.

- Offer long-term strategic direction on transformation in sport.

- Advise the Minister on: the design of a short-, medium- and long -term transformation strategy, within the context of the 2020 vision of the Department of Sport and Recreation (DSRSA); the design of a transparent tool for monitoring the success or failure of the implementation of transformation targets; incentives and punitive measures to be applied to federations and sporting bodies that were not driving transformation to its logical conclusion; interrogate the White Paper of DSRSA and pronounce on whether it will address and redress DSRSA’s strategic objectives in relation to school sport, community sport, institutional mechanisms, recreation, funding and internationalisation of sport.

The purpose of the EPG was to ensure that the Sport Ministry had access to adequate information and insight to assess the transformation status, coupled to recommendations that would improve the rate and effectiveness of transforming the sport system at all levels and in all areas, as defined in the Charter.

Dr Basson said that in terms of the EPG Pilot Study 2013, one of the first tasks undertaken by the EPG was a pilot survey to gauge the transformation status in five codes – athletics, cricket, football, netball and rugby. The study represented the first overall multi-dimensional quantification and evaluation of sport’s transformation status in 20 years. It placed transformation firmly back on the radar screen.

The purpose of the study was to establish a draft framework for evaluating the transformation status in the different Charter dimensions.  A 2013 Pilot Transformation Status Report was prepared and submitted to the Minister. Feedback sessions to the codes involved, and to various stakeholders, were held under the auspices of the Minister and the Director General. Subsequently, further interactions with the pilot codes had led to undertakings by federations to document their responses to the findings of the report. This would be followed up by a memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the DSRSA, the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) and the federations involved with respect to the implementation and execution of actions emanating from the findings and recommendations of the EPG report. Based on the data sheets received, cricket had shown excellent progress towards meeting generic black targets in both administrative and representative team structures by achieving 100% of the 50% target set in 1994. The rate of black African representation in sport generally had fallen behind the rate of improving generic black representation. Coloured and Indian sports people had benefited significantly more than black Africans (for example, in cricket and rugby) over the past 20 years.

Africanisation had become a strategic focus area for the immediate future from a long-term sustainability and competitiveness perspective. Compared to cricket’s representative team generic black demographic profile, where 100% of target had been achieved for all teams, rugby had recorded an average of 78%, with the Springbok team achieving only 50% of set generic black target.

Junior and senior school sport was in disarray from a federation perspective. It was complicated by a disconnect between provincial federations and schools, and the unresolved situation between the Departments of Sport and Recreation and Education. A decline in organised and structured under-age participation opportunities at all levels, was a major accessibility constraint. Participation numbers for girls were low for rugby, football and cricket, and there was very little activity at school level. Netball’s situation at school level had declined significantly. Overall governance performance in key selected areas was generally below par. This was confirmed by recent problems, for example, in cricket, athletics, and basketball.

With regard to EPG’s challenges, the finalisation of a sports facility provision plan was a major constraint. There was insufficient focus on preferential procurement and employment equity data collection activities. There was a lack suboptimal alignment, coordination and synchronisation among different sport federations and government in the sport system, which was a critical strategic constraint. Joint programmes and projects involving different role players and funders were lacking.

Dr Basson said the EPG recommendations noted that special measures were required to ensure greater accessibility and better quality data input. An automated data base should be established. Increasing generic black demographic targets from 50% to 60% in certain codes should be considered. Black African should be included alongside generic black representation as a major focus area, to ensure a higher degree of demographic equitability. There should be appropriate school and club data bases applicable to each code’s area of jurisdiction, to monitor the well-being of fundamental structures and support planning processes. Major codes needed to establish the feasibility of establishing new community-based sport administrative structures. Consideration should be given to establishing a detailed overall transformation programme positioned in a more strategic area of the DSRSA. The feasibility of a private sector-supported strategic transformation fund within the DSRSA should be investigated. Engagement with Lotto and the Sports Trust, through the DSRSA, was needed to ensure funding of projects linked to improvement initiatives in Transformation Charter dimensions.

Dr Basson said an additional 11 codes -- team and individual -- plus the five that had formed part of the pilot, should be selected, with a repeat status review in 2014 based on revised data sheets. Transformation data sheet outcomes should be used as an additional tool for prioritising sport codes. Effective transformation committees at national and provincial level were needed as the focal points for managing the implementation of the Transformation Charter.

Rugby had to be engaged with respect to the Springbok team’s demographic profile and undertakings given to address it on the basis of time-lined corrective initiatives. Targets set for women’s rugby and cricket at representative level should be revisited, and a larger footprint for girls at school and club level created.  Improved school and club related data and clearly defined areas of jurisdiction down to provincial and municipal level was required. DSRSA financial support programmes should be linked to the quality of data sheets and transformation target achievements.  

