Study Tour Reports and Committee Budget 2004-05: adoption

Sport, Arts and Culture

24 February 2004
Share this page:

Meeting Summary

A summary of this committee meeting is not yet available.

Meeting report

SPORT AND RECREATION PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE

SPORT AND RECREATION PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE
24 FEBRUARY 2004
STUDY TOUR REPORTS AND COMMITTEE BUDGET 2004-05: ADOPTION

Acting Chairperson:
Mr C Frolick (ANC)

Documents handed out
Committee Report on Provincial Visits
Budget Team Cost Centre Report (Hard copy available on request)
Committee Recommended Expenditure 2004-05 (Hard copy available on request)

SUMMARY
The Committee expressed its strong dissatisfaction with the South African Football Association's (SAFA) failure to attend the meeting, as they had been timeously informed. Members expressed concerns that SAFA did not appear to recognise Parliament's oversight role, and this should be addressed by the next Committee. The Committee adopted its Budget for 2004/2005 without amendments, as well as their Report on provincial visits.

MINUTES
Meeting with the South African Football Association
The Acting Chair stated that the South African Football Association (SAFA) had been supposed to brief this Committee today but he had received regrets from Mr Albert Mokoena, SAFA CEO. The letter indicated that SAFA's National Executive Committee would be meeting on 6 March to discuss the presentation which SAFA would make to the Committee, and thus requested the Committee to reschedule the meeting. The Acting Chair had replied to SAFA and informed them that Parliament would be rising on Friday 27 February 2004, and it would thus be impractical to entertain them after 27 February.

He commented that several federations had addressed this Committee in the past before their national executive committee meetings, and had been able to inform about their progress, activities and plans. The rugby and cricket federations especially had addressed them during very challenging circumstances, but still managed to interact beneficially with Members.

Mr J Louw (ANC) expressed his disappointment. Soccer was in a mess and over the last few years, it had seemed that SAFA was not taking this Committee seriously.

Mr Z Ncinane (ANC) agreed and proposed that they send a letter to SAFA to condemn its failure to attend this meeting in the strongest terms.

Mr A Mlangeni (ANC) disagreed that SAFA did not recognise Parliament. Several meetings had been held with SAFA in the past. If SAFA stated that they were not in a position to present a satisfactory report to Parliament before 6 March 2004, then Parliament should accept that. It was however unfortunate that they could not present before Parliament rose.

Dr E Schoeman (ANC) stated that Parliament had the right to summon persons or an institution like SAFA to appear before it, and it was imperative that they get this message. The comments that would have been made by Members today could have been taken back to the executive committee for consideration.

Mr E Lucas (IFP) stated that this was all water under the bridge now, and the only important point was that SAFA must not see the Committee as the enemy. SAFA's behaviour was not good.

The Acting Chair stated that this Committee last interacted with SAFA in 2002. The necessary report would be forwarded to the next Chairperson of this Committee and SAFA would be the first federation to report to that Committee with a comprehensive and all-inclusive briefing.

Committee Budget for 2004/2005
The Acting Chair stated that the final total of R634 662 had been decided on because the new Committee would first have to acclimatise itself to their scale of operations, not only for the next financial year but also for the 5-year period.

Mr T Lee (DA) asked whether the budgets for all the other new Committees had also been slashed. The Acting Chair answered in the affirmative.

Mr Lee stated that sport especially was a global matter, and this Committee should have at least one international visit per year.

The Acting Chair responded that all requests for international visits in the next budget had been turned down by Parliament's Committee section, because it was considered more prudent for Committees to first become familiar with the domestic issues before travelling abroad.

Mr Lucas proposed that this exercise was "really a waste of time" because this Committee could not influence the 2004/2005 budget in any way, but simply had to accept it on behalf of another Committee. This was grossly unfair.

The Acting Chair disagreed that it was a waste of time, because important issues would be taken forward to the next Committee. It would be grossly unfair for Parliament to rise on Friday without leaving a workable budget in place for the new Committee.

Dr Schoeman, Mr Louw and Mr Ncinane agreed that this budget was a fait accompli, and this Committee could only adopt this budget. All the comments raised would be considered by the next Committee.

The Acting Chair noted that the Committee approved the 2004/2005 budget.

Committee Report on Provincial Visits
Mr Ncinane reminded Members that the Committee had deliberated on this report on four previous occasions. He proposed that, unless Members has substantive amendments, the report should be adopted expeditiously.

The Acting Chair responded that a subcommittee was set up to compile this report, but all Members were not part of that process. For that reason, the report would have to be read through at least once during this meeting.

The Acting Chair noted that Members agreed to the report, without effecting substantive amendments.

Concluding remarks by Members
Mr Mlangeni, Mr Lee and Mr Lucas thanked their fellow Committee Members as well as the Committee Staff on behalf of their respective political parties on the good work done over the last five years, and wished them well for the future.

The meeting was adjourned.

Audio

No related

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: