Madam Speaker, ladies and gentlemen, the day before yesterday, on 13 November 2011, a young South African again made this nation proud with his bravura and victory in the Fina Swimming World Cup Series in Tokyo. Chad le Clos won this championship with flying colours, claiming his 23rd gold medal on the circuit. He clocked a time of 1 minute 43 seconds to win the men's 200 m race. Today, Le Clos was named South African Swimmer of the Year for winning a total of 35 medals in the series. We congratulate him.
We would also like to take this opportunity to express our burden of grief and sadness at the untimely death of the former Springbok rugby player, Mr Solly Tyibilika, who was gunned down in New Crossroads on the outskirts of Gugulethu and Nyanga East. Mr Tyibilika made South Africans proud when he was selected to play for the AmaBokoboko in a Mandela Cup match between Australia and South Africa. May his soul rest in peace.
On 9 to 10 October 2008, Sport and Recreation SA, SRSA, the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee, Sascoc, and the broader sport and recreation movement met at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre in KwaZulu-Natal to pause and take stock of the road traversed since the establishment of the first full-blooded Department of Sport and Recreation in the history of the Republic of South Africa and, at the same time, to make a way forward for the transformation of the sport system in the Republic. This was all done under the theme "From mass mobilisation to excellence - improving the integration and organisation of sport".
At the centre of the debates at the 2008 National Sports Indaba was the issue of transformation. Delegates to the conference recognised the slow pace of and resistance to change in the sporting circles of our country. The conference believed that the journey to full transformation in sport and recreation was still far from over and delegates cited living examples in rugby and cricket that pointed to lingering prejudices. Delegates to the conference reiterated the necessity to transform and reminded players and administrators that transformation was not negotiable but part of our constitutionally mandated government agenda.
Matters relating to the broadening of access to all, the need to bring the building of sport and recreation facilities back into the fold of the Department of Sport and Recreation, and issues relating to the reviving of school sport and the promotion of physical education were highlights of the 2008 Sports Indaba. Four years down the line, here we are again, grappling with the same issues, raised at the 2008 National Sports Indaba.
In November 2010, the President of the Republic, President Jacob Zuma, reshuffled his Cabinet and afforded me the opportunity to lead the Department of Sport and Recreation in South Africa. In doing so, the President expected us to change the content and context of the sport and recreation landscape in South Africa. In fulfilment of this mandate, the Department of Sport and Recreation and the sporting community will be hosting a National Sport and Recreation Indaba from 21 to 22 November 2011 to reconstruct, revitalise and transform the sport and recreation sector under the theme "From policy to practice - not just another indaba".
The birth of the National Sport and Recreation Indaba will be located in the context of our assertion when we outlined the vision of the new Sport and Recreation leadership appointed by the President in 2010. Even when we addressed the joint press conference with Sascoc in March, we reminded all South Africans:
Four years after the 2008 Durban National Sport Indaba and 16 years since the 1994 democratic breakthrough, our country is still overwhelmed by inequalities and uneven development in sport and recreation.
We agreed with Sascoc that we needed to move with speed to ensure that together we embarked on a broad consultative process that would involve the entire nation in a robust national debate on transformation and would culminate in a conceptual and contextual transformation framework for the country.
Our stated intention on this matter was to launch a rolling, interactive and forward-looking process that would build a people-centred developmental discourse that would continue to evolve organically from every nook and cranny of South African society, inspired by the thoughts and enhanced by the opinions of all sport-loving people, both in their organised and voluntary formations. This process would gain its own momentum and culminate in vibrant debate and a solid platform for a national dialogue that would culminate in the national indaba in November. The aforementioned assertion provides SRSA federations and other stakeholders with the basis to outline for the nation the purpose of the National Sport and Recreation Indaba, as follows: retracing the road traversed by the people of South Africa since apartheid; reviewing the instruments, policies, strategies and tactics that have been relied upon over the past 16 years; aligning the Sport and Recreation Road Map's strategic priorities with current and future policies and legislation; fast- tracking a Transformation Charter and delivery mechanism for all sectors and role-players; setting in motion campaigns, projects, strategies and tactics; dealing with the provision of facilities in disadvantaged communities; facilitating collective buy-in from all stakeholders into the National sports plan; streamlining implementation towards common objectives; considering feedback from the provincial indabas and the Sascoc/National Federations Indaba; and elevating public awareness of the national sports plan by means of an effective and targeted media campaign.
It is in this regard that the Ministry of Sports and Recreation has hosted different sector-to-sector consultations, ranging from the national Sport and Recreation Civil Society Consultation Assembly, the sport and business forum, the Sport and Recreation Public Entities Engagement, to the Sport Media and Editors Consultation Forum, in order to afford an opportunity also to take stock of the road traversed in sport and recreation and follow a way forward that will assist the sport and recreation community in reconstructing and revitalising the sport and recreation sector for an active and winning nation, and to contribute to the struggle to improve the lives of all South Africans.
