SRSA & Institute for Drug Free Sport on their Annual Performance Plans; with Deputy Minister

Meeting report

An apology was tendered for the Minister.

Deputy Minister’s opening remarks

The Deputy Minister, Mr Gert Oosthuizen, appreciated the opportunity to present the Department of Sport and Recreation South Africa’s (SRSA) 2017/18 Annual Performance Plan (APP). The 2017/18 APP was guided by the National Development Plan (NDP) that recognized the fact that sport played an important role in promoting social cohesion. The APP was further guided by the National Sport and Recreation Plan (NSRP), which was approved by Cabinet in 2012. The NSRP was premised on principles of active nation, winning nation and enabling environment. The 2015/16 Strategic Plan of the Department was reviewed in order to gauge the continued relevance of the Department’s plans to the environment, as well as ensuring the delivery of SRSA’s mandate. It was acknowledged that no significant policy shifts were envisaged during the 2017/18 financial year and that no substantial changes would occur in the service delivery environment that would have an impact on the Department’s operations. It was mainly technical improvements that had been made to the strategic goals and strategic objectives, contained in the 2017/18 APP.

The planning processes carried out by the Department have a vital role to play in arriving at the vision and proposals contained in the NDP. A thorough examination of the NDP would show that the proposals with direct relevance to sport and recreation have been incorporated into the existing strategies and activities for the Department.

In achieving the objectives and indicators of the 2017/18 APP, SRSA would ensure an implementation of the NSRP, and also contribute to priority areas as captured in Outcome 14 of government’s programme of action.

Within the international framework, the 2017/18 APP is informed by policy documents from the United Nations (UN) that was relevant to the sport and recreation sector. The post-2015 sustainable development goals (SDGs) that succeeded the millennium development goals (MDGs) were adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2015. The specific reference to the role of sport for social progress into the creation of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development was important to note.

The Deputy Minister (DM) quoted from the declaration and said “Sport is also an important enabler of sustainable development. We recognise the great contribution of sport to the realisation of development and peace in its promotion of tolerance and respect and the contribution it makes to the empowerment of women and of young people, individuals and communities, as well as to help education and social cohesion objectives.”

The above quotation is what SRSA aligned itself to. From the indicators and targets identified in the 2017/18 APP, the Department would not only contribute to the achievement of the 2030 SDGs, it would also capitalise on the innumerable socio-economic and health benefits derived from participating in a diverse range of sports and recreation activities. Furthermore, SRSA would continue to transform the delivery of sport and recreation by ensuring equitable access, development and excellence at all levels of participation, thereby improving social cohesion, nation building and the quality of life of all South Africans.

SRSA’s planning processes are driven by its vision, which is that of an active and winning nation. The first part of the vision that speaks to an active nation referred to mass participation and facilitating the expansion of access to sport and recreation facilities. This was not only a fundamental human right recognised by the UN; it was also a health issue. All evidences indicate that an active nation was also a healthy nation, both physically and mentally. The second part of the vision that talks about a winning nation referred to the placement of systems and structures to identify emerging sporting talents. The Department also needed to support and prepare athletes to represent the country at the highest international levels. The two parts of the vision are inexplicably linked.

According to the White Paper for sport and recreation, “no country can expect to achieve and sustain at an elite level without a strong participation base in the community.” In other words, there was a need to widen the pool of talents from which the national teams in the country were selected, as this would help the country to perform at the highest levels of international sports. It was for this reason that the Department upheld the view that school sports in South Africa was the bedrock for all sports development in the country. It was important to ensure equal access to physical education and sports for all learners, as this was critical to the performance of national sporting codes at the highest level.

Based on research, the Eminent Persons Group, which annually audited the state of transformation of sports in South Africa, has correctly discussed school sport as the “Achilles heel” of the whole sport system including the high performance sporting codes.

SRSA had to work closely with the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to expand its school sports programme, especially at the individual schools and district levels, so that these activities could fit into provincial and national competitions at schools. One of the priorities of the Department was the review of the memorandum of agreement (MOA) with DBE. The Department also needs to work with the national federations in terms of the 16 sporting codes that has been identified, with a view to align parallel initiatives that would assist in building a common skills pipeline that draws from a much broader pool of potential talents across the whole schooling system. In order to succeed in building school sports, all stakeholders have to work together to optimise the use of resources by all the relevant government departments at all levels and to draw on the expertise and organisational skills of the South African Sports Confederation, along with the Committee and national federations. The knowledge and physical education training capacity that resided within the education and training institutions would have to be brought forward. The Department also need to engage with teachers, parents, communities, and the wider sporting family and fraternity. To succeed however, there was a need to collectively make a case for sport, by explaining the importance of physical education and sports in schools, as a critical part of holistic education; a healthy and purposeful life; and a key to national success in high performance sports.

The above formed the basis for the Department’s vision for an active and winning nation. In conclusion, the 2017/18 APP will be presented against the backdrop of an exciting year after the Department once again received an unqualified audit opinion from the Auditor-General (AG). The Deputy Minister expressed his gratitude to the staff and leadership of SRSA that made it possible for the Department to receive a further feather in its cap.

