Hansard: Sport and Recreation - Debate on Budget Vote 17 (Appropriation Bill)

House: National Assembly

Date of Meeting: 27 May 2008

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Minutes

UNREVISED HANSARD

EPC – COMMITTEE ROOM: E249

Tuesday, 27 May 2008

 

 

 

TUESDAY, 27 MAY 2008

PROCEEDINGS OF EXTENDED PUBLIC COMMITTEES OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

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Members of the Extended Public Committee met in Committee Room E249 at 15:05.

House Chairperson, Mr G Q M Doidge, as Chairperson, took the Chair.

APPROPRIATION BILL

Debate on Budget Vote 17 – Sport and Recreation:

The MINISTER OF SPORT AND RECREATION: Now, how do I switch this on? Thank you, Chairperson. Let me recognise members from this august House of the National Assembly, honourable guests in the gallery. I did see in the House, just now, some of the veterans of KwaZulu-Natal led by that legendary football player, Sugar Ray Xulu ... [Applause.] ... and I also recognise, behind me, some esteemed administrators, from rugby, swimming to triathlon – a whole body of sports organisations. They are sitting in the wrong place; they are sitting behind me and now I can't see them so well, but I recognise them anyway.

I also recognise my staff, the staff from the Department of Sport and Recreation and, most of all, my wife and my brother. They are also sitting in the wrong place. [Applause.]

"We, the people of South Africa, believe that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity" - this is the Preamble to our Constitution, Act 108 of 1996.

This Constitution enjoins us to "Heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights". And the nail is sealed in Section 33 of our Constitution, where this foundation to our democracy enjoins us that: "National legislation must be enacted to give effect to these rights".

While Parliament adopted our Constitution in 1996 by a unanimous vote of all political parties, what is not unanimous, it seems to me, is how to achieve the ideals articulated in the Constitution, the dream for whose attainment so many great sons and daughters of our land sacrificed so much for so long; the prize for which the ship of the struggle for freedom scoured every rock and weathered every storm.

As the term of office of this Parliament and of this government is approaching its end, it is most opportune, I believe, for us to take stock of the gains that we have made since the last financial year in making sport accessible to all; providing sports facilities; empowering young persons with requisite skills and, of course, also evaluate progress made in the transformation of sport in particular, but also of society in general. We have persistently and correctly said that sport can forge social cohesion. What we now need to ask ourselves is: How far have we progressed in attaining our stated goals on these issues? During this time, we must also say what we will further do, or do differently, to speed up the attainment of these goals.

In his state of the nation address, President Thabo Mbeki said last year:

More than at any other time, the situation that confronts our nation and country, and the task we have set ourselves, demand that we inspire and organise all our people to act together as one, to do all the things that have to be done, understanding that, in a very real sense, all of us, together, hold our own future in our hands.

Our sport has in the past year experienced mixed fortunes. The glorious moment of winning the International Rugby Board World Cup in France last October is an event that has reverberated across the world. The success of our cricket team in their recent games in India and Bangladesh as well as at home, has been quite impressive. Our wheelchair basket ball team has had another successful season. So have our men's hockey team, our swimming team and a number of other codes that won major championships during this year. Individuals like Trevor Immelman and James Kante have also made us proud in golf. James Kante's success in the Sunshine Tour's Seekers Travel Pro – Am in Spain, where he shot a pair of 68s and a 67 for a total of 203 to pick up the first prize, is very significant. The last black South Africans to achieve similar successes are Papwa Sewgolum, who won the Dutch Open three times, in 1959, 1960 and 1964, and Vincent Tshabalala who captured the French Open in 1976. This was some 50 and 30 years ago! We also wish to congratulate Annie Kloppers on being accredited an INFA umpire, that is an umpire of the International Federation of Netball Associations. This gives South Africa its second person in that category after Maggie du Plessis, who was the only one until last month.

At the level of school rugby, Grey College in Port Elizabeth has selected young Bethe to become their first black captain in 150 years. Mr Peter De Villiers became the first black national rugby coach in South Africa since the 19th century. Surely, these are some positives in the transformation of things in South Africa. They also make all of us proud and motivate us to do even more.

We warned last year that our annexing of the World Cup in rugby should not be squandered, like in 1995. We argued then that this was a window that shows us what is possible for South Africans in our path to a united, nonracial nation. There is no indication that anyone listened. Even as the route of honour of the World Champions was arranged, it needed political intervention to avoid being a totally elitist affair. For those kids to go to Soweto, we needed a presidential intervention. Power relations in the economy as well as ideological resistance to change were starkly glaring in those arrangements.

The selection of the cricket team to Bangladesh and India gave rise to an ugly spat on transformation issues. This exposed, once more, what we have always been arguing all the time, that most of our sports federations do not have a transformation agenda, except on paper. In the process, players were manipulated to make anti-change statements which, I am sure, they hardly understood, as they were not statements from their hearts. Our players and administrators need to know that transformation in sport is not negotiable. It is part of our Constitutional mandate and it is part of our government agenda. [Applause.]

Our soccer teams have not done very well. The spark of brilliance of Bafana Bafana is still not where we want it to be, and I'm sure Sugar Ray will agree with that. Banyana Banyana continues to be the Cinderella of soccer, just like their counterparts in rugby and cricket, because women's sport is an afterthought in this country. [Applause.]

Our junior teams show great potential, but the malaise of nonavailability of players when coaches want them, refuses to go away and frustrates coaches, as they try to play with makeshift teams. This is unacceptable. I want to say that, even this morning, we saw in the reports, the recurrence of this thing, where the coach knows which players should be in the team, but the coach cannot be sure whether those players will be available. This is the difference again between soccer and rugby in this country. A rugby player selected to the national team leaves everything and goes to play for the national team. [Applause.] We can't say the same of soccer, where owners and clubs will tell the coach "our player is tired; you can't play him," or "our player is busy somewhere else, you can't have him." And this is what we tried to address last year, when it was distorted as us trying to reintroduce communist nationalisation policies. All we were doing was to say that a climate must be established where a coach will be assured of getting the players of his choice on the field on the day. The nation is bigger than the club. And, as Samora Machel would have said "The tribe must die for the nation to live".

We take this opportunity to welcome Mr Santana, the new national soccer coach. We wish him well in his work. We hope some of his coaching expertise will rub off on local coaches. The successes of Mamelodi Sundowns, Supersport United and Mpumalanga Black Aces show that there is talent here too. It must not be overlooked just because it is local. We appreciate that SA Football Association complied with the laws of our land in appointing him; may other federations follow suit. The laws are for the protection of our people's jobs. This is also necessary for skills development and self pride. We must begin to stop hating ourselves, and begin to place our trust in our own hands.

We must congratulate our athletes who have qualified for the Beijing Olympic Games. After an outstanding performance in the African Championships, our athletes should do better than in Japan. We all know our dismal showing in Japan in the IWAF Championships. We hope they do better than that and not just become stars on the African continent. Of course, the highlight of their qualification is the victory of Oscar Pistorious for all people with disability. The decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport is to be welcomed as it opens to all athletes with disability, the opportunity to compete with able-bodied athletes. Good luck to Oscar and his colleagues.

We can repeat here what Fifa said last week in Zurich: South Africa is ready to host a memorable World Cup in 2010. While some stadia are three or five weeks behind schedule, overall, the construction of roads, stadia and other support structures is on track. The reason why both Fifa and ourselves are confident that everything is on track, is because we know that we can still make all the stadia ready well in advance of the 2010 World Cup, as well as for the Confederation Cup Tournament. The current hullabaloo, of course, is based on the attempt to force us to use different standards for Africa than we use for the rest of the world. This is not unknown. When we went to Leipzig in 2006 for the semis and the quarter-finals, Brazil was practicing to play the following day in a stadium that was still under construction. We are not saying that; we are saying five months ahead our stadia will all be available for the Confederation Cup, and a year ahead of time, they will be available for the World Cup in 2010.

Let me address the current attacks on Africans coming from neighbouring states, as they have a direct bearing on the degree to which 2010 indeed becomes an African Cup. It is an affront to our attempts to unite Africa and South Africa around the 2010 World Cup. Clearly, there is a great deal of ethnic prejudice around these issues. Not a single non-African foreigner has been attacked. Instead, we see attacks on South Africans and other African foreigners. Now of course this is not commensurate with the meaning of the word "xenophobia" as espoused by the Greeks. It is a pity that hon Van der Merwe is not here, because he would agree that "xenophobia" is a Greek word, and it means "the fear of the alien or foreigner". Now, Zimbaweans or Ghanaians or Somalis are not the only aliens or foreigners in this country. As a matter of fact, the Shangaans are not aliens at all, and yet all these people are victims of these attacks. So, it is not a fear of strangers; it seems to be a fear of African strangers. As a matter of fact, it also seems to be ethnicity related because, as I've said, Shangaans are not strangers. So, very soon, we'll be told amaMpondo must also be lynched.

The Local Organising Committee and the departments as well as other spheres of government, are in full gear in implementing legacy projects. These range from the positioning of our people to benefit from trade, tourism and management opportunities. Schools and communities are being mobilised to build a firm support base for this tournament. Gert will be talking to that just now about the launching of the Schools World Cup tournament, which will go on until 2010. This is important for marketing South Africa and the African continent in the long term.

The work done by the 2010 unit in our department is critical for the coordination, guidance and monitoring of these government projects. The coordinator of this unit, Dr Joe Phaahla, asked for the termination of his contract. It should have been terminated in August; he preferred to go in April. This was to free him to follow his chosen career in business and politics. We thank Dr Phaahla for his work in leading that unit and sometimes acting as Director-General of the department. His humble approach to conflict resolution will be sorely missed. We wish him well in his new life. Of course, we want to assure him that we still reserve the right to ask him to assist or to accept his offers to assist. [Applause.]

I want to deal with an item which always arises in the portfolio committee meetings. This is the finalisation of the integration of staff migrating from the old Sports Commission, to the new Sports and Recreation Department.

We are pleased to announce that we have completed the integration process of our staff. Most funded posts have been filled. We boast of a youthful department, with 34% of the senior managers being female. I don't believe there is any department in this country which has a larger component of young persons in their personnel than us. Obviously, there is room for improvement here. While we have 34%, we would do better with 50% or 55%. We believe we can improve our intake. A number of policies have been developed during this financial year. More could have been done with a better chemistry among top managers – I don't want to hide this. If they fight amongst themselves, they delay the work that should be done. The Department of Public Service and Administration is assisting us, since last year, with change management strategies.

Last time, I reported that some of our managers had opened grievance procedures challenging the Labour Relations Act and the placement processes. They thought the integration process should simply have promoted them. We are pleased to announce that they all lost their cases with the Public Service Commission. We did our best to educate them on the laws governing these things. However, they also had other advisers who politicised a simple administrative issue governed by the laws that you passed.

Our attempts, to forever seek the best ways of delivering on our mission, continue. The 2008 to 2012 strategic plan highlights these. To improve our Mass Participation Programme, we are consolidating the old hubs to coincide with municipal boundaries. This will assume certainty on what happens when and where and by whom. It will also deepen the culture of integrated planning, as mayoral tournaments must be part of the national mass participation effort. What we are doing here is to say that you cannot have a parallel process of municipal mass participation as well as a national mass participation. They must come together and bring the citizens of that locality into a concentrated and focused mass participation programme. This will then benefit from the scientific support which we will be providing to talented athletes.

In 2004 I raised the problem of very gifted young sports persons who were underweight, emaciated or simply did not have the tools to build their muscles and bone structure, let alone their skills.

Since then we have established a Scientific Support Service that must, of course, be delivered in partnership with available facilities and skills or expertise in regional tertiary education. We do not want to give monopoly to a particular tertiary institution, which then claims it has the sole responsibility of training our national and international athletes. We rather want to decentralise this, and have it specialised. So we know where we send our netball team before they go to Canada, and we know where we send our rugby team before they go to Wales and we know exactly where our boxers must go to build their skills.

This has been accepted by the tertiary institutions of this country. This is an improvement of our previous approach of just allocating money for the upgrading of the skills of our national teams and of our international championships. We are taking it beyond that. We are taking it from the local, regional, national and of course international level. I'm sure Gideon Sam, Chairperson of the Distribution Agency, will be pleased to know that the money that resides with his entity will now be spread across the board. It will not only concentrate on the peak of the triangle; it will also deal with the centre of the triangle.