Discussion

Mr D Stock (ANC, Northern Cape) said transformation was not a “by the way” issue. It had provisions in the constitution in section 9 (3), which made specific reference to transformation and the inclusion of all other demographics, so that nobody was discriminated against in terms of race or grouping. President Mandela used to make reference to that particular imperative, and when the Springboks won the Rugby World Cup in 1995, President Mandela had mentioned that provision. The Minister of Sport was also quoted as saying that the issue of transformation could not be reduced to a quota system, where they would remove a white player and replace him or her with a black one, which would mean they were not achieving the issue of transformation. The Minister had also said they needed to change the mindset and perception in terms of how people think generally. This was the major challenge they all faced.

Mr Stock said that the presentation had referred to one of the challenges which made it difficult for EPG to address the issue of transformation. For example, the different bodies which were actually in charge of the different sporting codes were not in favour of the transformation agenda. and some of them made their own applications to the national lottery without going through the Department to seek permission,. and received funding, which made it very difficult for the Department to enforce the issue of transformation.

Mr Stock said the EPG had mentioned that they were going to monitor and evaluate, but asked how they were going to do that. Were they going to monitor, and expect a report from the different sporting codes? How far were they in terms of transformation? How far were they in addressing the objectives of the transformation charter, and what were they doing to enforce the charter?

Mr H Groenewald (DA, North West) said everyone was in favour of transformation in all sports in South Africa, and there was no problem in the different cultural groups, because they had accepted this. However, he was bit worried when it was mentioned that by 2018 there should be certain race groups in sports teams, which would bring them to the issue of quotas in order to fulfil their goal at the end of the day. The EPG study was very good, but the problem was really at the school level, where transformation always started. Many of the rural schools, model C and private schools did not have facilities. They had talked about it at another meeting, saying that all newly built schools should have sports facilities otherwise the problem would go on and on for many years, without transformation taking place, which was a worrying factor. Both the Department of Education and the Department of Sport and Recreation should get together to ensure that new schools had sports facilities, and make a plan for such facilities in old schools as well.

The other issue was that the teachers’ involvement in sport was not the way to go, as had been mentioned in the presentation, because teachers already had their curriculum during the day at school, and could not be expected to be involved in sport in the afternoon. Currently, teachers were on the managerial side, motivating children to get involved in sport. This was something which needed to be looked at, because everybody in the community should be involved in school sport.

Mr Groenewald said that the presenter had mentioned 16 sporting codes, but asked about the rest of the sports codes because there were many of them that needed financial support and funding.  This was a worry, since it was easy for those codes to simply disappear when there was no funding. The EPG should therefore continue with the study and bring transformation about in sport. However, the main problem was the media, because they created headlines over transformation issues and upset people from different cultures, which hindered progress.

Mr Groenewald said that there should be financial support for all the sporting codes and good management of sport structures. Politicians should not be involved and should let professional people handle the transformation of sport.

Mr M Khawula (IFP, KwaZulu-Natal,) asked why they were called the “Eminent Persons Group”, because everybody was talking about “eminent persons” who were doing this and that in terms of sport for South Africa.

Mr Khawula agreed with everything the EPG had talked about, but sports development was a problem because it had resulted in targets not being met. It started with development transforming the nature of sport in the country, accompanied by the quality of competitiveness. If they did not have quality sport development programmes, they were would achieve transformation, but they were not going to be competitive. In order to do that, there needed to be good development programme in the country. The problem they were facing was that the sports federations were voluntary organisations, and they volunteered because they got the means to be able to do things, and people who had been involved in the sport before. Parents were not going to volunteer, because they did not have the means and would not able to get to school sports, which was why they suffered. Therefore, there should be ways to capacitate people so that there was transformation in the federations, and people that were involved in those federations would have the passion to go out and look for people to be part of the programme.

Mr Khawula said that the EPG had spoken about the disarray of sport programmes in schools, which was quite correct. The difference was that the teacher of yesteryear was also a volunteer in sports activities after hours, but the teacher of today was not going to volunteer, because when they were asked to put more effort in after hours, they would ask about payment. They had conducted a study tour two years ago, as the province of KwaZulu-Natal to Jamaica. Jamaica which was a small country, but in terms of sport development it was surpassing South Africa because its sports development programmes were linked to the schools, and their professional sports programmes were linked to universities. Therefore, their sport was nurtured right from the start -- from school level up to university level. Secondly, they had a sports school which specifically trained coaches, and those coaches were deployed at all schools in Jamaica. Therefore, while the development programme was linked to the schools, there were things that government was doing to assist and nurture this development programme. It did not end there, as the professional part was also nurtured into universities, so that it was correctly monitored from the beginning to the end by the government of Jamaica. It was something South Africa could do. It did not take much in the way of resources, because it took heart, passion, planning and love. This was what they needed, but right now they did not have that kind of a person or teacher in their schools. If they could sort out those issues, maybe things would improve.

