ATC150624: Report of the Portfolio Committee on Sport and Recreation on follow-up visit in Limpopo, 27 March 2015, dated 23 June 2015

Sport, Arts and Culture

Report of the Portfolio Committee on Sport and Recreation on follow-up visit in Limpopo, 27 March 2015, dated 23 June 2015.
 

1.   Introduction

 

On 27 March 2015 a delegation of the Portfolio Committee on Sport and Recreation conducted oversight in Limpopo, specifically Polokwane and Tzaneen, in order to:

  1. Follow up on discussions with the provincial department of Sport and Recreation regarding the moving of gymnasium equipment to the identified provincial academy;
  2. Hand over sport attire that the Portfolio Committee had promised to the rugby clubs in Mopani region, Tzaneen;
  3. Conduct a joint oversight to the Capricorn District Academy with the Limpopo provincial legislature, the committee of Sport, arts, culture and recreation.

 

The delegation of the Portfolio Committee on Sport and Recreation included: Mr S G Mmusi, Mr S M Ralegoma (Leader of the delegation), Mr D Bergman, Mr S M Malatsi, and Mr L M Ntshayisa.

 

Support staff: Mrs. N Mahlanyana (Committee Assistant) and Mr. T Thebehae (Content Advisor)

 

The oversight exercise comprised site visits to the school identified as a provincial academy and sport focused. The delegation met officials of the Limpopo department of Sport, Arts and Culture, the Limpopo sports confederation, school governing body, the Portfolio Committee on Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation, Mayor of Greater Tzaneen, traditional leaders of Ga-Mothapo villages, staff at sport focused schools, sport clubs and coaches, players and managers.  

 

The visit was only for a day and concluded with the handing over of sport attire to the three clubs by the Portfolio Committee and South African Rugby Union (SARU).

 

2.   Findings on the site visit to Capricorn High School – Provincial Academy

The officials from the provincial Department of Sport, Arts and Culture and the provincial academy provided a background information regarding the visit. They also shared with the committee some of their programmes at the facility. This academy will be a one stop academy, it offers the accommodation facilities for teams that may need a camp. The Portfolio Committee has learnt that so far three federations have held their camps in this academy, these are Netball, Softball and Rugby. It is important that there is access to the facility since it is within the school property.

  1. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) had been signed with Capricorn High School, and this was part of the sport focused schools programme
  2. The gym equipment that the provincial department had stored for more than 8 years had finally been delivered to the school, which had been identified as the provincial academy.
  3. The school’s old gym equipment has been stored up and nothing has been decided regarding its future usage.
  4. There was a five-year plan to upgrade the sport facilities at the school.
  5. The school has a full week sport programme.

 

Concerns:

  1. The future of the old gym equipment that the school has needs to be determined.
  2. The academy needs to be accessible to all federations.
  3. The Sport Confederation should play a much bigger role in running the academy along with the provincial Department of Sport, Arts and Culture

The programme and its future growth needs to be closely monitored and the provincial portfolio committee needs to be involved in monitoring.

 

  1. Findings at the Capricorn District Academy

The visit to the district was a joint programme with the provincial legislature committee on sport, arts, culture and recreation. This academy is situated in Ga-Mothapo village, just 20km outside Polokwane. It is in tribal land of Mothapo. The academy is placed in an old community centre, which was renovated and turned into a gymnasium. It offers outdoor sport facilities like football ground, netball and tennis courts. These outdoor facilities were not in a good playing condition, the ground still needed to be scraped off the grass and the courts require a total revamp. However, the gym equipment was still new and air conditioners had been installed in the facility.

 

These were the findings of the committee:

  1. The provincial department of sport had partnered with the Capricorn District Municipality to develop the district academy.
  2. The Capricorn District Municipality had invested R500 000 in renovating the community hall and turn it into the community gym.
  3. The facility does not have electricity installed as yet.
  4. The ablution blocks were also renovated.
  5. The district municipality had applied for Lottery funding in order to purchase the gym equipment worth R1.5 million.
  6. A skilled person had been identified and recruited to manage the centre and assist with the running of the academy programme at the centre
  7. The department is yet to sign the MoU with the district municipality.
  8. The department has allocated R4.6 million in the 2015-16 financial year towards supporting the district academies.

 

Concerns:

  1. Signing of the MoU with the district academy should be concluded as soon as possible in order to ensure that there is no delay of transfers of money and provision of programmes to the Capricorn district academy.
  2. The lack of electricity at that centre will hamper full use of all the equipment in the gym.
  3. The state of the outdoor facilities at the centre is concerning as it cannot be used due to the state of surface, these includes the ablution blocks, the tennis and netball courts and the soccer pitch.

 

  1. Handover of rugby sport attire – Tzaneen

The committee had come to fulfil the promise of delivering sport attire to the clubs that had requested it. These clubs are part of the Club Development programme that SRSA is piloting in the Mopani region. The reports that the committee had received regarding these programme indicated that it was doing well in that region. During the November 2014 oversight visit the Portfolio Committee had seen the progress that had been made and the need to assist those clubs that had not been reached yet.

 

The clubs that had been identified were Willows rugby club (Male team), Rotterdam rugby club (Male team) and Dan rugby club (Female team). The attire was fully sponsored by the South African Rugby Union (SARU) and they also came to hand over the sport kit officially. During the handover ceremony the mayor of Greater Tzaneen called on all the stakeholders of sport to provide the youth of Tzaneen with opportunities. She called on the business community to invest more in sport, so that the youth can be inspired to participate, highlighting the value of sport as a lucrative career.

 

Mr. Khaya Mayedwa of SARU expressed satisfaction that SARU had been able to hand over the sport attire in Limpopo. He also emphasised the commitment of SARU to grow the game by providing young people with more opportunities to play rugby in order to grow the game further, and indicated that he still had another set of kit which he would forward to the province the following week.

 

  1. Recommendations

The Portfolio Committee recommends as follows:

 

That the Minister of Sport and Recreation encourage the Limpopo Department of Sport, Arts and Culture:

  1. to ensure that all sporting codes have access to the provincial academy and receive / have access to academy services.
  2. to sign the MoU with Capricorn District Municipality by the end of the first term in order to allow for the full functioning of the Capricorn district academy.
  3. to ensure that the Limpopo provincial sports confederation is empowered to manage the provincial academy according to the agreed standards with the provincial department.
  4. to speedily renovate the facilities of the Capricorn District Academy through the allocated funding.

 

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