South Africa continues to play her leadership role in Africa and in the world. We are current chairs for the Supreme Council of Sport in Zone Six. We also chair the Governments of the World component of the World Anti-Doping Association. Our political position is highly respected at both levels and our scientific expertise makes an impact through our South African Institute of Drug Free Sport. We are an important component of consolidating the African agenda and regional unity and we are very highly esteemed for our development of the continent.

We are proud to have participated in the events commemorating the Battle of Cuito Carnavale - a battle that changed the route of the struggle for our liberation; a battle that forced the regime to accept that they could no longer stop us from being first class citizens in the only country that belongs to us. [Interjections.] What the hon member means is that I am speaking God's truth. [Laughter.]

 

Sport has become a big business. [Interjections.] Hon Mulder always disputes me on this issue, and the fundamentals of the dispute are based on statistics. Now I am told that it is a wise man who says about statistics: You must use statistics like a drunk person uses a lamp post. Use it to lean on, but not as a guide. You see, when we interrogate the statistics of Cuito Carnavale, we cannot only count the number of MK soldiers or Fapla soldiers and SADF soldiers. We must also count the number of surrogates of the South African Defence Force fighters in Cuito Carnavale. Then the statistics will be totally different. [Interjections.] One day I will invite you for coffee.

Sport, as I have said, has become very big business. It has also become an important element in the marketing and economic development of towns and cities. One city that seems to understand this is the city of Durban. The progress they are making in building sports facilities for enhancing their tourism programmes and enhancing their abilities to invite mega world events to their city, does not seem to be recognised by other cities of this country. We urge these other cities to take note of Durban's attitude to these matters. [Applause.]

All this cannot take place without facilities and a conducive environment in society. This is why we continue to insist that sports infrastructure, the Municipal Infrastructure Grant Fund, the MIG, is not a suitable place to place the sports infrastructure, so that, together with our shareholders, the National Lottery funds, these resources can assist to develop our sporting plans. It has to be taken out of the MIG; this has been our argument for the last two years already. If you look at the statistics again, as a lamppost, you will see that since the advent of the MIG, delivery of sports facilities went town by more than 300%, and that cannot be acceptable. Now I know that there was a decision taken by the national conference of the ANC at Polokwane on this matter. All the parties accused us of just being bullied by this resolution. On this issue, I know they agree with the Polokwane resolution. It is not foreign, in the politics of the world, for political parties to go to national conferences to develop policies. So it is not a scandal to go to Polokwane and develop a policy on this issue. [Applause.] Let us all eat from the same dish guided by the parent with plans and a vision for all. You can't leave the children with the money; they are going to cheat one another. [Laughter.]

Change cannot come sua sponte; it cannot come of its own volition. Our Constitution does not expect it to be automatic. President Mbeki correctly points out that market forces are not sympathetic to the poor. This is what motivates our actions as a developmental state. That is why we get irritated when the anti – democratic forces of the past, regroup and distort our agenda. This is what worries us when the SA Rugby Union and the International Rugby Board entertain a one-sided submission that completely distorts reality. You know, I read that submission by Afro Forum and all those people. One of the things which is very laughable there, is their comment that, in this country, soccer is only played by black people and whites are not allowed. What kind of a frivolous nonsense is that? I could not believe it. I could not believe it was written about South Africa. It is not Spies. I protect him.

Our Department will respect human rights. But we will also access them to the marginalized communities of our land. Nothing can stop us from that. Posterity deserves this, and it deserves it not from somebody else, but from us.

I want to thank the co-operation received from the young man here, Deputy Minister Gert Oosthuizen, the portfolio committee under the leadership of hon Butana Komphela and his colleagues. The assistants, like Donna-Lee, of course, I can never forget your support also on the field. We went to Humansdorp together with the hon member and we saw the things in the field.

Our also want to thank the MECs from the various provinces and their Premiers for their continued support and tolerance. Sometimes they move very slowly and we have to write very rough letters to them, but they have not complained; they have simply complied. We thank you very much for that.

We thank the NGOs and the media for assisting us in these issues. Many people are not here today. They only rely on what the media tells them tomorrow on what was said and discussed this afternoon.

Above all, we must thank the director-general and his team of managers and administrators, our foot soldiers and implementers of our programmes. Without them, we cannot get there. We thank you all for listening. "Ke Nako." Now is the time. [Applause.]

Mr B M KOMPHELA

END OF TAKE

The MINISTER OF SPORT AND RECREATION

Mr B M KOMPHELA: Chairperson, Comrade Minister, hon Deputy Minister, comrades, hon members and the beautiful guests on the gallery this afternoon, it was 52 year ago in 1956 when the Minister of Home Affairs in the apartheid government, Mr T E Donges, drew up the first apartheid sport policy and legally separated sport in our country.

However, this could not destroy the determination of our soccer players and sportspeople in general. In the same year, 52 years ago, black South African players such as Steven Kalamazoo Mokene and David Julius, and in 1958 Darius Dlomo, all surmounted these racist obstacles to participate in international sport. In 1965, Leeds United winger Albert Johnson became the first black South African to play in the English FA Cup Final.

All Africans, and the most ardent football fanatics, rejoiced in the Federation of International Football Associations' decision to impose sanctions against South Africa in 1976, because Fifa understood that apartheid was evil; Fifa understood that apartheid was wrong; and, therefore, the contribution of the international community – particularly Fifa – in the struggle for freedom by our people, was to ban South African sport teams from the international arena. At the same time, while the rest of the world enjoyed the fruit of football fortunes, South Africans, even though enduring segregation, also packed football stadiums with meagre resources and kept the game alive.

One of the most powerful resolutions I can recall, adopted by Fifa in June 2006, reads as follows: Develop the game; touch the world; and build the future. When we develop the game that will be able to touch the world and the hearts of the ordinary people at large, it is the most important process that builds towards a better life for our people and makes our people better sportsmen in this country.

Chairperson, at the 52nd conference of the African National Congress, the ANC took a bold decision when it re-examined itself and the state of sport in this country to assess the social cohesion; to assess the unity of our people; to assess critical matters as far as sport is concerned. The ANC made resolutions - one of those resolutions that the Minister spoke about, was a resolution that states that one emblem must be adopted for all sports national teams. I like that resolution made in Polokwane: One emblem for all the national teams.

The second resolution made in Polokwane that the Minister spoke about, that I like very much, was that funding currently under the Municipal Infrastructure Grant, which is aimed at sports facilities, should be diverted to the Department of Sport and Recreation. That resolution was made when the ANC, at the conference in Polokwane, re-examined itself and said that we think that we are building facilities with the MIG, but we have lost a great deal. Therefore, we must re-examine ourselves and bring back the sport facilities to the Minister of Sport and Recreation so that we can build these basic facilities for the poor people in the townships. [Applause.]

The ANC took a deliberate decision again in saying that it must ensure that the country's investment in the 2010 FIFA World Cup must result in a legacy for our communities and our people. Members of the committee, particularly hon Holomisa who I think has got a point, are saying that in as far as nice stadiums are built throughout the country, there is no social responsibility. These people are digging the ground and doing everything, but what are they giving to the people? This country has given them the World Cup with a huge amount of money to tender to build the sporting facilities. That responsibility must come. At least I agree at the moment – for the first time – with the UDM.

As we meet here today, we should remember that history has imposed on the shoulders of our movement, and therefore as a collective, the burden to lead our people when they belong to the organisation as well as those who do not belong to the organisation, because we are a government. Accordingly, the eyes and ears of millions of our people, and many beyond our shores, were watching with expectation to see what you delivered, hon Minister, as hope in the speech for this Budget so that, at least, we can build a better life and transform sport in this country.

What do our people expect? The most direct answer is that our people expect that we should continue to work and implement the decisions taken at our conference for a better life. Our people expect that we honour the commitments we have made to them for a better life in a democratic country. The majority of our people have chosen the national liberation movement, led by the ANC as a political force, which should shoulder our country and take them to greater heights in the reconstruction and development, and a better change for life.

Comrade Minister, on our quest for reconstruction and development there are deliberate racist obstacles which is intent on derailing our national democratic revolution agenda. Those forces are not going to succeed. They are going to fail, because this country has to be transformed and no party, except the ANC, could transform this country better than it has been up to now. [Applause.]

The challenge of creating a people-centred society living up to the vision of the Freedom Charter requires of all of us, as South Africans, that we should be South Africans and we deserve to belong to the reconstruction and development of this country as a better place for all of us to stay. However, Chair and Comrade Minister, after 14 years of democracy, the burden of genuine reconstruction and development has become the responsibility of the black people in this country. Black people have never been the oppressors in this country. Why should they shoulder the responsibility of nation-building and unity on their own when their oppressors themselves do not care about nation-building and unity of our people in this country?

Chair, that process of reconstruction and development will also have to encompass the spiritual life of the nation, honesty, integrity, and total commitment, bearing on the moral renewal of individuals and institutions as well as ideas and practice of a new patriotism.

When you see a flag when you arrive in New Zealand and a flag when you are in Cape Town – "Die Vierkleur" - it is not patriotism. It is antagonism that says: We do not recognise the new South African flag; what we recognize is "Die Vierkleur". That is not patriotism; it is antagonistic to a democratic state and, therefore, it is despicable.

Chairperson, we have looked into many of these things, but we were concerned. One of the things that we regret, is the mistake to kill the hen that lays the golden egg – and that hen is the United Schools Sports Association of South Africa. We must accept that in our mission to reconstruct, the hon Minister will make mistakes. When USSASSA was killed, school sport died in this country. For three years there has been no school sport in our view, because we have killed the hen that has laid at least one golden egg.

The memorandum of understanding that we have signed, in good faith with Education, has not yielded the intended results in as far as that memorandum was signed. Therefore we are requesting that the Minister must re-examine this memorandum of understanding to find out whether or not it will assist us in building a school sport that is at a level where we begin to usher in the transformation of our children at school level.[Applause.]

The people of Frankfort, a small town in the Free State, have asked me to thank you, because you requested me and the MEC for the Free State Sport and Recreation to fetch the memorandum in Frankfort and when we arrived there, the situation was political. It was political in the sense that, when we arrived at the gate, the gate keepers at that stadium were Mr Kriel from Afriforum and the FF Plus and they prevented our people from entering that stadium. When we arrived at that stadium in Frankfort, one person who was accompanying Kallie Kriel was the DA member of the Free State legislature, Mr Jankielsohn. We could not allow our people to wait and see their rights being trampled on. We opened up the gates and the children went into the stadium and played there.

Hon Minister, your investigation around that facility, which we have in our hands now, has vindicated our people in Frankfort, because they were saying that facility doesn't belong to that school or anybody, but to the municipality. It is true, the document you have given me to pass on to the MEC for sport in the Free State says that facility belongs to the people of Frankfort. We are waiting patiently for the day you are going to take time out from you busy schedule so that we can go and hand that facility to the people of that area.

Mr P J GROENEWALD: Chairperson, would the hon Mr Komphela be so kind as to answer a very easy question? He's got 12 minutes. [Interjections.]

Mr B M KOMPHELA: I will answer at the end.

Mr P J GROENEWALD: At the end, will you please warn, Mr Komphela, when he's got one minute left? Thank you.

Mr B M KOMPHELA: I will answer the question at the end. You see, a heckling of despicable persons like that makes me angry. [Laughter.]

We were taken back ...

Mr M J ELLIS: On a point of order: I believe that it is unparliamentary to call a member of this House "despicable."

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr G Q M DOIDGE): Hon Komphela, I understand it is not in order.

Mr B M KOMPHELA: Chairperson, I withdraw. The agenda of reactionaries has many other tendencies. [Laughter.]

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: Order! Members, order please!

Mr M J ELLIS: Madam Chair. On a point of order: I believe it is also unparliamentary to refer to a member of this House as a "reactionary".

Mr B M KOMPHELA: No, no. I didn't say that.

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: Hon member, don't make my life difficult, please.

Mr M J ELLIS: Chair, I don't want to make your life difficult, but I'm afraid the speaker is the one who is doing that.

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: It is fine, we will consult with the Table and then we will come back to you. Please continue.