Presentation by SRSA of the 2017/18 Annual Performance Plan

Mr Alec Moemi, Director-General (DG), SRSA said SRSA was in a cycle of a five-year Strategic Plan of the Department and 11 injunctions emanated from the NDP that affected sports and recreation. The Department has however, attended to these injunctions after its amendment to the White Paper for sport and recreation as the official policy of the Department. The work that should be done within the five-year medium term strategic framework has been packaged and expanded upon through an implementation plan NSRP. The NSRP itself was for a 20-year period but it has been divided into four parts to make it manageable over a five-year period. Some of the injunctions were highlighted (see page 3 of the attached document). The injunctions also served as SRSA’s guiding processes. Tremendous progress has been in made in some injunctions, while the Department was lagging behind in others, mainly because of the issues around adequate integration with other departments and availability of resources.

One of the key targets in the 2014-2019 strategic framework was promotion of social cohesion across society (see page 5 of the attached document). The Minister has signed an outcome-based agreement with the President in this regard. The key pillars guiding the work of the Department were also highlighted (see page 6 of the attached document). These principles emanate directly from the NDP.

The targets in the five-year medium term strategic framework (MTSF) were highlighted (see page 7 of the attached document). Some key targets focused on school sports, as well as the importance of development of talented athletes.

The White Paper for sport and recreation provided a framework with which the Department could advocate its policy, approach, and guiding principles. The NSRP on the other hand, contained the five pillars. The first pillar spoke to the utilisation of sport as a tool for peace and development; social change; as well as a tool for social cohesion and unification of South Africans. The biggest and broadest pillar was that of building an active nation, which referred to community sport in the main; and affording communities the opportunity to participate in sports. Another broad pillar was that of a winning nation, which provided for talented athletes, as well as necessary facilitation for such athletes to win medals for the country. The Department was of the view that these targets can only be achieved through the creation of an enabling environment, as well as addressing the key salient features and variables, such as facilities, provision of academy, provision of coaches and technical officials to address these issues. There were also transversal issues that cut across the entire sport factor. These issues included sponsorships, broadcasting, etc.

Some minor technical adjustments have been made to SRSA’s strategic plan 2015-2020. However, there was no major strategic shift in the Department’s plan. The plan was still a 20-year plan, which would only be reviewed in the 2018 financial year for the first time. The Department has concluded its APP and submitted it to the AG for pre-auditing. The Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DMPE) and National Treasury have also made their inputs and the AG has confirmed that the APP aligned with the principles contained in the SMART processes.

The legal framework guiding the Department’s work was highlighted (see page 11 of the attached document). Discussions were ongoing in relation to an amendment of the South African Institute for Drug-free Sport Act; recommendation of the National Sport and Recreation Act (NSRA); as well as introduction of new laws, which would include the Fitness Industry Regulatory Act.

The strategic influences of sport were also highlighted (see page 12 of the attached document). The global landscape of sports has remained the same and 2017 was an important year because a forum of all global Ministers of sports would be meeting this year. SRSA was looking into using the forum as a platform through which South Africa could be influenced into the global overview of sports in the world, and if accepted, change the framework significantly.

SRSA’s vision and mission have not changed (see page 13 of the attached document). A slide showing proof of compliance to the provisions of the law in terms of submission of the APP to Parliament was highlighted (see page 14 of the attached document).

The key main indicators in terms of the estimate of national expenditure (ENE) for which the Appropriations Committee allocated resources to the Department were highlighted (see page 15 of the attached document). The biggest indicator was the number of people actively participating in sport and recreation promotion campaigns and events per year. It was important to note that the Department has for the first time, provided municipalities with technical and management support for provision of facilities. SRSA was seeking to support 30 municipalities per year. Such municipalities would be those that were incapable on their own to roll out sport facilities.

The sector indicators that affected SRSA and provinces were highlighted (see page 16 of the attached document). The Department and provinces are expected to work together, in the sense that money would be transferred by the Department to the provinces for the implementation of the indicators. The provinces would thereafter, report back to the Department and the Department would verify the implementation of each indicator to ensure the creation of platforms for participation for all athletes.

In terms of the APP, the targets set would be achieved through specific programmes that have been highlighted in page 19 of the attached document. The core outputs for 2017 include achieving a single governance framework for recreation. A lot of progress has been achieved in this regard, and the Department was waiting for the Minister to release the report of the Ministerial Committee on recreation. An outline would also be submitted on how this target would be achieved.

One of the exciting programmes carried out with provinces was the new programme that was launched in 2016, known as the Rural Sport Development Programme. The Department had been criticised for having a huge presence in townships and urban areas, but very little in rural areas. It was for this reason SRSA partnered with the House of Traditional Leaders. Two royal households have been secured per province, and SRSA would be attending the finals of the championship of rural communities in July. SRSA will expand to five royal households per province from August 2017. All provinces except for North West, are participating in this process. Many of the other provinces have completed their provincial elimination and are ready for the national championships. If North West was unable to complete the process by 15 June 2017, it would be left out of the national tournament.