However, we expect that the content of the discussions and engagements in the indaba will firmly remember the words of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr Ban Ki-moon, who said:
Sport has become a world language, a common denominator that breaks down all the walls, all the barriers. It is a worldwide industry whose practices can have a widespread impact. Most of all, it is a powerful tool for progress and development.
In responding to the above, delegates will be called upon to equally and honestly respond to the commitments enshrined in the Multilateral International Convention Against Apartheid in Sports, as adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 10 December 1985, which stated the following:
The expression "apartheid" (and discrimination) shall mean a system of institutionalised racial segregation and discrimination for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over another racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them, such as pursued by South Africa.
"Apartheid in sports" shall mean the application of the policies and practices of such a system in sports activities, whether organised on a professional or amateur basis ... [We are] convinced that the adoption of an International Convention against Apartheid in Sports would result in more effective measures at the international and national levels, with a view to eliminate apartheid and discrimination in sport.
It is almost 15 years since the adoption of the Constitution of the Republic, and our people, through that Constitution, have given the developmental state a political mandate to strategically respond to the above-mentioned UN convention and transform all the institutions of the state and other undemocratic institutions and practices, based on the will of the people. Indeed, there is much to celebrate in the new and democratic South Africa, including reforms in sport and recreation, as instructed by the convention.
However, the strategic point of entry is a distinction between structural reform and social reform, as analysed by John Saul. Structural reform means community development and empowerment. With regard to contextualisation in a sport perspective, it involves the provision of sport facilities, the development of sport skills and the enhancement of sport opportunities among disadvantaged South Africans. This, in essence, requires a critical political context that integrates sports with other national goals and priorities.
In content, this process of the structural transformation of sport and recreation takes cognisance of areas such as education, health, the economy, transport, employment and community development. By contrast, the transformation of sport and recreation means redressing the imbalances of the past and isolated grievances. In the South African context, this refers strategically to the deracialisation of elite privileges in sport and recreation.
However, Dr Douglas Booth, in his book entitled South Africa: Elite Sport is Winning, cautioned us:
Sadly, one finds little evidence of structural reform in South African sport. While some former anti-apartheid activists use sport to empower local communities, the majority view it as a convenient route to self- enrichment or, at best, as a symbol of racial reconciliation. Few care about developing sport in disadvantaged communities.
This was said by Dr Booth in November 1995, a year after the first democratic elections in our country and hardly a year before the formal adoption of the democratic Constitution of the Republic.
We must all be combat-ready to join all South Africans in the battle trenches for a nonracial, nonsexist, democratic, accessible, integrated and united sport and recreation system, today and beyond today. We must do this collectively, inspired by the urgent task to build a collective case for sport and recreation in our national and global discourse and to sharpen our theory, analysis and organisation of sport and recreation in South Africa. Of cardinal importance is that we must do this to chart a common vision, a common implementation plan and common delivery mechanisms across all spheres of government for sport and recreation development and total transformation of our sector.
Our stated and unstated assumptions should be placed here in order to canvas public opinion and develop solutions to and recommendations for the challenges of our age. In this context, there must be no holy cows and we must leave no stone unturned in our quest to transform South Africa for the better.
Let us embark on genuine and constructive debates, fireside chats and conversations in regard to public discourse that will be rigorously interrogated and subjected to public scrutiny. We reiterate that this debate is open to all - peasants and farmers; rural and urban women; workers, teachers and students; fans, taxi drivers, players and coaches; sports administrators and managers; politicians and bureaucrats; and young and old.
Whenever and wherever South Africans meet, as we did with business, public entities, outstanding personalities and sport veterans, sport and recreation must exist and the ideals of a sporting and healthy nation should be our preoccupation and a clarion call. Let us all seize the moment and make meaningful inputs and contributions for a better sport system. Let us make the vision of President Nelson Mandela live with all of us by collectively endorsing that:
Transformation and reconciliation are central to that vision which moved millions of men and women to risk all, including their lives, in the struggle against apartheid and white domination. It is inseparable from the achievement of a nonracial, democratic and united nation affording common citizenship, rights and obligation to each and every person, and respecting the rich diversity of our people. It is that if we are one nation with one destiny, then our first task is the collective eradication of the legacy of the inhuman system of apartheid (in sport and recreation and society in general) as a necessary step towards the reconciliation and reconstruction of our nation.
This was the address given by President Nelson Mandela at the opening of the President's Budget Vote debate on 2 March 1999.
In conclusion, out of the National Sports Indaba of 21 to 22 November, for the first time South Africa will have a national sports plan that should be embraced by all.
Uzoyithola kanjani uhleli ekhoneni? Walala wasala. Asuka amaphepha; asala amabhokisi. [How will you get it if you are not working towards it? You snooze you lose. The action has begun.]
Thank you very much. [Applause.]