Mr B M KOMPHELA: Chairperson, the reactionary forces in this country, to reiterate, are hell-bent on derailing our national democratic revolution. We have had public hearings during the budget interrogation with our people, but we were taken aback, Minister, by discontent and a sad message that our people reveal at those public hearings. They say that that very exciting day in Kimberley in 1992, turned out to be a very fateful and sad day for the history of sport in this country, because people never negotiated in good faith when unity was forged in this country in Kimberley in 1992. [Applause.] There were key things that were negotiated on and agreed upon by all parties and progressive forces whom some were saying were progressive forces, but they were not. They were saying that the unity process should be reviewed in 1997; secondly, that there should be a merge of federations on a fifty-fifty basis so that we are at least able to realise the South Africa that all of us aspire to see and that one of those pillars was for us to be accepted into the international community, because we have run by-courts in this country to burn and render the apartheid government ungovernable. We did so with pride and we do not regret doing that. In that scope, our people found themselves agreeing on these takings. But, comrade Minister, the people that we are putting on the budget here and there have requested that we convey to you that it is important that must convey this message to you that an urgent national indaba on sport is needed to re-examine whether the intended gains of unity in Kimberley in 1992 have been achieved and that indaba must not be a talk show, it must be an honest assessment of building unity and social cohesion in this country and therefore it must bind everybody. We have agreed that we will convey that message. In any event, we have to report to Parliament about the public hearings, and Parliament will agree that if the Minister has any other view you would raise that with the Speaker.

Lastly, the public spurt between Sascoc and Athletics South Africa has become a very concerting type of situation. When Athletics South Africa was called to present to Parliament on their annual progress and all the other related matters, Sascoc deemed it fit to put a kangaroo court in place and guillotine the president of Athletics South Africa. In terms of the Constitution and the Rules of this Parliament, we had to defend Athletics South Africa from the kangaroo court type of situation that Sascoc wanted to institute against Athletics South Africa. One thing we are once again urging the Minister to investigate is concerning Dr Dlamini from KwaZulu-Natal, who, towards the election of Athletics South Africa was approached, bribed and then it was said that Dr Dlamini must stand against Athletics South Africa. The only thing that discredits Dr Dlamini is that he is a member of the IFP, and therefore he must join the ANC so that this war must be seen as ANC against ANC. [Time expired.]

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: Order! Before I call the next speaker, there was a point of order from the DA. I am advised by the table that there is nothing wrong with the word "reactionary".

Mr T D LEE

END OF TAKE

Mr B M KOMPHELA

Mr T D LEE: Madam Chair, Mr Minister, Mr Deputy Minister, friends and colleagues, one of my colleagues, Mr Marius Swart, told me to remind you, Mr Minister, it's not only Durban that is hosting international events, but George also hosts the International Rugby Board Sevens Tournament every year.

Chairperson, the DA believes in an open-opportunity society in which sport is free from political interference. In an open-opportunity society, individuals choose sport codes that suit their talents and passion. The coach elects his or her team purely on merit; colour does not determine an individual's inclusion in or exclusion from a particular team. In an open-opportunity society, the government mobilises the necessary resources to allow individuals to realise their sporting potential. The daily management of sport is the responsibility of administrators. I want to repeat that: The daily management of sport is the responsibility of administrators.

Sadly, South Africa is not an open-opportunity society. In fact, the ANC has become an enemy of the open-opportunity society. It insists on quotas - and you can call them "targets" today – despite the resistance of players; players do understand why. Accommodating diversity in sport is essential for the development of sport in this country. For this to work it requires the opening up of sports opportunities for all people; it means having sports facilities in every school, community, and village to enable our children to showcase and develop their talents.

Access to sports facilities must not be a privilege enjoyed only by the urban few; it must also go to the villages. The government must ensure that sports infrastructure is available to all schools and in rural areas. In areas where the government struggles to build sports infrastructure, Mr Minister, we must encourage more public-private partnerships to do this because the industry wants to assist.

South Africa has immense talent in sport, but we are unlikely to reach our full sporting potential if the government does not allocate sufficient resources for sports development.

Afrikaans:

Mnr die Minister, hier is ek en u ad idem. Ons verstaan mekaar, want ek en u weet waar ons begin het. Ons het op skoolvlak begin om sport te beoefen. Dit was op skoolvlak. Ons het toegewyde onderwysers gehad wat ons aangemoedig het om aan sport deel te neem. Voorheen was skolesport die hoogtepunt van die sportkalender, maar in die afgelope klompie jare het dit onder die ANC-regering lelik in die hek geduik.

Die Ministerie van Sport en Ontspanning het soms versuim om kompetisies vir skolesport te finansier, wat leerders die geleentheid ontneem het – en nou praat ek van die agtergeblewenes – om op die hoogste vlak teen hulle teenstanders mee te ding. In Februarie vanjaar was die nasionale skoleswemkompetisie in gedrang omdat die departement nie die verblyfkoste van die deelnemers gefinansier het nie. Die arme kinders.

Elke jaar kom ons na hierdie Huis om die departement se begroting goed te keur en 'n deel daarvan moet aan skolekompetisies bestee word. Tot nou toe is ons nie ingelig oor wat met volgende jaar se kompetisie gaan gebeur nie.

'n Gesonde liggaam skep 'n gesonde verstand. Die regering moet almal aanmoedig om aan sport deel te neem sodat ons 'n gesonde nasie kan word. Terselfdertyd moet ons uitnemendheid in sport beloon. Die regering moet sportbeurse instel vir leerders wat op skool in sport uitblink. Ons moet die land se jong sportsterre die seën gee wat hulle nodig het om in sowel hulle onderwys as hulle sport uitnemendheid te bereik.

Ons het toegewyde onderwysers nodig wat ons kinders met die nodige lewensvaardighede kan help sodat hulle groot sportsterre kan word. Die Departement van Sport en Ontspanning moet nouer met die Departement van Onderwys saamwerk om sport op skolevlak te ontwikkel.

English:

... and on that I support the chairperson, Mr Kompela. It is only an agreement on paper but nothing has happened so far.

The financial performance of the Department of Sport and Recreation leaves much to be desired. In the past financial year, bonuses worth over a million rand were paid to staff members without the approval of the Department of Public Service and Administration; they were not told to do so.

The payment of bonuses without complying with financial regulations displays a total disregard of good governance, which cannot be tolerated at all. The department's failure to lead by example in complying with legislation contributes to the various financial scandals in some of the sports federations in this country.

To date, basketball officials have mismanaged the federation's funds because they have realised that it is easy to violate financial regulations in sport without being punished. We must promote a culture of transparency, good governance and leadership in sports to be successful in this country.

Instead of there being animosity amongst sports federations, the SA Confederation and Olympic Committee, the department and the portfolio committee need more co-operation; we need to work together. We must stop bullying one another. Unless there is unity amongst all stakeholders in sport, the country's aspirations to be a leading sports nation will not be realised.

Afrikaans:

Die DA steun die suksesvolle aanbieding van die 2010-Wêreldbekersokkertoernooi, wat al die land se mense sal baat. Ons is opgewonde oor die vordering wat reeds gemaak word om die meeste van ons stadions vir 2010 gereed te hê.

Ons spoor almal aan wat by die voorbereiding van stadions vir 2010 betrokke is om alles moontlik te doen om te sorg dat Port Elizabeth se stadion ook gereed sal wees om wedstryde vir sowel die Konfederasie- as die Wêreldbeker aan te bied. As PE nie gereed is om albei geleenthede aan te bied nie, sal ons die Oos-Kaapse mense – en ek kom van die Baai af – beroof van die geleentheid van 'n leeftyd om deel van die heel grootste sokkerfees te wees.

Daar is vandag 744 dae oor, mnr die Minister. Dit lyk miskien ver weg, maar ons moet al die moontlike doen om te sorg dat 2010 'n onvergeetlike sukses sal wees. Ek dank u.

Dr R RABINOWITZ

END OF TAKE

Mr T D LEE

Dr R RABINOWITZ: Madam Chair, as you can see I am not the most youthful and athletic member of this team but I can assure I make an excellent coach in football and in cricket for my grandchildren and their friends. [Laughter.] From a health perspective I constantly emphasise the benefit of sport. I am happy to participate in this debate which is mostly the work of our main member of the IFP, Mr Dhlamini. Mentioning that name, I would like to comment that the IFP views with distaste your comment about the Dr Dlamini from KwaZulu-Natal.

Firstly, the IFP does not field members to participate in sports body elections. Secondly, if that Dr Dlamini was a member of the IFP, it is his democratic right to participate in any election that he chooses. But let us continue.

The mission of Sport and Recreation South Africa is stated as: To improve the quality of life of all South Africans by creating an environment conducive to maximising the access to participation in sport and recreation, as well as hosting and participating in world class events.

In line with this aim, we have been successful in the second half of this mission, hosting world class events. [Interjections.]

Mr B M KOMPHELA: Chairperson, I think I need to ask for a point of order. The hon member is distorting everything that I've said about Dr Dlamini. I never said all that things that is talking about.

The TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON: Order! Hon Khompela that is not a point of order. Please get seated. You can't respond to the member's speech. Continue, hon member.

Dr R RABINOWITZ: Madam Chair, I hope you will give me extra time for that interruption. [Laughter.] As I've said, we have been successful in the second half of this mission which is hosting world class events.

The success of the Rugby and Cricket World Cups, as well as the Africa Cup of Nations, amongst others, is evidence of our capability to host international events of the highest calibre. So I have little doubt that we will be ready in 2010 to host the Fifa World Cup.

With regard to creating an environment conducive to maximising the access to participation in sports and recreation, I think we have not been as successful as we could. And the hon member himself refer to this, and as we should have been. The disparities between the various regions and areas within our country, with regard to access to sporting facilities and participation are still too great and not conducive to the improvement of quality of life as stated in the aim.

The current violent climate and unhealthy environment that reigns supreme in many of our schools, and our country in general, does not bode well for the future of our country. This department can play a major role in correcting this destructive situation by providing better access to sport and sporting facilities for students in all schools and in rural areas. In many places within our country, the youth are idle for long period of time, and they have need for an outlet for their pent-up energy or anger and creativity as there are no facilities and resources in their areas. This increases their susceptibility to crime and criminal elements.

We therefore urge the hon Minister and the rest of the department to pay more attention to, and provide additional funding for, the provision of facilities and resources needed to create the environment that will be conducive to our youth becoming healthy, productive and well adjusted adults.

This department must therefore strengthen its programmes that would create the right environment needed to maximise access to participation in sport and recreation, beginning with our youth.

Sports, especially team sports, build comradeship and team spirit and aids with social interaction and tolerance as every player has to learn to trust and rely on his or her team mates. Not only are the benefits of sport, health and economic but we must not underestimate the positive impact that sport can have on social development. Our current sporting environment is characterised by politicking, infighting and the promotion of personal agendas and personal profiles. This must stop if sport is to be used as a tool that contribute to the improvement of our current social problems and better the lives of all South Africans.

Transformation in sport has been a contentious issue for many years now. There have been numerous debates and discussions surrounding this important and necessary process and how best to go about achieving the transformation of our various sporting bodies. The manner in which this issue has been dealt with by the relevant sporting administrators and organisations has, on occasion, been worrying.

Our sport teams and players are under enormous pressure to perform well and represent the nation with pride and distinction. The burden of expectation is huge. This pressure is increased greatly and unnecessarily they are caught in the middle of transformational arguments and disagreement between various sporting authorities regarding the compositions of teams. These issues often find the way into the media and public domain where the focus gets shifted from their affected players. This is an unacceptable situation, as the players are not to be blamed for the incompetence of the administrators and the officials in the performance of their duties and their failure to carry out the transformation agenda.

The excellent management style of Jake White was important and it played an important role in the success of South Africa's rugby team. It should serve as a model to our national sporting team managers. Managers must be good and independent, and must be left to do their job.

We, in the IFP, have always maintained that transformation in sport is nonnegotiable. Our main concern is the manner in which it is dealt with. And it is in this area that we have been lacking and we must make improvements. It is, firstly, very important that the correct people with the necessary expertise be appointed to posts of strategic importance. They must not be appointed because of their political affiliations or because of whom they know.

It is imperative for the people who do not support transformation in sport to realise that transformation must and will take place. Their efforts to maintain the status quo and resist transformation are futile. It is therefore in their best interest to change their attitudes, embrace and assist this important goal. If we all work together, we will reach our goals much faster and achieve transformation.

The capacity of sport for building a proud united national spirit is unparalleled. But to last it must be transferred from winners and heroes to our youth.