Another programme was the Big Walk, which has been targeted for significant growth in the current year. There will be a race for the first time this year for the annual National Recreation Day. The Department will continue to provide equipment and support for schools, particularly rural schools; as well as support for rural-based tournaments.

SRSA was growing the Indigenous Games Festival. The new Minister and Deputy Minister have directed that schools should be added to the festival, and that school-based teams should participate in the festival. This will result in a huge increase from 3 500 participants at national level to about 7 000 participants this year.

In terms of the allocation of the Mass Participation and Sport Development Grant (see page 21 of the attached document), school sport was receiving the larger chunk of the grant. Provinces were expected to spend 38% of the money allocated to them on school sports and 35% of the grant was also given to provinces to support community-based clubs and recreational activities. SRSA has also recognised that smaller provinces like the Northern Cape, North West, Limpopo, and Free State tended to struggle with the capacity to rollout everywhere. SRSA has therefore, increased the percentage of management from 6% to 9% to enable these provinces to employ more people to carry out work in this regard.

SRSA was running a pilot programme on club development with a new club toolkit and a new basis, starting with Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). Netball, football and athletic clubs were supported in those three codes. It was a longitudinal pilot process; and quick returns were not expected since it was a 15-year pilot. The first report would be considered this year. This year would mark the third year of running the pilot. The Department would be looking into the number of clubs receiving support; the growth of such clubs; and the effectiveness of the new franchise model.

The targets for winning nation were highlighted (see page 25 of the attached document). The main target under consideration was the number of athletes supported through the scientific support programme per year. People like Chad le Clos and Akani Simbini are on the operation excellence programme for elite athletes (OPECS). OPECS currently has about 26 athletes. There were many other athletes that did not meet the requirements of OPECS and OPECS only wanted athletes that were ready. The Department will however, provide support to 80 athletes per year through this programme, as a means of helping them to meet the OPECS requirement.

In terms of the core outputs, the Department was still concerned about the bill that seeks to ban alcohol advertising, as it would have a devastating effect on sport if safeguards were not put in place. The Department requested the Committee’s support in this regard. SRSA was not opposed to the ban; it was only asking that the funds that usually emanated from alcohol industry should be put aside after the bill has been passed. The funds have been calculated to be around R4.8 billion per year, and this would be lost if the ban should go ahead as planned.

One of the exciting programmes however, was the Andrew Mlangeni Green Jacket programme, where past heroes that were never celebrated because of apartheid policies, would be celebrated. Since 2017 was the year following the Olympics. Therefore, there will be a South African Recreations Conference to be hosted by North West University. Progress has been made in the building of the National Training Centre. By February 2018, the Department will have a contractor on site to commence the building of all preparatory centres.

The targets for sport support were highlighted (see pages 28 and 29 of the attached document). The targets in sport support have not changed significantly. However, the Department has increased the target for the number of national federations entering into transformation barometer agreements with the Minister, which were now 15 agreements to be signed by the end of March 2018. The Department would continue its work around this. In-depth work has been done around transformation. The Department would also be reviewing the transformation charter this year, in preparation of the overall review of the sport plan in 2018.

In terms of the core outputs, the federation of the year as declared by the Minister, would be volleyball. SRSA was already envisaging the launch of the volleyball premier league later this year. It was excited about the prospects of retaining volleyball to its glory days.

SRSA has also been helping with the turnaround for Boxing South Africa (BSA), which was now somewhat healthy financially, and improvements have been discovered in its audit outcomes and regulatory environment.

Another key programme was the sport coaches outreach (SCORE). The Department was currently training about 5 000 coaches for a period of three years. Adequate funding has been provided in order to achieve this.

Sport infrastructure support (see page 32 of the attached document), the smallest programme of SRSA was now growing significantly. Treasury has allocated R10 million to the Department for the appointment of new capacity. SRSA was therefore, hiring quantity surveyors, engineers, architects and so on to support small municipalities to do work. The Department has already succeeded in supporting a host of municipalities. The Department was putting in so much effort to ensure that municipalities were able to rollout facilities. Focus has been placed on Gauteng in terms of conducting a full audit. The facilities count was completed in 2016. An in-depth audit will be carried out this year. Both KZN and the Western Cape had already completed their audit.

 The core outputs for this programme were new areas. The Department would be looking into the National Sport and Recreation Events Centre (NASREC) precinct. NASREC has been reclaimed from the Department of Public Works (DPW) and plans were in place for the expansion of NASREC. The Department was also considering the expansion of the Moses Mabida precinct in order to standardise it for the future ambition of bidding for the Olympics. The rehabilitation of the Soweto golf course has been completed. Work would soon commence for the rehabilitation of the Mabopane golf course. Community outdoor gyms are still being rolled out.

SRSA has also commenced a programme with the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA), which was greening of open spaces. This programme started in the Eastern Cape through the construction of a mega park of about 20 hectares.

SRSA’s budget has declined. The budget was standing at R1.06 billion, and it was the first time since the World Cup that the budget that crosses the billion mark. The Fees Must Fall protest led to an initial R18 million reduction in the budget, and later R20 million.

The budget for administration was R136.9 million; and more than 50% (R689 million) of the budget has been allocated for the active nation programme. The budget for active nation included transfers, and monies sent to provinces. Of the budget for active nation, about R588 million was directed at provinces as a conditional grant that was shared along with non-provinces. The budget for the winning nation programme was R76.9 million and was aimed at support for academies and talented athletes.

R150 million will be spent on sport support, with a larger percentage of the amount spent on sport federations as a transfer. The budget for sport infrastructure support has increased to R13.1 million from about R2 million in the past. Of that amount, R10 million was for personnel while R3 million was for demonstration programmes, National Treasury’s argument was that the money for building sport facilities should not sit with national government, but should be in the MIG instead, and also for metros in the Urban Settlement Development Grant. SRSA disagreed with this approach. The challenge with the arrangement proposed by Treasury was that municipalities will not spend that money on sport facilities. However, the sum of R300 million for MIGs was deposited with the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), and was used together with the Department to provide support for smaller municipalities in dire need of facilities.

As far as provinces were concerned, the Department came to an agreement with Treasury in 2012. Previously, it used the equitable share formula, but using the same formula would mean that sports would only be played in KZN, Western Cape, Eastern Cape, and Gauteng. It was therefore, decided that a baseline of R20 million would be set aside for each province from the available R588 million. The equitable share formula would then be applied to the remainder of the money based on the size of each province, in terms of population, levels of development, contribution to national GDP and other variables specified by Treasury. The Department also made use of solidarity principles where the two biggest provinces in terms of budget (KZN and Gauteng) would part with 1% of their budget, which would be allocated to the smallest province. The use of this method has for the first time, assisted Northern Cape in sending teams to all national tournaments, participate in tournaments and also reach out to more schools than could not be previously reached. New principles have been set for this grant and have been reinforced across all economic classifications to ensure uniformity of purpose by all provinces, as well as ensure that money was spent according to a guaranteed framework. It should be noted that the Free State has the most successful academy system and a greater reach. However, provinces like Gauteng and KZN have decided to outsource academy systems to private providers, despite the money these provinces have. The Department has mandated these provinces to reverse their plan and to build state capacity that would respond to athletes, especially since it has been discovered through the Free State model that it was doable and cheaper to adopt this method.

The Department was currently paying about four times for an athlete at a university high performance center and 7% of the budget has been allocated to provinces as transversal allocations. Some provinces like KZN have specific provincial interest in terms of programmes. They organise sports like traditional horse riding, which were not part of the national programmes of the Department. In the Eastern Cape for instance, the support for boxing exceeded that of other provinces. The Department therefore, allowed MECs to determine the best use of the 7% allocation.

Discussion

Mr C Hattingh (DA; North West) complimented the Deputy Minister his preparedness for the meeting. He asked for financial details from a provincial perspective, as well as the provincial divisions in terms of the amount allocated to each province linked to the APP. In terms of school and youth participation, he referred to the notion of recreation being a myth and the money for sport infrastructure should be directed to another priority. The Committee has observed that rural areas and smaller urban towns lacked basic sport facilities at school levels. The Committee has been made to understand that DBE has other priorities relating to academic output. He wanted to know what SRSA could do to address this situation. It has also been observed that schools in more affluent societies often received the benefits and migrated into representative sports, while the other schools are unable to participate in sports.

In some schools, it was part of the appointment of coaches to have extra hours at schools while some other schools operated the 5 to 1 job or 5 to 2 job only. The Department was asked to come up with a plan to address this issue. The mass participation event saw a a huge sum spent on an once-off annual event with only 5 000 people walk or run. He asked the Department to confirm the correctness of the 1 million figure stated as the target for mass participation. He also asked for details of the Department’s measurable targets and ways by which the Department hoped to create sustainable mass participation throughout the country.

Mr M Khawula (IFP; KZN) asked if social cohesion was being promoted across society. He doubted the possibility of SRSA receiving dividends from the money invested in the promotion of social cohesion. He asked for a solution to be proffered in ensuring the achievement of social cohesion. He also asked for details on the officials of school sports. KZN has recently advertised for school sports clusters and officials would be appointed into school clusters. He appreciated the Department for kick starting the school sport programme.

The Committee was often unaware of the events and activities presented by the Department mainly because of the failure of the Department to invite the Committee. He asked the Department to provide a schedule of all activities and events for the whole year to afford the Committee the opportunity to attend such events. He also wanted to know if the club development programme was a once-off arrangement.

Ms P Samka-Mququ (ANC; Eastern Cape) welcomed the presentation and said although SRSA’s budget was small; the Department was similar to DBE in its impact on the child since sport affected cognitive development. She did not understand why SRSA was getting less funding when it influenced human development. She also wished for the Committee to meet with provincial SRSA committees, together with National Treasury to convince the Finance Department of the importance of SRSA.