Mrs T Mpambo-Sibhukwana (DA, Western Cape) said the development of sport in the country was necessary, because sport brought discipline and a healthy mind, yet the government was not putting its money where its mouth was. She had had the opportunity to be a teacher for over 20 years in predominantly white schools, and one of the initiators had said they should join black schools with Model C schools so that they could develop and nurture one another. What was very distressing was to see the sports facilities in Model C schools, while there were no sporting facilities in black schools. They were not going to get the sporting codes right if there were no sporting facilities in black schools and parents were not involved. On the other side of the coin, those sporting facilities were available at Model C schools and parents were involved in sports development.

She said that when it came to sport, teachers were very demoralised because the government did not give them any incentives for those extra hours. There was no communication between the Department of Sport and Recreation, the Department of Basic Education, and the Department of Higher Education in terms of sport development programmes to ensure there was nurturing of young talent up to professional level. Therefore, after 20 years they had not seen the results they had been expecting because they were still dealing with the imbalances of the past. Those imbalances were not going to vanish in just 20 years. They were going to take time, and people needed to be patient.

The Chairperson said that when the Minister had put together the EPG to do the work, he had wanted to take the country forward in terms of sport. The presentation had enlightened them on a number of issues that the Committee might not have been aware of. In the presentation, it was said there needed to be an integration of structures that were responsible for running sport in South Africa, and an integration of resources, with all of them moving in the same direction with a view of achieving the social cohesion, coordination and development they aspired to see.

Resources and facilities needed for development should be channelled not only to urban areas, but also to the rural areas, particularly the schools. This was necessary because a  number of previously disadvantaged schools in certain areas had not been planned for education purposes, and the actual buildings did not accommodate sporting facilities. Currently, the principals were sitting with a situation where there was not a patch of land where they could take learners for development as far as sport was concerned.

The Chairperson asked how they would deal with the issue of merit and also the question of quotas, which had been raised by Mr Groenewald.

Dr Basson said that the merit argument came from that part of society that was opposing change for transformation. It was a very strong argument, but it would never be a consideration until the playing fields had been levelled. From their interaction with the Minister, the DG and the sporting codes, the intention was to ensure that the merit issue did not dominate the ultimate objective in terms of how they went about it, otherwise they would make huge mistakes. The sports organisations would always argue -- particularly the coaches -- and some of the coaches came from backgrounds which were totally opposed to bringing about the change required. The coach selected the team, and if the coach’s attitude and values were not in line, there was a major problem. That was why culture and value management would be introduced next year to be able to determine how well equipped someone was in the sport structures, be it a coach or a selector, to pursue their objectives keeping in mind that they still wanted to win and not lose. Therefore, they had to be careful on how they balanced the creation of opportunity against merit. This was very important to keep in mind, but merit was not the only issue. There other issues should be considered as well.

The other important area where they could see a problem was that the only constituency that could solve the alignment, coordination and synchronisation problem were the politicians, because they were in power.  The Education Department and the Department of Sport, whether in provincial or local government, were involved, but as long as that boat was not coordinated the eight men rowing it would drift further and further apart. Therefore, the need for coordination and an orchestrated system was absolutely vital, otherwise they would keep on building a “Tower of Babel,” which they could see was not working.

Dr Basson said that the other point of quotas was that it came from the old terminology of 20 years ago, when they had tried to force sporting codes to change, and had said sport would be done on a quota basis. They had progressed a long way since then and did not talk about quotas anymore. If a quota came up, it would be one that had been imposed by sports bodies themselves, like cricket and rugby, which had been done by provincial structures. They had said in provincial structures they would have a quota of at least three black African players in each provincial team, and in that way it would filter up. It was no longer a politically motivated action, but done by sports bodies themselves. They had accepted the fact that they had to change to survive and to remain competitive.

The EPG’s target was to monitor these trends. It should be kept in mind that rugby would never change at the same rate as cricket and football, because all agreed that the cultures were different. Rugby had committed itself and was going to sign a Memorandum of Agreement to reach for the targets out there, so they were not back 20 years over the issue of quotas.

Dr Basson said that because Model C and private schools were not coordinated, elitism had been allowed to take place. These schools were in a trap of their own, and everybody else -- or 80% of the school population -- was excluded from the luxury boat trip that they were on. They did just what they wanted to do, and arranged their matches among each other. If there was no orchestrated and coordinated system to solve that problem and hit it on the head, it would continue.

In rugby and cricket, South Africa was number one in the world. The reason was that the system was built by teachers. Rugby and cricket had momentum because of the school structures that were put in place by teachers, not by anybody else. If they did not solve the problem at school level to create opportunities for children to participate at each under age level, they would run out of human capital. Although the systems at top level were good in terms of what they have, they might not have sufficient material to fine tune in order to remain competitive.

If the question of coordination and coming together of departments was not taking place, they were wasting their time. They had wasted 20 years, because they knew of these problems ten years ago, but they had not coordinated and were not moving forward. However, they were confident that with the EPG, which was an independent group and was not attached to anybody, they would achieve results with sports development in the country.

The Chairperson thanked Mr Basson and his delegation for the informative presentation, and expressed the hope that they would work together in developing and transforming sport in South Africa.

The Meeting was adjourned.