The 2010 Fifa World Cup is an opportunity that we must embrace and maximise for the benefit of many South Africans as possible. The current mood in our country is sombre. Our people need hope. They need to look forward to something that has that possibility of providing them with a better life and an escape from their current troubles and seemingly hopeless existence. With the World Cup, we have the opportunity to do exactly that. The benefit and sustainable development that can be derived from this tournament are endless. It is therefore of the utmost importance that it succeed and the benefit derived from it be shared by as many South Africans as possible and in all regions of the country. We must ensure that this tournament is not for the personal gain of a selected few at the expense of the many. The IFP supports this budget. Thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]

Mr B H HOLOMISA

END OF TAKE

Dr R RABINOWITZ

Mr B H HOLOMISA: Chairperson, hon Minister and Deputy Minister and hon members ...

IsiXhosa:

Umzuzu ke andinawo kuba undiphe imizuzu emithathu kungenjalo bendizakurhabulisa. [I don't have enough time because you have given me three minutes only, otherwise I would have to politicise you.]

The UDM supports the Budget Vote for Sport and Recreation. There is no doubt in anybody's mind that the lack of clear cut programmes to develop, transform and integrate sport has led to endless problems. It seems that not a day goes by without negative reports regarding sport in general, such as in cricket, rugby and soccer, etc.

Take soccer for instance. Ever since we first received the news that South Africa had won the 2010 Soccer World Cup bid, many others, like I did, have been pleading for this opportunity to be used to bolster development and boost the infrastructure available throughout many poor communities. It seems that the focus is constantly shifted to negative issues and development has to take a back seat. Sometimes this House and the portfolio committee in particular, is accused of dabbling in the affairs of various sports codes. There might be truth to this in some instances, where the Department of Sport and Recreation is not firm in implementing the laws and policies, especially regarding transformation. The perception, rightly or wrongly, is that those sports codes are reporting to Parliament instead of the department.

The committee is in the unenviable position of receiving complaints and submissions directly and cannot simply turn a blind eye to these, even though it is often matters that the department should be dealing with. I believe that it is necessary that we develop a policy between the committee and the department to clarify which issues should be dealt with directly by the department and how matters are referred to the committee. It cannot be the policy that the department shifts its responsibilities onto the portfolio committee. Finally, I support our chairperson's call for a sport indaba to evaluate the progress made thus far, and in the process identify inherent defects in our way of doing things or promoting sports in this country.

IsiXhosa:

Ndiyakuxhasa mhlobo wam kodwa ulawuleke. Enkosi. [Kwaqhwatywa.]

Ms M W MAKGATE

END OF TAKE

Mr B H HOLOMISA

Setswana:

Mme M W MAKGATE: Modulasetulo, Tona ya Lefapha le Motlatsi wa gagwe, Maloko a Palamente le baeng ba rona ka kakaretso ...

English

The Budget Vote for Sport and Recreation before this House today represents another chapter in our country's new history to promote unity, transformation and social cohesion across the sporting fraternity in our country. Moreover, and perhaps more importantly, it is its strategic objective to increase access to sport and recreation in South Africa, and thereby increasing the levels of participation through the federations and club development programmes and ultimately ensuring participation in international sporting events.


As we speak, our respective federations are preparing for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and once Team SA arrives there in August, it will be the fifth Olympics Games in which we participate or perhaps more historically, it will be the sixteenth years of recognition of us as a democratic, nonracial, nonsexist country in the Olympic movement. This is indeed a milestone.

Our country's sporting history is replete with sacrifices of Olympic proportions by thousands of individuals, both inside and outside of the country, and not only in the arenas of competition but also in activism and administration. Some of them are still actively advancing our democratic agenda and sadly, Chair, others have passed on.

As a sporting nation with proud postliberation achievements across the globe, we have also reached the tip of Mount Everest. Let me remind you, we somehow lose sight of this past sacrifices amidst the euphoria that accompanies achievement and success. And as the ANC, we call upon the sporting fraternity to always be mindful of the dignified participation of these gladiators.

Chairperson, as a vanguard liberation movement, the ANC has since its birth displayed the qualities of an Olympic team. It has collectively defended and promoted the ethos of national unity, nonracialism, nonsexism on all fronts of sport and we believe that these victories belong to the people of this country.

Given that it is an Olympic year, it will indeed be appropriate if we evaluate and scrutinise our achievements versus medals scored against the investment of resources in Team SA at the Greece Olympics in 2004. In Athens we had 160 able-bodied athletes representing our country that brought home six medals, improving on the total of five at the Sydney Games in 2000, as opposed to the Paralympic team that brought 35 medals in total, including 15 gold. [Applause.] It is precisely the former statistics which leaves one as a public representative particularly concerned, when this is the yield on such a major monetary investment. Moreover, black and female representation still leaves a lot to be desired.

In this regard one is inclined to believe that we have serious policy deficits. And when we as the ANC raise this fundamental concern, it is premised on the following: Are the needs for facilities and resources throughout our country properly determined? Do our national federations mass participation programmes and do they have adequate talent identification tools? Can the department furnish us with data pertaining to their representivity and transformation targets and considering the fact that participation in international events require the highest level of physical and mental conditioning, what is the status of the high performance programme?

Allow me now to reflect on the exciting issue of our country's preparedness for the 2010 Fifa World Cup. As I speak, and particularly against the backdrop of the despicable attacks on foreign nationals, a wave of questioning of our country's moral credentials to host the World Cup has hit us. However, it must be stressed upfront that neither the legitimacy of the South African state nor that of the ANC is being threatened.

Chairperson, as the ANC we firmly believe that we are indeed on track. The hon Minister, Comrade Stofile, has provided unequivocal guarantees to that effect. Moreover, just last week the Minister of Transport also gave an unambiguous declaration of his department's innovations and programmes to this effect. As we should know, these are but some of the guarantees above and beyond the legislative guarantees, as required by Fifa. We passed in this House, not so long ago, the Fifa Special Measures Act. When the Fifa executive decided that the World Cup final should come to Africa, and South Africa should host the 2010 World Cup, it took into account, not only logistical and financial capacity but also our generosity of spirit as people. And as the ANC, we will continue to build on this spirit to engender public, Fifa, global and stakeholder confidence towards 2010. The people shall chant: Amandla! [Applause.]

I would now like to encroach on a terrain which for us in the ANC is indeed a burning issue, namely that of women in sport. As we all should know, this terrain is characterised by robust debate and more often than not, lest we have overdoses of testosterone. Every day we are all being fed the glorification of male achievements through the media and other information sources, whereas female achievements are downgraded. The media is the main culprit. As we have become accustomed to unequal resourcing and participation of women's sports, male sport continues to enjoy a hugely commodified status, while it is now common knowledge that women teams in sport is regularly finding themselves without sponsors.

Racism continues to play a big part here. Black women, disabled women and rural women are blatantly left out of the sport equation in this country. Our struggle, achievement and experiences are deliberately excluded from the mainstream. I therefore want, from this podium today, to advocate that we begin to break down this social constructs. Maybe not all of us are familiar with the Oscar Pistorious phenomenon. He is an athlete who over the last year or so made headlines, both domestically and abroad on the athletics track. He is an athlete born without legs. He is also a Paralympic sprint double medallist. Oscar runs on legs, which are called prosthetic blades which earned him the title, Blade Runner. After he was refused permission by the IAAF to participate in the Beijing Olympics this year, because according to their experts, the blades give him an advantage over able-bodied athletes, he turned to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which duly gave him permission to participate. This permission given to him by them obviously raises other questions in the boardrooms of this international agency. For us it is indeed a victory. Our Constitution is clear about the rights of the disabled and outlaws discrimination against them. As the ANC, we would like to urge the department to remain vigilant and to ensure that policies and programmes echo the principles and vision of the Constitution.

In conclusion, we believe that and wish to place on record our belief that sport and recreation is one of the critical instruments in our vision to building a caring society. We trust that the department will heed to this compassionate call. The ANC supports the Budget Vote. I thank you. [Applause.]

Mr H B CUPIDO

END OF TAKE

Ms M W MAKGATE

Mr H B CUPIDO: Chairperson, hon Minister, Deputy Minister, standing here myself, not being a member of the portfolio committee, give me pleasure to participate in this Budget Vote debate.

It is a fact that poverty, transport challenges and inadequate resources drastically limit participation in sport. As a consequence, the ACDP supports the Sport and Recreation South Africa's key strategic initiative on the mass participation programme, which is to ensure that as many South Africans as possible have access to sport and recreational activities, especially those from disadvantaged communities. Township and rural kids still do not have sufficient access to decent sporting facilities, equipment or proper sport leagues to play in. Improving these elements for deprived communities is a better way forward for sport.

Without proper and reliable transportation to be at practices regularly, one cannot excel; without proper and working equipment, one can never improve their standards; and without a uniform to identify oneself with, one tends not to feel committed and proud of the sport they actually love. Therefore, the ACDP salutes those who have reached new heights, notwithstanding coming from the kinds of background that I have just described. We give a special word of encouragement to those athletes representing South Africa in the upcoming Olympics.

The local government, in particular, needs to work much closer with sport federations to help make sport in underprivileged communities a greater reality.

The hon Minister and the speaker before me referred to the presence of women in sport. I would just like to quote Jennifer Hargreaves, the author of Heroines of Sport: The Politics of Difference and Identity, where she states: "Contemporary South African sport is gender biased, male dominated and sexist." She supports this assertion by saying that men, at national, provincial and local levels, hold most of the sport leadership positions.

Nevertheless, our Constitution entrenches and guarantees everyone the right to equality, as well as prohibits all forms of discrimination, both direct and indirect, that may be based on race, gender, disability, ethnic origin, creed or any other form of discrimination. The ACDP supports this Sport Budget Vote.

Mr M M DIKGACWI

END OF TAKE

Mr H B CUPIDO

Mr H B CUPIDO

Mr M M DIKGACWI: Comrade Chairperson, I have been correcting you, but let me leave you there.

HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr K O Bapela): Yes, leave me please! [Laughter.]

Mr M M DIKGACWI: Hon Minister, ladies and gentlemen, representatives of various federations, when the President was speaking during his state of the nation, he was speaking about Business Unusual. I think this speech will also speak to Business Unusual. Isaiah Chapter 6:1 … [Interjections.] [Laughter.]

IsiXhosa:

Ithi:

Ngomnyaka wokufa koKumkani u-Uziya, ndayibona iNkosi ihleli etroneni ende enyukileyo; amasondo eengubo zayo ezirholayo ezalise itempile.

English:

Hon Minister, we are rolling out the carpet towards the next general election. As the ANC, we want to say that during your tenure as in the year of king Uzia, we saw the following: The resolution 93 adopted at the 52nd Conference of the ANC in Polokwane, said one emblem for all sport national teams be adopted.

What this implies, Thahla, is that before this Parliament rises, we should not be talking about the Springboks, this thing, we should not be talking about it. [Laughter.]

We must assert that the protea … Give it to me though so that people can see. [Laughter.] The protea is the emblem of this country. The FF Plus can go to court, together with the Afriforum, where they'll get us there. [Interjections.]

This protea was discussed at the conference which Comrade Khomphela spoke about. In the National Conference of the ANC, the policy conference adopted the protea as emblem.

The appearance of the Springbok emblem that has been used since 1906, should be extinguished, albeit the arrogance shown by the President of SA Rugby when he was reconfirmed again as the president of SARU.

It's not only about the Springbok emblem, but about uniform colours for all national teams in the interest of nation-building. Some things do not look like South African teams when they are on the field. The soccer team has a different stripe every time they play.

IsiXhosa:

Yhuu, ndiyabuya! Thixo, unzima lo mcimbi!

 

English:

A delegation of former Springbok captains met with the current President of SA Rugby Union, conveyed to Saru their concerns about political interferences in South African Rugby.

A memorandum in which the group of captains and so-called legends expressed their opposition to political interference in rugby, and the use of race as yardstick in the selection of teams and appointment officials was handed to the president at the meeting.

The president, strangely, made serious utterances that they'll take these concerns to the IRB, International Rugby Board, undermining our democratic internal processes that have been created. Saru could have made presentations on behalf of the former captains during the public hearings which they failed to raise. Furthermore, he could have raised the issues with the Minister, but as we know him ...

IsiXhosa:

... waye wabaleka waya kukhonkotha kumazwe angaphandle.

English:

It has been decided twice that the protea should be the only national sports emblem. The last time was in 1992, and this should be applied now. Thahla, we've empowered you, through the special amendment Bill, to make this necessary interventions. Moreover, with two-thirds majority in Parliament, which we must use to the benefit of our people…

 

IsiXhosa:

Qula Thahla! Qula Nyawuza, uzinikiwe ezi zaphetha:

ikhaka, umkhonto negqudu. [Applause.]

 

English:

South African sport is the national religion transcending race, politics or large groups. Sports unites the country and not just the male half of it.

When a South African team wins, a cacophony of hooting, cheering, banging of dustbins, trumpeting on cow horns and fireworks reverberates across the largest city. The national adrenalin goes into overdrive, even the GDP goes up. We just don't look too cheerful on the Monday morning after a dismal sporting weekend.

 

Sport, like no other South African institution, has shown it has the power to heal old wounds. When the Springboks won the Rugby World Cup on home turf in 1995, the then President Comrade Nelson Mandela donned the No 6 shirt of the team's captain, Francois Pienaar - a white Afrikaner - and the two embraced as a spontaneous gesture of racial reconciliation which melted hearts around the country. The same could be said when we won the Rugby World Cup last year when President Mbeki was tossed into the sky by the jubilant Springbok team.

A single moment and 400 years of colonial strife and bitterness suddenly seem so petty. I said I was going to come back to the soccer debacle. In my honest opinion, South African soccer is not conducive and attractive for retaining skilled and knowledgeable personnel within.

The bad apples within the governing structures are creating the environment to be very risky, dangerous, corrupt, and is prone to bribery and wrong influences.

Here, we are dealing with highly cunning officials. You need a certain breed of people who have guts, minds, hearts, as well as nerves of steel to fit in this environment. Minister, two years ago when Safa and the PSL came to Parliament, perhaps I asked a stupid question to them as they laughed at me, and it was overwhelmingly answered by their president who gave me a lecture when I asked who is reporting to whom.

I knew that Safa is supposed to be the custodian of South African soccer, but as it stands currently, the PSL is the custodian of our soccer.

IsiXhosa:

Izaphuselane ezithile kwiSafa zitsalwa ngeenteshe ukuze zingqine ubuvuvu ezingabaziyo.

 

English:

There are different caps when it's convenient. Hon Minister, until we have a CEO of Safa seconded by a head of the Department of Sport and Recreation in consultation with you, we will not find corporate governance and accountability required.

Today we are told Raymond Hack was an activist way back when everyone has refused to be part of black community. I don't know this. All representatives that participated during the sport amendment Bill during our provincial visit last year, and also during this year's budget hearings called for a sports indaba. And I urge you, hon Minister, to heed this request.

Large federations require strong managers who are trustworthy and committed. The current officials that we are stuck with in various larger federations need to be dislodged and diluted.

Dead wood in Safa will be there until the near future, but what is important is to bring in the committed and professional officials that can dislodge the corrupt ones.

The environment in South African soccer is in its own an environment that attracts corruption because of the lack of corporate governance. How do you explain the R70 million bonuses against what developmental needs?

IsiXhosa:

Hayi madoda, senziwa izitunxa ngoku; senziwa oohata.

 

English:

There is free-flowing cash to buy bribes and blackmail people for influence. What's worse, Minister, is that Safa wants only club owners as affiliates so that they can close the rooms for the competent officials and former players who don't own clubs, people like Lucas Radebe, Marks Maponyane, Mike Mangena and Mark Fish who can still offer administrative muscles to the depleted resources.

The structure of South African Football under the auspices of SA Football Association is dysfunctional and would argue that it needs a review similar to the one by the English Football Association, a few years ago. The association is archaic and a by-product of soccer as it was played in our apartheid past. The decolonization has yet to happen and hence in the dusty townships and rural communities the modern game has yet to arrive.

Safa does not control or administer soccer in major urban areas of our country. There are leagues being run in the posh suburbs like Randburg and Roodepoort, in Johannesburg, and even competition for the junior teams from the PSL, and yet these leagues do not fall under the stewardship of Safa.

Contrast that with the state of infrastructure of soccer in Soweto, that is dismal. This is because of the distribution of funds generated from the beautiful game, whereby millions go to the individual amidst poverty of resources to run local football associations, which are all at the heart of development.

The English FA thoroughly investigated the issue of the distribution of funds, especially towards development structures in their structural review programme and ensured equitable distribution of resources across the board and not self-enrichment. Why outsource the most lucrative part of sixteen individual club owners? Where in the world has this been happening? Which other football association runs soccer in this way? In which best world practice is this followed?

Further suggestions on the table include that the league be reduced to 14 teams due to congestions of competitions, including Kudu matches, cash cows, etc. This is when most leagues run 18 to 22 teams except in smaller like Paraguay and Scotland.

Being a country with a population of 42 million, we only have 16 teams to benefit from this and it is a disgrace. It's a dream deferred for many young people. Now is the time for the disenfranchising of the size of professional football, and run it like all other best leagues in the world. Take Brazil, a country geographically expansive and yet have a premier league with more teams than us. The less said about the first division, the better. [Laughter.]

The R70 million in commission can run a unitary single stream. Here is a typical example of the disfunctionality of Safa. The chairman of the PSL is quoted as having written a letter to the CEO of Safa to expedite the appeal process, and thereafter, the CEO of Safa followed those instruction and wrote to all parties concerned to meet on the 25th and no later as we agreed amongst all parties concerned, including the lawyers.

It is important to remember that the chairman of the league attended the DC hearing of FC AK, contrary to the rules of the league and sat through the deliberations. The response from the CEO of Safa is telling. The same PLS chairman is his second in command at Safa, and there is a classical case of the tale wagging the dog.

The DC of the PSL is appointed by the president of Safa and the chairman who happens to be the vice president of Safa, and the club owner at PSL is an exco member who appoints the appeal committee. [Interjections.]

Journalists are intimately connected with the influences that arise from the attitude and temper of the general reader. Journalists, will profile whoever they want and crush whoever they don't want to the detriment of the fabric of that society.

Look at how the ravaged Norman Arendse and Lennox Chuene for what they stand against for, against what the journalist would want to dictate them to do and oblige to. [Interjections.] Your biased influences which spring from such prevalent forms as subject of preference are mischievous.

In times of fundamental change, people tend to find space, lose it and then find another space, as if the world transform around them. What does this metamorphosis entail, and in what sense are we reflected? How do you live through it and what may we become on our journey toward each other?

 

IsiXhosa:

Uyabona, uza kubangela ukuba ndiye kwenye into ke ngoku.

 

English:

To the President of SA Rugby, Pieter de Villiers, is your brother, black like you. [Laughter.] Therefore, you should have no right to qualify his appointment as an extraordinary appointment because of the colour of his skin. You know better that Pieter's CV was better than Jake's CV, before Jake won the World Cup. It is wrong of you to have undermined these facts. In fact, let me remind you so that you don't make the same mistake in future.

In 2003 when Jake was coaching the under 21s, we ended fourth. But when Pieter took over in 2004, we improved to third. Then in 2005 we won the World Cup. These are facts, president, which you omitted so that you can perpetuate the misconception that blacks cannot offer any good for the white-dominated South African rugby, which was your campaigning manifesto for your re-election. Let me move on.

IsiXhosa:

Hee CEO, iNtloko yeSigqeba esiLawulayo, mfondini, sothukile luhlobo ophakamele ngayo umongameli wombutho weqakamba, uSen Adv Norman Arendse. Noko usikhwankqisile ngendlela obucinga ukuwuphatha ngawo lo mcimbi wasebuhlanti. Udelise umongameli ngomqeqeshi kwakunye nabadlali, nto leyo esingazange sayiva. Inokuba uyavuya kuba abelungu bakukhwazela phezulu njengegorha neqhawe lamaqhawe. Uyingcungcu - khangela ikarkuni enomsila obheke phaya, izidla ngamabala. Uze ungalibali ukuba kutheni ulapho. Ndiyarhana ukuba ikhona into ethi iNtloko yeSigqeba esiLawulayo idikiwe okanye idiniwe.

Ndifuna ukuthetha nje ngomba kaSantana. USantana – hayi, siphethwe ziimafiya - simazi isiqhulo sakhe inguSanta Claus, uFather Christmas, oza nezipho zabantwana; kodwa lo umka nazo. Amandla!

Mr W D SPIES

END OF TAKE

Mr M M DIKGACWI

Afrikaans:

Mnr W D SPIES: Agbare Voorsitter, toe hierdie begrotingspos verlede jaar plaasgevind het, het die departement bekend gestaan as die Departement van Sport en Ontspanning. Kort ná die begrotingsdebat verlede jaar is die wet verander en staan die departement nou bekend as Sport en Onspanning SA. Hierdie nuwe naam vir die department is so bietjie ironies, want dit laat die indruk dat sport begin en eindig by die betrokke department. Dis van alle waarheid ontbloot. Sport in Suid-Afrika word beoefen en gaan van krag tot krag, nie as gevolg van die regering nie, maar ten spyte van die regering.

Die afgelope maand het die twee jong Suid-Afrikaanse gimnaste Matome Chisenga en Natalie Friesling die verbeelding aan gegryp deur senior gimnaste in 'n reeks akrobatiese gimnastiektoernooie uit te stof. Hierdie twee jong swart gimnaste kom uit erg verarmde omstandighede. Hulle plaaslike gimnastiekklub voorsien selfs hulle kos en klere. Hierdie twee jongmense het nie 'n sent ontvang van verlede jaar se begroting van Sport en Ontspanning SA nie. Die tyd sal ook leer of hulle uit hierdie begroting enigiets gaan ontvang.

Verlede jaar is daar voor die portefeuljekomitee getuig dat die geld wat aan die SA Gimnastiekfederasie toegeken word, net so in 'n bodemlose put van burokrasie en administrasie bestee word en dat niks by die gewone sportmanne en -vroue uitkom nie.

die agb Komphela het die getuienis aangehoor, maar wat maak hy daarmee? Hy't niks gemaak nie! Nee, die agb Khompela het ander prioriteite. Verlede week het dit aan die lig gekom dat hy 'n brief aan die Minister van Sport en Ontspanning SA geskryf het om te kla dat die Olimpiese mans-hokkiespan net ses en nie ten minste agt swart spelers het nie. Die span, wat nou reeds in Beijing is, sit op hete kole en wag en kyk watter twee wit spelers moet terug gestuur word sodat hulle deur swart spelers vervang kan word. [Tussenwerpsels.] Die VF Plus wil die Minister uitdaag om ag te slaan op die versoek van mnr Khompela en dit te doen.

Irak is gister uit Fifa geskors en geskors uit deelname aan die Olimpiese Spele omdat die Irakese regering ingemeng het in sport en sy neus in die sake van sport gesteek het, soos wat mnr Komphela die Minister nou versoek om te doen. [Tussenwerpsels.]

Mnr KOMPHELA: Gaan julle – gaan julle!

'n AGB LID: Waarheen?

Mnr W D SPIES: Maar dis nie die eerste keer dat die agb Komphela sy mond vol het oor Suid-Afrikaanse spanne nie. Verlede jaar wou hy die Springbokspan se paspoorte laat terugtrek omdat hulle nie swart genoeg was nie.

Die VOORSITTER: Agb lede, orde asseblief!

Mr W D SPIES: Maar, sport in Suid-Afrika gaan van krag tot krag, ten spyte van die regering – ten spyte van die agb Komphela en ten spyte van Sport en Ontspanning SA.

Verlede jaar het die Springbokspan die Wêreldbeker gewen en in drie weke meer gedoen vir nasionale eenheid as wat die agb Komphela in sy hele parlementêre loopbaan verrig het.

Die VF Plus wens Suid-Afrika se spanne vir die Olimpiese Spele alles van die beste toe. Mag julle drome bewaarheid word en mag julle Suid-Afrika trots maak. Ek dank u.

The DEPUTY MINISTER OF SPORT AND RECREATION

END OF TAKE

Mr W D SPIES

The DEPUTY MINISTER OF SPORT AND RECREATION:

Afrikaans:

Agb Voorsitter, ek hoop u gaan my ekstra tyd gee, want ek wil vir die agb mnr Spies sê dat as ek tyd gehad het, het ek vollediger gereageer op wat hy vandag gesê het. Ek wil hom een vraag vra. Ek doen dit in in belang van die waarheid en met die wete dat Hansard hierna deur geslagte wat kom, gelees sal word. U moet nie hier die beginsel vestig om `n strooipop op te sit en dan die strooipop self af te skiet nie. Dit is wat u in die begin met die wet, wat nou verander het, gedoen het en dan sê u sommer self dat dit onsinnig is. Dit is onsinnig wat u gesê het.