Ms D Ngwenya (EFF; Gauteng) congratulated the South African Rugby Union (SARU) for making the bid for the World Cup draws beyond 2023. She hoped that positive results would be received in November and South Africa would be able to host the game. Social cohesion, especially in terms of its outcomes and contribution, should also contribute to the economic prosperity of South Africa. She asked for SRSA’s plan to contribute to the economic prosperity of young people, and more particularly, those in townships. Parents are also stakeholders in social cohesion. She wanted to know how the Department was facilitating the participation of parents in sporting activities of their children in schools. What inclusion plan does SRSA have in this regard, especially for parents of children in townships?

She also wanted to know if any programme has been planned for a pensioners’ club. It was important for sporting activities to be drawn up for pensioners, especially those in townships, as this would be helpful in their health and in increasing their life span. She asked for the criteria that would be used in recruiting and selecting school sport coordinators; whether teachers would be trained or new people would be recruited and trained for the sole purpose of coordinating sport activities in township schools.

Ms T Mampuru (ANC; Limpopo) said she was still observing the occurrences at Limpopo Province because a new MEC has just been appointed. Prior to the appointment of the current MEC, the province had a roll over that did not sit well with her. She tried to engage some people to address the issues around the complexities of sports, if any. She agreed with Ms Samka-Mququ that priority could not be placed on health and education alone, while undermining sport. These three areas are linked to each other. The bulk of the money should also be allocated to sports. MPs should engage with their provinces in order to find out what problems are being faced by the provinces, and also to prevent the decline in budget due to the rollovers incurred through the underperformance of provinces. She was on board with the suggestion for provinces and Treasury to engage with the Committee to discuss the issues around sport, and in effect enhance the goal of an active nation.

Ms L Moshodi (ANC; Free State) appreciated the DG for the work done. She noted that the MEC in the Free State informed her of progress in the province.

The Chairperson said that the issues raised by MPs were critical. One of the critical issues was the need for more funds to be given to SRSA. Nothing has been done about this, and it was mostly because NT was not always present at meetings where the Committee expressed this concern. It has become necessary to ensure that systems of Parliament are present at engagements such as the current meeting in order to hear and take note of the Committee’s concerns. She agreed with Mr Khawula on the need for the Department to submit a schedule of its activities and events. This would assist MPs in conducting proper oversight. She appreciated the Department’s support and dedication to the Committee through the consistent attendance of the DG and Deputy Minister meetings.

She sought clarity on the areas where 60 employees would be trained in programme 1; and those that would be used as samples for the client satisfaction survey. She highlighted the problem of non-alignment of departments of sports in provinces. Nationally, there was a stand-alone SRSA. In some provinces however, the departments are lumped with arts and culture, while in some others it was lumped with education; hence the lack of uniformity in alignment. Even though it was the duty of the provinces to ensure alignment with the Department, she asked SRSA to advice on how proper alignment could be achieved as this would assist with the flow of information, and also ensure a smooth budget process for provinces.

The MIG was another critical issue that required the presence of Treasury to engage with the Committee. She sought clarity on why National Treasury could not separate the 50% given to municipalities for sport from the lump sum at the initial stage instead of giving municipalities the lump sum and instructing them to use 50% as a conditional grant for sport. It was particularly important for Treasury to separate the funds from the onset since municipalities have demonstrated that they would not spend the money on sports. Separating the funds from the onset would result in major change in terms of sport infrastructure in different areas, and more particularly, rural areas.

She asked the Department to clarify its target of 5 000 participants in the national school sports. Who are the people that would be participating? How would the selection be done? Which provinces would be participating? The presentation did not give a clear perspective of what the Department planned to do at the provincial level. The Department was implored to ensure that its next presentation contained specific information on programmes targeted for provinces. She appreciated the Department for its efforts in producing athletes that have achieved world standard by going through the scientific programme. Achievements such as this should be publicised in the media.

She asked if the DG had sorted out his issues with the DG for Education, who argued that his core mandate was education, despite the fact that good results could not be achieved when students are involved in drugs and alcohol instead of engaging in constructive sports and physical education. She urged SRSA to engage with DBE in order to work on the MOU and ensure that students benefitted.

She asked if the advert for school sport officials was placed by DBE or by SRSA in the provinces.

Mr Khawula replied that it was by SRSA.

She said that the Committee would support the initiative and ensure that all clusters were covered.

The Chairperson said community gyms are sometimes found in townships and towns, but are hardly found in rural areas. More gyms should be provided in rural communities. In addressing the MPs as representatives of provinces, she said that some provinces failed to budget for sports, and such provinces had representatives in the NCOP. This was an issue that should be taken up by the members representing provinces in the NCOP to ensure that their government in the provinces they represent signed a budget for sports. MPs should influence their provincial governments in this regard.

Responses

In responding to the issues raised on funds, MIGs and lack of facilities, the Deputy Minister said it had been identified that government would never have enough money to fund the Ministry of Sports and Recreation at 100%. This was after the challenges that would be faced by the government emerging in 1994, as well as skills and facilities and so many other things were taken into account. The founding fathers therefore, anticipated the Lotto as a means of raising the nation’s funds for the sporting industry. However, the lion share of the Lotto went to Department of Social Development (DSD) while SRSA only received 10% of the finds. SRSA has argued that it needed more money from the Lotto and the percentage has slightly increased since then. The DG has continued to make a case for sport at the Lotto. The Department was indeed aware of the situation of limited funds.

In terms of the Urban Settlement Development Grant, he said that creation of a sustainable human settlement would be incomplete without recreation and sporting facilities. This was a critical area for the nation, as it affected the goal of a winning nation in terms of rooting out crime and gangsters through active participation in sports. SRSA was engaging with sister departments in terms of the Urban Settlement Development Grant.

The Department was passionate about the key component of the MIG. It understood the argument of the challenges faced by local governments and municipalities. A major breakthrough was experienced when provinces agreed to take R300 million of the available R1 billion to be used for sport exclusively, so that the amount could be spent on the national facilities audit that has been done. A decision was made to the effect that facilities would be rolled out in every province through the use of the said amount. This would ensure a fair and equitable share across all provinces. The Department has succeeded for a second year in a row to do that.

SRSA was unapologetic about the fact that it would appreciate the transfer of funds to the Department, in order to ensure availability of buildings for sport and recreation programmes, as well as an alignment of the money to address the needs of the society. The Department has also sought the assistance of communities in taking ownership of facilities, as it has been observed that most facilities in provinces were carefully looked after. Provinces had a part to play, but communities must also take ownership of those facilities. With regard to the argument between DG for Sports and Recreation and DG for Education, the Deputy Minister noted that sport was an intrinsic part of education. He has been arguing since 2004, that a school could not be built without defining the infrastructure of the school. The new school built by the Department of Education in Gauteng was opened on Monday, 29 May 2017. The school was a center of excellence in Cullinan. The school has a rugby field, a soccer field, and multipurpose sporting facility that are being bragged about. The yard was designed in a way that the school was open after hours and members of the community can recreate and participate in sports on the same sporting fields. The Department was in Atlantis in the previous week to open a multipurpose sporting facility. This was part of the programmes rolled out by the Department in partnership with the sport trust. The Department gives the money to a sport trust to develop delivery agents for multipurpose sporting facilities. It was encouraging to hear from the principal of the school that the facility was not only used by school children, but also by gangsters who approached the school authority to request for the use of the facilities and committed to taking care of the facilities.He urged the Committee to conduct oversight visits to these facilities and see the work done by the Department.

In terms of conditional grants given to provinces, he said 38% of the amount was usually earmarked for school sports. Provinces were then expected to contribute money from their provincial budget to the 38% provided by the Department. Although, it was understandable that some provinces are facing challenges, some provinces are not making any contribution to sports as an additional sum provided by national. He said that 35% of the Department’s budget was directed to community sports and athlete recreation; 11% of the budget went into sport academies; 7% went into transversal matters; and 9% of the budget was spent on management. It was expected that the 9% budget would cater for the various participants to ensure proper organisation and rollout of sporting activities.

The Department was always putting efforts into making provinces align their programmes with that of the Department. Provinces are now cooperating with the Department in this regard. Notwithstanding the limited resources and challenges faced by the Department, social cohesion and nation building was still being achieved. The results of some of the departmental programmes have been seen. The Department was also leveraging through partnerships and the Department will work on presenting a report on the partnerships it had.

He expressed hope that South Africa would win the bid to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup. He opined that South Africa deserved it, and hosting the games would also benchmark as a country and a people of excellence. South Africa had the infrastructure. With the 2010 FIFA World Cup, South Africa aimed to create a legacy with infrastructure at different spaces. The infrastructure was now in place, and it was time for it to be used in promoting the country at the global space.

The Chairperson asked about transformation targets for rugby, cricket, netball and other sporting codes.

Mr Moemi said that the Department would submit a revised APP that would give a provincial perspective in terms of programmes and amounts allocated to each province.

He noted that the issue of school sports was being attended to. The challenges highlighted by Mr Hattingh were also being attended to and the Department was currently reviewing the MOA with DBE. Joint committees have been set up to look into the issues. A workshop had also been organised the previous week on school sports, for all sport related stakeholders. A bilateral agreement would be entered into with DBE. The Department was working towards a joint meeting of DGs with heads of departments (HODs) in Education, along with HODs in provinces. The Department was also working towards the final and revised MOA. Funding arrangements were also being considered.

The Department was cognisant of the lack of capacity. Although lower levels of the tiers have to be done by DBE, SRSA agreed that in order for the championship to be more robust at district levels, there may be a need to reprioritse some money for this purpose. The Department has therefore increased the allocation for management from 6% to 9 % to assist with the recruitment of district coordinators. The Department has directed provinces to ensure that these district coordinators were placed in DBE offices to work. SRSA would have to rely on teacher champions, who were currently undergoing training by SCORE. The training was intended to train teachers as champions and coaches who would coordinate fixtures for local schools.

The Deputy Minister was correct in his submission on the targets set by the Department, which was directed at local leagues and clubs supported across the country. The mass participation programme was not a once-off event. However, the money that was available could only cater for 1 million participants.