U praat oor die geld vir gimnastiek. U weet blykbaar nie nadat u die komiteevergaderings bygewoon het, waar gimnastiek hulle geld vandaan kry nie. As u begin vra, dat ons individue moet subsideer, dan moet u ook vir ons vertel, waar ons moet begin sny om seker te maak dat ons elke individu wie se nood baie groot is, kan subsideer. Ek kan vir u getuig dat ek mense uit die privaatsektor kry om individue te help om sodoendetalent te ontwikkel in Suid-Afrika. So, asseblief, bly by die waarheid.

 

English

Chairperson, hon members, as South Africans, we face many and varied challenges collectively in this country. One such a challenge is to transform South Africa into a country that belongs to all who live in it, black and white, united in our diversity. In fact, it remains our fundamental mandate. To succeed in this, we must use all tools at our disposal, including and more particularly sport and recreation, to transform and develop all parts of our country and people, in line with our Constitution.

The future of our sport has to be built on the foundations of the dreams we seek to achieve. It is about moulding a future for sport and our sports people based on amongst others: Worldwide respect – respect which we have to earn; building our nation and reinforcing social cohesion bearing in mind that we cannot celebrate social cohesion only when we win World Cups. Social cohesion must be part of our everyday sporting activities and lifestyles; access to sport and recreation for all our people to achieve their potential; highly skilled, qualified coaches who are regarded as professionals and indispensable to the development of athletes throughout the sports spectrum supported by scientific, medical and technological expertise; physical educators and recreation specialists joining hands with sport leaders to ensure a seamless development system for our athletes and ethical conduct built on our national values of respect for others, tolerance of diversity, equity and generosity throughout sport and recreation.

In line with the need for a sports plan, we also have a need for a facilities plan. We have said on numerous occasions that we need facilities in the right places to be able to transform our sport. This remains true today. It is unfortunate that undertakings made in this House, namely that the funding for sport and recreation facilities would be ring-fenced have not materialised. This has led to facilities being provided in areas that are comparatively rich in facilities.

It is laughable that Municipal Infrastructure Grant funding is used to upgrade Orlando Stadium, when our rural citizens are crying out for the basic – and let me repeat – for very, basic multipurpose sporting facilities.

May I draw the House's attention to the fact that, during the four-year period starting in the financial year 2001-02, when Sport and Recreation South Africa received funds for the Building for Sport and Recreation Programme, we built 363 basic sport and recreation facilities where they were most needed. As part of the MIG funding since 2004 to date, only 45 facilities have been built. To address this, a Cabinet memorandum, to have the BSRP restored to us in the department, will shortly be discussed within the government clusters.

We have also applied significant energy to sport in our schools, following the signing of the Framework on Collaboration in March 2005. We cannot deny that the implementation of the framework has had teething problems. Despite this, it is critical that our nursery of future sports and other talent is supported in every way possible. We have worked hard on addressing some of the challenges. There is more to be done in this regard, but I am confident that we will be able to meet those challenges.

It is sad that a decision to withdraw from the National Coordination Committee was made, without consulting the executive authority. The Minister correctly directed that we revive our representation at NACOC and to this end, we thank our colleagues in Education for their support. Physical education still remains a challenge to us all. Although some time has been allowed for it, our dream is for physical education to become a stand-alone subject in all our schools.

Research in the United Kingdom since 2002 shows that "Specialist Sports Schools" and schools with physical education and a sport focus have shown improved academic results and reported reductions in truancy. Now for the hon Spies, truancy is "stokkiesdraaiery". This is why we are so committed to ensure that physical education and sport become a stand alone subject.

There is no question that physical education is the competence of our sister department. However, as Sport and Recreation South Africa we can and will assist. To this end, we have already committed that all teaching materials we have on our books for physical education must be made available to the Department of Education. It is important that, in bringing physical education back into the curriculum, we ensure a quality experience for our children. We need to ensure that our educators are able to help children develop their motor learning skills and their basic fitness because a good foundation technique is critical to the child's future development.

Once the learner is identified as having talent, through collaboration with our national federations, we need to place them with provincial academies and develop that talent. This must be done in close co-operation with the Department of Education, the national federations and our tertiary institutions, which hold the expert knowledge of sports science and medicine.

In the spirit of the 2010 Fifa World Cup, we launched the South African Schools Soccer World Cup together with the Department of Education in partnership with the South African Broadcasting Corporation and the Fifa 2010 World Cup Organising Committee.

This tournament for U14 and U18 boys and girls will hopefully mobilise our communities from now until the 2010 Fifa World Cup. This project will be linked with other 2010 legacy projects such as the Supersport 1 million-ball project for schools, which, in addition to the training of volunteers, will contribute to a lasting legacy.

We are clear: Educators must run sport in schools. We will continue to encourage the national federations to take responsibility for sport in schools with the committees of educators who bring so much experience and energy to our federations. We need a seamless process to ensure that our children and youth get the full benefit of sport for competition and recreation, without having to understand who controls what aspect of the sport.

The Minister and I have both been fortunate to identify talent on some of our forays into our rural areas; talent, which has not come to the notice of the federations. We are therefore pushing our Department very hard to establish a SRSA club to take such athletes into the system and help to develop them. We will then hand them over to the federations who are important partners to the process. Our aim, in fact, is to ensure that we leave no stone unturned in our continuing search for success.

On the issue of the national academy, we have agreed that the best way forward is for us to use the expertise available and decentralise the services provided to our elite and sub-elite athletes to where they live and train. To sustain this, we have brought on stream all our tertiary institutions with the 19 identified priority sports.

We are delighted that the appeal by Oscar Pistorius against his ban from participating in events and therefore the Olympic Games was successful, but we are very distressed that the scientific research supporting the appeal was done via institutions in the United States of America. It is an indictment that our own research institutions were not the first to put up their hands and offer assistance in this specialised area. This was a wake-up call for us.

We need to find the support systems with the private sector, the Departments of Education and Science and Technology, to do cutting edge research in a proactive and not reactive way. This is a critical area we need to address. We should also apply the research done to develop our sporting potential. Sadly, this has not happened yet.

Mentioning Oscar brings me to address our hopes for our Olympic and Paralympic athletes as they begin their final preparations for the Beijing Games. There is no doubt that our teams will carry our flag high but there is also no doubt that our hosts will be difficult to beat on their home ground. We hope that the Chinese nation will be kind to us during the 10-year celebrations of diplomatic relations between our two countries and allow us to reach the medal podium in some of our events – in lighter vein, I think that would be good for diplomatic relations.

Natalie du Toit continues to inspire our nation and I extend my heartfelt congratulations to her on attaining her dream. She has worked hard to achieve her goal and she is a great role model for our youth – and perhaps some of us who are not so youthful any more.

We have other international commitments this year with the Commonwealth Youth Games and the Zone VI U20 Youth Games which we are hosting in Tlokwe from 7 to 17 October 2008. I now take this opportunity to ask you to pencil these dates into your diaries so that we can project a South African show of force both on and off the field. These Games in seven sports, athletics, which will include track events for the visually impaired, swimming, basketball, boxing, soccer, netball, and tennis, are of a developmental nature and will attract the best U20 athletes in our country to compete against our friends from Southern Africa's Development Community. We will welcome ten nations – maybe 12 nations- to South Africa, bringing almost 1 600 athletes together for 10 days of top class competition, cultural exchange and social cohesion, thus contributing to Nepad in a very real way. We hope that these Games will add to other efforts to establish friendships across the borders and to help fight xenophobia in our country and elsewhere on the continent.

I would like to thank our colleagues from the Ministry of Defence for their assistance in accommodating the teams at their installation in Tlokwe, the Tlokwe Municipality, the North West province and North West University for their support in this endeavour …

 

Afrikaans:

Ja ons is daar net na Aardklop; jy moet kom kyk. [Yes, we are just there after the Aardklop Art Festival. You must come and watch.]

 

English:

It is a wonderful example of one of our up and coming towns enjoying the benefits of sports tourism. Tlokwe, with support from the National Lottery, must benefit from the legacy of these Games through infrastructure upgrading, new equipment, skills transfer, national pride as well as inward investment with local businesses benefiting from increased opportunities. When we talk about a legacy for 2010, people will appreciate that legacy is not just about mega sports events but also about regional and local events.

Over the past decade, United Nations agencies, international sport federations, international nongovernmental organisations and grassroots organisations have been using sport as a tool for development and peace.

These efforts led the UN Inter-Agency Task Force on Sport for Development and Peace to conclude that, in addition to sport's inherent benefits, well-designed sport-based initiatives can be powerful, practical, and cost-effective tools to achieve development and peace objectives.

Thus, it is not just the "glamorous" things that we are targeting but also the necessities. Our Department has started work in earnest to identify ways to promote sport for peace and sport for development at home and in our neighbouring countries. For too long, we have watched from the safety of South Africa the ravages of war and civil strife as sportspeople. It is time that we contribute to the rehabilitation of societies through sport and recreation. The time has come that we share what we know to be the benefits of sport in creating social cohesion, addressing social exclusion, anti-social behaviour and instill healthy lifestyles. The focus should not remain only with sports development but using sport to develop the person and the nation.

Two weeks ago – I am prepared to develop you as well - I was privileged to receive 672 soccer balls from the Japanese ambassador. I promised that the majority will be delivered for the use in our identified poverty nodes. This is an example of sport for peace at home and as our beloved Madiba said before he became President: "where there is true peace, everyone is a winner". This needs to be our guiding principle.

If we are to ensure we are a nation of winners, it is important for us to return to our roots. We have addressed the issue of sport in our schools. However, we also need to thank our colleagues in the provinces for working to embed our mass participation programmes in our everyday lives.

As the number of people participating in sport and recreation increases, we need to ensure that we do not lose sight of a quality experience for all participants. We need to implement different measures of success – not just how many people attended a community festival but in fact how many come back and how their health has improved.

I am reminded about the "Go Go Girls" in Limpopo, some of whom have been able to put aside their walking sticks and put their blood pressure pills back in the cupboard. This is one part of the reason for us putting significant funding and human resources into our mass participation programme. We, together with the national federations and the provinces, are striving to increase the number of wards in which we work from 36 hubs or wards in 2004 to hopefully 451 this year. We will, as a result, increase the number of people involved.

Following a study done last year on the impact of our mass participation programme, it was found that 53% participants reported a decrease in "soft fabric crimes" and an increase in prosocial behaviour.

In instances where community facilities are used, there is a growing sense of community ownership and a consequential decrease in vandalism of such facilities. In some areas like Worcester, Frances Baard and Vryburg, the South African Police Services reported a decrease in gang violence and up to 15% drop in crime among the youth.

To further this positive development, we have developed partnerships with international organisations like the Burundian Cultural Association and the Maurice Freeman Recreation Centre. The aim is to organise the "Come and Play Games" in December for children under 15 years of age. The event is envisaged to be part of the annual holiday programme with the aim to expose our children to cultural diversity and promote the environment of "ubuntu" in our society.

Development through education and training is critical not only to contribute to Jipsa, but also to provide opportunities for people. We have already made strides in this regard with basic coaching qualifications recognised by South African Qualifications Authority and implemented by training educators in soccer, netball, volleyball, athletics, cricket and rugby. Going forward, we plan to develop a training course in good governance. The qualification for volunteer services will be registered in time for training volunteers later this year in support of the Fifa 2010 World Cup.

Qualifications in technical officiating, coaching and administration will all be registered this year, thus providing a sound platform for upgrading skills in the sport sector.

I would like to pay tribute to Minister Stofile who has guided me when I was a Whip and he Chief Whip and who now continues to guide me in the very complex and challenging world of sport and recreation. His depth of knowledge continues to amaze me together with his work rate. Minister Stofile has taken on the role of representing our continent on the Board of the World Anti-Doping Agency. This year he has also guided our colleagues in SADC through being the Chairperson of the Zone VI of the Supreme Council of Sport in Africa. Mfundisi – I greatly appreciate your wise counsel. [Applause.]

Chairperson, I have outlined some of our successes and our challenges to take sport and recreation to the next level. It has not been an easy exercise with the restructuring of sport on all levels but it has been an exciting challenge. It is an ongoing challenge, which, with the guidance of our Minister, I relish and look forward to meeting with the support of the Department, our clients and the portfolio committee.

In closing, I would like to remind us about the real public success of last year. That was undoubtedly regaining the William Webb Ellis Trophy. I hope sincerely that our Olympians and Paralympians will emulate their successes of 2004 and add to our national trophy cabinet with medals beside the Webb Ellis Trophy. I enjoin those who are going out to represent our nation to do so – listen, Corné listen hon member - with pride, dignity and in the spirit of ubuntu. In doing so, I urge our federations and sporting heroes not to let the opportunity slip through our fingers yet, like with the World Cups we won twice in a row, to instill in our national psyche the ongoing contribution we must make to social cohesion and building the nation.

Remember what a Greek philosopher in 400BC said: "I would prefer even to fail with honour than to win by cheating". Having said that, winning is always good as we live out our motto of "Striving to create an active and winning nation". I thank you. [Applause.]

Mr R B BHOOLA

END OF TAKE

The DEPUTY MINISTER OF SPORT AND RECREATION

Mr R B BHOOLA: Chairperson, the MF congratulates the hon Minister for his excellent leadership in sports. But I must say how proud I am that sports and recreation in KwaZulu-Natal is firing on all cylinders. This honourable House should really resolve to congratulate KwaZulu-Natal for winning 136 medals and, in so doing, winning the SA Games. [Applause.]

I have seen facilities being built in KwaZulu-Natal by the Department of Sport and Recreation in deep rural areas and where we are now reaping the fruits of development, transformation and growth.

Mr Minister, the province had taken note that at a sports event in Ladysmith, you announced that the MEC for Sport and Recreation in KwaZulu-Natal, Mr A Rajbansi, was the best sport MEC in the country.

The MF makes three important pleas. We must change the mindset, throughout the whole country, that the sports budget must be low.

Firstly, there must be an integration of the management of schools sport between the Department of Education and the Department of Sport and Recreation.

Secondly, we would like to see the introduction of physical education at schools. We need to socialise our children into the importance of sport and recreation. This will also enable them, with tools for healthy living and stimulate interest in ambitions of sports.

Thirdly, in view of the Polokwane conference, we await the Municipal Infrastructure Grant, MIG, to be returned to the Building of Sports Programme.

With reference to the budget for 2008-09, we acknowledge that R342 million allocated to the Mass Participation Programme. We find it crucial that we oversee the challenges and success of this programme throughout the country.

The MF is excited however about the Zone Six Youth Games that we are set to host in 2008 and hope that the R43 million allocated to the International Liaison and Events Programme will be effectively utilised to deliver a successful event.

We find that the budget allocation for this department for 2008 appears to be in line with the State of the Nation Address of 2008.

We note the decrease in budget allocation in the 2010 preparations is as a result of preparations completing and requiring less funding. We have to however, express our concerns on the xenophobic attacks on the foreigners throughout the country and its impact on the costly 2010 games.

The MF urges government to intercede in brining peace and stability to the country. We further feel the department should intercede by promoting a foreigner friendly country. Our local citizenry needs to be educated on the benefits of housing foreigners and reminded of the patriotic support these countries had rendered to victims of apartheid.

South Africans are not just a winning nation, but will always be a sporting nation. We will host the most successful 2010 games. Thank you. [Applause.]

Mr S SIMMONS

END OF TAKE

Mr R B BHOOLA

Mr S SIMMONS: Chairperson, hon Minister, Deputy Minister and colleagues, this department's level of efficiency is severely hampered by the constant interference by the particular chairperson and vice-chairperson of the Sports Portfolio Committee in matters, I believe, which falls outside its ambit. This is not only my view, but a concern expressed by the International Rugby Board.

The hon Komphela and Frolick have appointed themselves as the sports transformation crusaders... [Interjections.]

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: Order members, we need to hear the speaker!

Mr S SIMMONS: ... they have, over this current parliamentary term, effectively equated transformation as being nothing else but racial quotas. These hon members have, over a period of time, promoted racial quotas behind the façade of representivity.

All sports teams had to be representative of all South Africans without taking cognisance of the demographics of the people actively participating in the particular sport. If this was done, these hon members would have noticed that, not all people enjoy or favour a particular sport to the same degree as all other people. That is the reality.

It did not take them long to throw a chameleon act by insisting that selection should be on merit. Needless to say, this happened after their racist agenda was exposed. [Interjections.]

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: Order members, can you take your seats!

Mr S SIMMONS: Unfortunately for them, there is something in this institution called the Hansard.

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: Hon Simmons, can you please take your seat?

Mr S SIMMONS: What is comforting to know is that these...

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: Hon Simmons, can you please take your seat?

The DEPUTY MINISTER OF SPORT AND RECREATION: Chairperson, can I ask the hon member a question?

Mr S SIMMONS: You can put a question to me right now, hon Deputy Minister.

The DEPUTY MINISTER OF SPORT AND RECREATION: Thank you, Chairperson. You said, "to those actively participating in rugby". Would you kindly explain to the House what the equity of access is out there in the communities in terms of fields, equipment and coaches, for people in this country to actively participate in rugby?

Mr S SIMMONS: No too long ago, when I was still a member of the Portfolio Committee of Sport, this very same government – and I'm happy about that – was building stadiums all over the place. [Interjections.] That was number one. That was of importance, then. Now that these playing fields are there, we've got to get trainers from our own community that are able to go and train our people. That is important. What is comforting to know is that these hon members will not be in these positions forever.

Hon Minister and Deputy Minister, the National Alliance supports this Budget. [Interjections.]

Mr S J MASANGO

END OF TAKE

Mr S SIMMONS

Mr S J MASANGO: Chairperson, Minister, hon members, the Budget Vote's allocation for the Mass Participation Programme increases substantially every year, but the results are not forthcoming. If you sow something, you expect to reap something. It should be the same with this mass participation. Attendance in numbers of participants is not important. What matters are the results - the impact the Mass Participation Programme must have on society. In my budget speech last year I questioned the mass participation and labelled it as a once-off funfair day where people come together and enjoy themselves and that is the end of it. Hon Minister, I am not against the Mass Participation Programme. What I am not in favour of is its implementation.

There is only one place where we can identify talent at an early stage and then develop it to have tomorrow's stars and that is at a school level. In fact, mass participation must be encouraged at school level by giving children an opportunity to participate in different sports codes to showcase their different talents. At school level, teachers have the opportunity to identify children with specific talents and monitor their progress and ensure their development. Hon Minister, it is not the duty of the Department of Sport and Recreation to run school sports events because your department does not have the expertise to do so. That must be left to the teachers at school level. The duty of the Department of Sport and Recreation is to make conditions conducive for schoolteachers to run mass participation events.

There is a problem with the way the department plans and organises sports events. Sports games such as the Winter and Summer Games and other games organised by the department are either poorly prepared or cancelled at the last minute. This, Minister, frustrates the teachers, parents and children and it embarrasses your department.

On the one hand, I would like to commend you on Siyadlala as a recreational programme. I really appreciate the way we are bringing back those old games to communities. This programme teaches the present generation the old games that we used to play. In Sepedi they say: "Rutang bana ditaola le seye natšo badimong".

I must also take this opportunity to congratulate Boxing South Africa, BSA, and its board members for having an unqualified report for the last financial year. Once more, I must congratulate the Chief Executive Officer of BSA, Mr Khumalo, who, after only a few months in office, managed to secure sponsors for BSA at a critical time when the BSA was without a sponsorship. Well done, Mr Khumalo. "Bamba kugcine".

The Department of Sport and Recreation must lead by example in bringing sports facilities to rural areas and rolling out the Mass Participation Programme to rural schools. As long as there are no facilities in those areas, the sporting codes will always be blamed for not having diversity in their teams. It is time for the department to be bias towards building sports infrastructure in rural areas. Not all sports facilities are there in rural areas for people to choose the ones they like. ... [Interjections.]

An HONOURABLE MEMBER: Chairperson, on a point of order: Is it parliamentary for the hon member to say, "rotang bana"? [Laughter.]

Sepedi:

Mr S J MASANGO: Ke dirile Sepedi ge o sa tsebe. "Rutang bana ditaola" ke Sepedi.

English:

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: Hon member, we will teach him Sepedi. Hon Masango, it is "rutang" and not "rotang". Thank you. [Laughter.]

Mr S J MASANGO: I have done Sepedi. Okay, just count my minutes for that.

One factor that is also a problem is that there are too many sports administrators who occupy too many positions in sport as a whole, and they have been there for too long. It is time that they are phased out. Some of these positions, such as board members, are approved by you, Minister. It is time for the Minister to think twice before approving board members. The question is whether there are not enough capacitated sportspeople in South Africa to run sport. The country has enough skilled sports administrators. But the problem is that they are not ANC members.

Last year, during our Budget Vote in this Chamber, I said to you as a political leader that the Department of Sport and Recreation's performance standards are declining instead of improving. My comments were based on the Auditor-General's report with too many matters of emphasis. During your response you chose the denial approach instead of tackling the issue at hand. You said what we were talking about in the financial report was a falsification of the truth. You further said that there was empirical evidence in your office - the platinum and the gold certificates for being the best administered department in the whole country. I fully agree with you regarding the certificates in your office. But the truth is that those certificates are the work of your predecessor, the hon Ngconde Balfour. It was only by luck that you came to the right place at the right time to reap the fruits. What is also true is that under your leadership, this department has received a qualified financial report. What I said was the truth and nothing else.

I just want to mention one finding from the Auditor-General in which he says: "Measurable objectives are materially inconsistent between the annual report and the strategic plan." The Auditor-General put this in a nice way. The real word in business is fraud. This inconsistence is evident in Programme 3 in the annual report, where achievements tripled targets. I hope you will agree with me, hon Minister, that you do not want to be remembered as a Minister under whose leadership the department received a qualified report. There is still time for the Minister to turn things around in the last few months he has left in office. I hope he does so.

Let me also conclude by congratulating Mpumalanga Black Aces Football Club for the excellent performance they have shown during the Nedbank Cup. I thank you. [Applause.]

Mr C T FROLICK

END OF TAKE

Mr S J MASANGO

Mr C T FROLICK: Chairperson, hon members, may I say that it is in all likelihood that this is the last opportunity that this portfolio committee will have to engage in the Budget Vote debate of Sport and Recreation. The elections are looming, Mr Simmons and we cannot wait for the day that we won't be subjected to your hot air in this Parliament anymore. [Laughter.] You know, hon Simmons and hon Spies, maybe if you attended the portfolio committee meetings, then you would have benefited from it. Today for the first time we can see ...

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON : Hon member, are you rising on a point of order?

Mr W D SPIES: Is the hon member willing to take a question?

Mr C T FROLICK: Chairperson, I am not taking questions now but he reminds of the days when I was still a school principal. [Interjections.] I am not prepared to take a question. He reminds me of the days when I was still a school principal and I had these youngsters in assembly that usually got out of hand very early as soon as they got into the assembly.

It reminded me of what I used to do then was to send them right to the back of the hall to go and pick up papers and litter outside so that we could get on with our business. [Laughter.] If they attended the portfolio committee, then most probably some of the things that they have said here today in terms of Hockey SA and Gymnastics SA – hon Spies, you wouldn't have said that. The public hearings were clear. We had Gymnastics SA here and I will respond to some of those things later in this debate.

The DA, surprisingly today, have moved to the centre of where we want them. It took four years of bullying under this chairperson for the DA to be where they are today and thank you for the wonderful contribution and positive things that you have highlighted and we also share some of the concerns that you have raised today.

Our participation as the ANC in this portfolio committee is based on the directive and our resolve to accelerate transformation in sport unapologetically and it is provided by the 2002 ANC conference resolution taken in Stellenbosch and reaffirmed at Polokwane in 2007. I believe that when these different policy positions are implemented, hon Minister, we will forever have changed the face of South African sport and located sport rightfully where it belong, that is among the people.

At the time of the debate on the passing of the National Sport and Recreation Act in 2007, the ANC said in this debate that this legislation was long overdue. We cannot sit back any longer, fold our arms and allow sport administrators to run federations as if it were their family businesses.

We also said that the mismanagement, the lack of transparency and the serious breaches of good corporate governance in federations and its affiliates must be stopped. While we know that it is only six months since the promulgation of the Act, we on this side of the House are indeed growing radically impatient to see the implementation of certain provisions of the Act, especially those that deal with transformation and the entering into a performance agreement between federations and Sport and Recreation SA. Generally, national federations have displayed a lack of appetite in calling their affiliates to order. Very often the national federations themselves are not exemplary in conducting their affairs.