The Department was of the opinion that it was not getting value for money as far as social cohesion was concerned. Sports had the potential to bring about social cohesion but achieving social cohesion was dependent on a number of variables. The two key measurements upon which SRSA measured itself are performance of national teams and the opinion of spectators in terms of the performance of the national team and their perspective on being citizens of South Africa. Last year, the opinion poll was carried out after a match and the percentage was quite low. Nonetheless, it was through this method that the Department was able to track its contribution to social cohesion.

The Department committed to sending a full schedule of events for the year to the Committee. This would be sent alongside invitations for MPs to attend the events.

In terms of club development, it was noted that it was a pilot programme. The Department has continued to support clubs like it did previously. It was however, running a longitudinal pilot. The concern here was that although the Department has spent an average of R3.8 billion for support to clubs in the last ten years, there was nothing to show for it. No progress has been recorded for most of the clubs. Many of them were still at a start-up phase, but they continually requested for more money from the Department every year. SRSA therefore, looked into the Australian and UK models and the only difference identified was the fact that parents were paying for their children, and this explained their robust club systems. In South Africa, parents would be unable to pay to sustain participation, and in effect, the State has to play the role of the franchise. It was for this reason that the Department subsidised the NGOs and other stakeholders to ensure that the leagues were running. The new model would be piloted in Limpopo and eThekwini. The decision to collapse the current model and shift into the new system would only be reached after the new system was in place.

The Department agreed that its budget was quite small. The Committee has the power to summon the Treasury to ask for the reasons for not abiding by the constitutional imperative to budget for sport. The Department had a plan to contribute to economic prosperity. In 2013, both the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Treasury requested all departments to show their contribution to the economic framework. SRSA responded and highlighted the work it was doing. More than 80% of SRSA’s procurement was directed at SMMEs. The Department also prioritized youth in terms of youth businesses and also because a large chunk of its clientele comprised of youths. The new Minister has also committed to engaging with teachers, unions and parents associations. The Department was yet to carry out any work in terms of parents.

The Department has a programme for pensioners. The programme was called the Golden Games was an annual programme designed for pensioners. Old age homes are also provided with sporting equipment, particularly indoor sport and board games. Special funding was also provided to specific teams to participate internationally. These sporting activities were advantageous as they added to longevity and improvement of vitality of older people. The programme for pensioners was run together with the Department of Health (DoH) and DSD.

Another decision taken in 2016 was to no longer enroll pensioners in national tournaments. Instead, the tournaments would end at provinces. It has been decided that the farthest journey for older persons would be to their provinces to compete.

Sport coordinators are firstly selected through adverts and many of them are graduates. The Department and provinces send out adverts and the coordinators would go through the normal recruitment processes for normal employees. The Department was however, working on a programme with the EPWP social cluster, as well as with 100 graduates in sport science and sport management. These graduates would be sent to rural areas without sporting activities to help rural schools in starting programmes in relation to sports. Teachers are also receiving training in this regard.

The Department has been discussing with DoH to transfer 0.3% (about R98 million) of its budget to SRSA in order to organise active clusters. The Department was intensifying efforts to convince DoH to transfer the said amount to it. It has been discovered that countries that are doing well health wise are spending 50% of their budget on health. South Africa was only concentrating on treatment, which was more expensive than addressing the root cause of diseases through exercise. The 2014 Lancet report speaks to the pattern of diseases that affect South Africans. The top diseases are HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis that was killing most people. This was followed by trauma and accident related deaths. The third set of diseases was lifestyle diseases, such as hypertension, obesity and other diseases that reflect a lack of exercise. The cost of treatment was by far more expensive but can easily be averted if people engaged in exercises.

In terms of training for employees, SRSA noted that it was required by law to train employees and pay its 1% of payroll. Based on the performance management and development system, once an employee expresses a need for training in an area and a personal development plan is signed, it became a binding agreement. The employee cannot be fired at a later date for poor performance when such employee is yet to undergo the requested training. The Department would be conducting training across a wide range of work areas but all trainings would be related to the work of the employees. Bursaries were also included in these trainings.

In terms of the client satisfaction survey, the Department often selected participants amongst athletes from organised competitions across provinces; national federations; other clients serviced by the Department; as well as people that walked into the Department for one reason or the other.

On the issue of participants in school sports Mr Moemi said the system worked from provinces till it builds up to nationals. The 5 000 participants would therefore, include children from all nine provinces that have won the different tiers and also won the provincial championships before competing at national championships. Often times, the bigger provinces had the biggest delegation because they have more money to participate across all spheres. The Gauteng delegation was usually the biggest delegation, followed by KZN, Western Cape, Eastern Cape, and so on.

As far as communication strategy to publicise the good work done by the Department was concerned, the Department was trying its best. SRSA’s communication strategy was hinged on one topic per week, excluding four weeks for the festive holidays. In essence, this would mean publicising 48 issues in a year, as opposed to the numerous issues requiring publicity in the Department. Issuing too many communication messages would however, result in a clutter and confusion for the people.

The Chairperson asked through what channels the Department communicated. The Department was also asked to forward responses to other issues yet to be addressed to the Committee in writing.