At the same time, Chairperson, their ambivalent, unaccountable inherently racist approach to transformation is depriving the nation of the opportunity to reach our full potential in the international arena. Last Thursday, 22 May, an article appeared in Star under the heading: "Trouble looms for Olympic hockey team over quotas". In the article written by a journalist who, like the hon Spies, did not attend or follow the proceedings of a meeting between the portfolio committee and SA Hockey Association, who then comes to this breath-taking conclusion: "That the SA Hockey Association will be forced to reselect the team that is going to the Beijing Olympic Games, after the portfolio committee chairperson decided to change the required number of quotas." In that meeting the DA was present, the UDM was present and one of the smaller parties – I can't remember exactly whom. [Laughter.]

Her only source for this story was based on the biased opinion of the President of Hockey SA; not to be outdone, other newspapers, with reckless ignorance pushed ahead with headlines screaming: "Transformation raises its ugly head again". Today, 16 years after South Africa's readmission onto the international arena, certain entities try to lecture us on the danger of mixing sport and politics. We must not underestimate the role of opinion columnists, writers, commentators, former players who have all benefited handsomely from apartheid sport – and even from the fruits of this democracy.

The prevailing views on transformation in sport portrayed in the media come from these so-called experts who are biased in promoting certain players, while wasting no time to belittle and destroy the career prospects of emerging black players. It is thus not a coincidence to find certain entities joining forces with reactionaries to maintain the status quo in sport, which is skewed in favour of the minority. The failure of South African sport teams is then also often contributed to transformation, which they say negatively influence selection policies. However, they forget that the successful Stormers and Sharks who participated in this year's Super 14, had the most players of colour in that team. Those players performed consistently week after week. The same principle applies to the Proteas team.

Let us get back to Mr Spies and with some of the information that he tried to spoonfeed us here this afternoon. Hon Spies, we had a meeting with Hockey SA, after they requested it last year. They came and said: We are not as racist as you think. We are very well-transformed. They said that they had a transformation policy which made a 50-50 team selection to the Commonwealth Games and to the Olympic Games possible. We interrogated them further and they said that in the men's team, they, on merit – you merit, Mr Spies – they can even exceed the 50% in the team. However, they also said that in terms of the women's team, they were not there yet. They solicited the support from the portfolio committee and in a meeting with the Minister of Sport. We said to them that if that was the way in which they were going and what their programme was doing, we supported them.

What happened them? They go behind our backs after hearing that they are getting the ticket to Beijing and they shifted the goal posts. They agreed in a meeting that took place with certain officials from Sascoc, that the minimum for the team selection into the men's team will be six. The minimum: Six out sixteen. Their policy says that based on what they presented, it should actually have been 8. They said that they had the players. The only thing that we did was, hon Spies, was to remind them of the undertaking that they came to give to Parliament and to the Minister of Sport. We cannot allow dishonourable officials from different federations coming to Parliament and to the Minister of Sport, presenting one thing. But once their ticket to the Olympic Games is secured, they shift the goal posts. We will interact with them and we will demand that what they have presented to us must be implemented.

We can also that this is a disappointing episode in that certain federations engage with ulterior motives, such as international participation. Such dishonesty is not strange amongst sport administrators. Minister, I am reminded by the promises made by the SA Rugby Union to this very Parliament and to the Minister, to say that by come 2009 there will be a Super 14 franchise in the South-East Cape. In a meeting that I attended earlier this year with officials from the Eastern Province Rugby Union and the new MD of the SA Rugby Union, the MD said that it was not even on their radar screen; maybe in 2011. These are the types of people that we are dealing with.

Hon Minister, you mentioned in your input in the debate the fact that Grey High School in Port Elizabeth, 152 years old, had for the first time selected a black rugby captain for their first team. But it does not stop there. Out of the 15 players that took the field against Paul Roos Gymnasium in Stellenbosch over the weekend, nine of them were black players. [Applause.] And to top it all, Minister, in the bastion of the Afrikaner rugby in the country, namely in Stellenbosch, this team from Grey College with its black players ran circles around Paul Roos Gymnasium and they beat them 42-15. [Applause.] That is what must be encouraged when we have traditional schools coming slowly to the realisation that the future of sport codes at the schools is dependent on the inclusion and equal treatment of all players. Our players do not disappoint, hon Spies.

One is also captivated by a manuscript written by the hon Life President of Saru, Mr Harold Wilson, and we managed to source it, Minister. For the past few years it was lying locked up in the cupboards of SA Rugby, because in that book he tells the inconvenient truth on the history of SA Rugby and also on the challenges that it faces. After this debate, we will hand over the entire manuscript to you, Minister, so that we can see to it that this book gets published. Certain people tried to hide it away from us and eventually we sourced it.

These are just some of the few examples and I am quite sure that the Minister can give us more examples of promises made and not kept since the days of unity.

When we listen to certain arguments that emanate from certain federations, it is quite clear, and I am one of those who believe, that the unity process was never a genuine process. In fact, it turned out to be a hostile take-over of black sport in the country and that is why we are where we are today, the agenda being international participation at all costs.

I am reminded by the Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission, Mr Jody Kollapen, who recently said, after the sad events that happened at the University of the Free State:

South Africa's early democracy after 1994 reached out too far with a policy of reconciliation at the expense of transformation. We focussed too much on reconciliation in the first years of our democracy. This has led to difficulties in advancing the transformation agenda, because the beneficiaries of apartheid resisted transformation as they saw it as undermining reconciliation. They did not come to the party and contribute to the transformation of the country.

Black people who are in leadership positions in some of these federations are often being made to feel guilty or inferior when pursuing the transformation objectives. The message that they're getting before they are pushed out by the backdoor: Do not destroy the reconciliation process. Reconciliation does not mean the maintenance of the status quo of the pre-1994 era. In fact, it demands from all of us the need to embrace transformation as a fundamental cornerstone of the negotiated settlement for a democratic South Africa.

We need to move speedily towards a new direction for South African sport to put a policy on the table that clearly demarcates responsibilities for all the different stakeholders in sport. The National Sport and Recreation Act is just one step in dealing with certain difficulties, however, we need to have this policy to eliminate fragmentation and duplication, to put a funding policy in place and realign – very important – the objectives and operations of funders, including the National Lottery Distribution Agency, towards our national goals.

I have been covered sufficiently by previous speakers in terms of the School Sport Programme, hon Minister. We are not happy with it. The direction that the School Sport Programme has taken is not what we envisaged. We never, ever saw the need for teachers to be driven away from the system and for departmental officials to take over the process. In fact, they must play a supportive role and they must create an environment that is conducive to the development of school sport. We also feel that this anomaly must be corrected, in that the Mass Participation Programme on the one hand, and the School Sport Programme on the other, cannot not be seen as two different programmes. In fact, it should be infused and lead to the same possible outcomes in areas where school sport programmes encourage the teachers to continue with it and give them support. In areas where there is nothing, take a new school sport programme through the Mass Participation Programme.

We are concerned by the cancellation of certain national co-tournaments that were supposed to take place, and we also encourage interactions with teachers in the School Sport Movement to establish a School Sport Federation so that the practitioners of the sport themselves can drive that programme. However, Mr Minister, we are concerned that a letter from your department to this group has created the impression that the Department of Sport does not support such a movement, and we would like to have clarity on that.

Turning to the South African Institute for Drug-Free Sport, we are also concerned that an annual event that has been happening in Port Elizabeth in the Nelson Mandela Metro for the past four years, the Iron Man Competition, seemed to have been turned a blind eye upon by the institute. When I attended the event last month I asked "where is the institute?" because here you have athletes, swimming for 5,5km, cycling 180km and immediately after that run half a marathon. You ask yourself: Are all of them tested? Do we get samples from them? The organisers told me that the institute refused to come and do the tests. We would like to know why the institute refused. We would also like to know why the Iron Man Competition in that part of the country, which is affiliated to the International Iron Man Body, which is affiliated to the World Antidoping Agency, cannot access the institute for assistance. Instead they had to hire private doctors to do the work for them.

We will continue in our endeavour to see to it that the South African sport landscape is transformed. From the side of the ANC, we propose for: the National Sport Indaba takes place as soon as possible; a review to place of the unity process, especially in rugby and cricket; we also propose that we need to relook the Sascoc model in terms of sport. Sascoc is important, because that is where our Olympic movement is located, but it is not effective as a base for ordinary sport federations and people in our country to raise their concerns in the different provinces, in the regions and nationally.

With those few words and the limited time at my disposal, the ANC supports this and we will continue in our quest, Mr Simmons, to push for the transformation of sport. Thank you. [Applause.]

The MINISTER OF SPORT AND RECREATION

END OF TAKE

Mr C T FROLICK

The MINISTER OF SPORT AND RECREATION: Chairperson and hon members, thank you very much. As I said right at the opening of my input, it is very clear that we do not disagree on what should be done. We only disagree on how it should be done. All of you have just confirmed the statement that I made and I am very glad that you did.

Allow me to just say a few words in response to some of the issues, but not to all of them. The first thing I want to respond to, Comrade Cedric Frolick, is the issue of school sport. I agree with hon Lee, hon Masango, and everybody who said that the starting point is at school. This is what you said in May 2004 already and that is the starting point of the development of school and organising of school sport.

We do not know who wrote the letter you were talking about, because we had a meeting with teachers and practitioners of school sport and encouraged them to form a South African school sport association in line with the rest of the world. How can they participate in subregional, regional, or indeed global school sport activities if they do not have an association?

With respect to some of the members, like Mr Spies, I am glad the Deputy Minister corrected the impression he was creating that we are not funding sports and individuals here. These things, once upon a time, used to be called misleading of the House. When members made statements that were not correct, it used to be called misleading of the House. Maybe I should read the regulations since I was once away from here.

I want to ask Mr Bhoola to take Mr Spies, as well as Mr Masango, on a tour of what is happening in the countryside. Clearly, these hon members do not have a clue of what is going on in this country.

With respect to the audits and the bonuses, I said three things other than what you quoted, Mr Masango. First, I said we should not pre-empt a debate on a financial year report when it has not come to an end. That is what I said. The second thing I said was that you must ask yourself the question – and I ask you to ask that question again – why were some of those audits that date back to 2001 only raised last year? Ask yourself that question.

Of course, I also said, with respect to that issue of the bonuses that we have investigated what the Auditor-General had discovered and we have agreed with the Auditor-General, and accordingly the Director-General has been instructed to take disciplinary action and corrective measures. That is water under the bridge. The last thing I want to say in respect to these questions is that we agree with you on the audit. We will record that and we will wait for parliamentary instructions in that respect.

In closing I want to say, a checklist for change unfortunately has to include races in a country that was segregated on a racial basis. You cannot determine whether there is improvement in the integration of those communities unless you measure them according to the elements of their discrimination.

Structural inequality is very deep in this country and has a great potential to damage the nation-building that we are embarking on. Covert and overt forms of racism should not be treated glibly. Sport is not an add-on in the eradication of these racial issues. Such liberal values, and I can't take you away here, hon Lee, from the liberal values, because that is what constitutes the Democratic Party, which is a major component of the Democratic Alliance. It has liberal views.

The concept of an open opportunity society is a liberal view and the ANC cannot agree with liberal views. We are a national liberation movement and we do not subscribe to liberal views, because we cannot assume that the forces of nature and the forces of the market will afford those opportunities to everybody. It is tantamount to saying that those children in QwaQwa must wait for opportunities to one day go their way as well. That is "the ought to", not "the is"; that is the aspired to society. It is not what is – that is not what is in this country – because you see, like I said in my input, the hegemony of our socioeconomic priorities is actually economic. The hands that wield the economy have the hegemony on what happens in this country.

Lastly, we must accept, Comrade Cedric Frolick, that the presence of black people on some structures is sometimes used as a shield against real transformation. The few blacks in high profile jobs get used to drive the antichange programmes of big money spenders and so they get used as a bridge for the old alliances of antichange to recoup what they lost in 1994.

We must put our heads together and stand together in this thing. Reversal is not an option. Unity is the only way to go. Somebody must lose something in order for the other one to get something. I always use the example of the two children from the same mother: One is going to school barefoot; the other one has a pair of tackies. You can't with your last rand buy this one a second pair of tackies; you have to buy the barefoot kid a pair of tackies too. This is the philosophy you must follow. I thank you very much.

Debate concluded.

The Committee rose at 17:41.


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