Mr Moemi said it was only the issues around the community gyms and transformation targets that were yet to be responded to and it will be sent in writing.

The Chairperson reiterated SRSA’s commitment to submit a revised APP presentation containing a provincial perspective to the Committee. The Department has also recommended places to be visited by the Committee during its oversight visits. The Committee usually conducted oversight for all Departments it was responsible for. However, it may consider carrying out oversight for sports alone. Another critical issue raised by MPs was the need to invite provincial MECs for sports to engage with the Committee.

Interaction with the South African Institute for Drug-free Sport (SAIDS) on it 2017/18 APP

Mr Hattingh said he was concerned about the lack of an apology from the representatives of the board, which was the accounting authority of the Institute. He also noted that the CEO was not present and there were several crucial issues to be addressed in the APP. There were seven repeated findings reported by the AG as well as a warning. The Committee requested an explanation for what was going on, especially since the Institute has been running for three years with an acting chairperson after the resignation of the chairperson. The Committee would like to know why there was an acting chairperson in the 2016 financial year and why the Institute only organised two board meetings in 2016, with an attendance of five and eight respectively out of the supposed ten members of the board. It has been noted by the AG that the board as the accounting authority was not exercising its judiciary role and obligation as required by section 50 of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA). This constituted serious issues that needed to be addressed, and addressing such issues would be impossible without the presence of the accounting authority or the CEO at the meeting.

The Chairperson said the issues raised by Mr Hattingh were important. She however, proposed that the Institute be allowed to make its presentation while taking into consideration all the critical issues already raised. The board will be summoned to the Committee to respond. It would be unfair to dismiss the officials from SAIDS that have been present since the start of the meeting.

Mr Hattingh said the Chairperson’s proposal could be a way forward. He however opined that the possibility of getting satisfactory answers to further questions that would be raised by MPs was slim, as the people that should respond to such questions were not present at the meeting. He also noted that the Strategic Plan and APP submitted by the Institute was not dated and signed, and in effect, had no legal status.

The Chairperson still upheld the view that the Institute be allowed to present, while a separate meeting should be organised to engage with the board members on the issues raised. She however asked to Institute to explain its reason for coming before the Committee with an unauthorised document.

Mr Khawula said that the basis for allowing the Institute to proceed with its presentation should not be because the Committee has invited them to the meeting, as this would be a wrong reason, especially when critical issues were yet to be addressed. It was expected that the Institute would appear before the Committee in its full component, including the board.

The Chairperson agreed with Mr Khawula but said that the persons responsible for addressing the issues raised were not present at the meeting.

Mr Onre Ngwane, Financial Manager and Acting CEO, SAIDS, said that the CEO was currently out of the country. Based on his understanding and communication received, the CEO had indicated to the Committee that he would not be able to attend the meeting. The CEO would be unavailable till 19 June 2017 and has therefore delegated Mr Ngwane to be the Acting CEO for the period. It was under this guidance that the delegation from the Institute appeared before the Committee.

Mr Hattingh asked for the reason for the absence of the acting chairperson at the meeting.

Mr Ngwane said he was not aware of the acting chairperson’s attendance at another meeting, neither was he aware that the acting chairperson had been invited to the current meeting. His understanding was that it was the CEO that was invited. He apologised for the unsigned document. The document had been presented to the board at the board meeting in April, and he was made to understand that the documents had been approved.

Ms Samka-Mququ said that the document should have been signed by the chairperson of the board once it has been approved by the board. It seemed the Institute was lacking quality assurance personnel that could go through the documents before such documents were presented to the Committee. Since the SAID report had not been signed by its board of directors, the Committee was working with unofficial paperwork. It was important for the documents to be signed by the chairperson of the board to make them official; else the Committee would be unable to consider such documents.

Ms Ngwenya said that the engagement with the Institute has to be postponed, as proper procedure needs to be followed.

Ms Mampuru said that the Institute was wasting the time of the Committee by presenting an unsigned document. She insisted that the Institute should give an explanation on the reason for having an unresolved issue in two meetings in a row.

The Chairperson said that despite the fact that she wanted the Institute to make its presentation; the Institute has complicated matters by presenting unofficial documentation. It was apparent that there was no communication between the acting CEO and the board, otherwise, an apology or a representative would have been sent to the meeting. The importance of having a good relationship with the board was emphasised to the Institute. Accepting an unofficial documentation for presentation could implicate the Committee. The Institute was warned to tread carefully and treat parliamentary meetings with utmost respect so as to avoid fruitless and wasteful expenditure. The Committee will invite the Institute some other time and the Institute would be expected to appear with the CEO and the chairperson or representative of the chairperson of the board.

Mr Ngwane appreciated the Committee for the opportunity to appear before it. He apologised on behalf of the Institute for wasting the time of the Committee.

Consideration of reports and adoption of minutes

The Chairperson declared that the Select Committee on Education and Recreation having considered the Budget Vote No. 14 and Annual Performance Plan 2017/18 of SRSA reports that the Committee has concluded its deliberations thereon.

Minutes dated 24 May 2017 was adopted.

The meeting was adjourned.