Chairperson, molweni maMpondo [greetings to you, Mpondos], Deputy Minister of Sport and Recreation director-general, members of this august Council, MECs from the various provinces, hon members, when we are not here, Gert and I always skinder [gossip] about the NCOP.
What we say is that it always exhibits the fact that members of this House are direct representatives from the provinces. Debates here are always marked by empirical evidence that is always evinced during those debates. I am absolutely thrilled to have been scheduled on a date when I could personally be here again.
South Africa and the world will never forget their exhilaration when on 15 May 2004 the Fifa President, Mr Blatter, announced that South Africa would be hosting the World Cup in 2010. However, immediately after that exhilaration, South Africa was inundated by a chorus of cynics and malcontents, from within South Africa as well as abroad, who already prognosticated the fact that the World Cup was not likely to take place in South Africa.
The Plan B prophets of doom and securocrats, who appointed themselves as experts on our expertise on security matters, had started the lobbying from Australia in the south, right up to Canada in the north, and across to the USA and Western Europe. They were trying to lobby other countries to take over the hosting of this very important event.
Of course, they all failed because, on the basis of scientific and empirical evidence, Fifa was not convinced. Furthermore, other nations that have always been on our side refused to be lobbied into these negative initiatives.
The question in 2010, just three weeks before the biggest event in the world takes place, is: Which buzz is bigger - the buzz of 15 May 2004, or the one of May 2010? Which one is of a better quality? I leave that to the members to ponder on the basis of empirical evidence.
One thing is for sure, hosting the 2010 World Cup infused our people with invigorated enthusiasm for their nationhood. It has also unleashed a kind of energy we have not seen before - that of wanting to be part of the building of that nationhood. We have seen the fulfilment of what our leaders have said - the 21st century will, indeed, unfold as the African century.
The Fifa World Cup presents us with the golden opportunity - and I have said this before - of hosting this prestigious event. This golden opportunity is not likely to be repeated during the lifetime of any of us in this Chamber. It presents us with an opportunity to market ourselves as a people, a country, a continent and as legitimate members of the international family of nations.
It presents us with an opportunity to remove Afro-pessimism and replace it with confidence in ourselves as a people and in our country as a possible place for investment. It presents us with an opportunity to broaden tourism opportunities and also to strengthen the preference of those who want to build the economy of the world through us. The South African economy and tourism are already recipients of this great initiative.
In 2009, when we went for the Confederations Cup, many cynics were already pontificating on what should be done to avert a crisis. But by the time they left our shores they were all looking forward to the World Cup in 2010. The reason is that the Confederations Cup opened a window of what we can be as a nation. The Confederations Cup also showcased what this nonracial nation that we have been speaking about can really do for the rest of the world.
The President attested to what the 2010 World Cup does for the government and the people and South Africa. He mentioned the hard work that we had to endure; the fruits that are now visible in the form of the beautiful stadia that everybody sees at home and on international television networks, the beautiful roads and the transport systems that have been refurbished or introduced to provide a better mode of transport for our communities.
The President also alluded to the upgrading of airports and airstrips, communication systems and a whole range of infrastructure. We can also allude to the local turfs that we have cultivated and continue to cultivate, as well as the various initiatives that we will refer to just now. The 2010 World Cup has also introduced our children to other people; the culture and language of other people; and the flags and the national anthems of South Africa and those of other countries of the world. Indeed, it has inculcated a spirit of internationalism and nonracialism. It has also done much to banish xenophobic attitudes. I will not mention the cynics that accompanied us all these seven years; I think that is common knowledge.
I would now like to get to what we are doing as a department, over and above the co-ordination of all the initiatives of preparing for the 2010 World Cup. Our people must just open their hearts and hands, take out their pots and plates, and get ready to welcome the world. Our people can do this either with a "smiley" [a cooked sheep's head] here or a hushpuppy [trotters] there, boerewors or the skilpadjies [liver wrapped in fat] of the Northern Cape, and so on. All of those dishes will excite our visitors because they don't have them in their countries.
Our fundamental responsibility continues to be part of the national agenda of reconstruction and development - an agenda which seeks to attain a transformed South Africa. This would be a South Africa that has been articulated by most of us in our dreams and currently in our programme.
I have said before that there is not one South African that I know of who is opposed to the agenda of transforming South Africa into a nonracial, democratic, nonsexist, prosperous and peaceful country. Not one of us has ever articulated opposition to this agenda. Even with regard to those who are sometimes labelled as right-wing, when it comes to the nature of the society that we want to establish, they don't disagree on this issue. What we disagree on is, of course, the modus operandi. How do we get there? How do we achieve this nonracist and democratic South Africa?
As the ANC, we have consistently said that it is not going to happen of its own volition. It has to be assisted through the intervention of the state, hence we came up with the concept of a developmental state.
Chairperson, I am sure that when you read your newspapers this morning you would have been surprised and encouraged to see that Chancellor Merkel of the German Republic is reported to have announced yesterday that Germany is sick and tired of being pontificated to by the International Monetary Fund, IMF, which has been giving us the impression for all these years that market forces will intervene in these things and that they can correct themselves. Merkel says Germany will regulate the economy because market forces driven by profit motives are not able to effect changes; they are not able to introduce sustainable communities.
I am excited that such a strong leader from Western Europe is reiterating what we have been saying for so many years, and nobody would listen to us. We have to intervene because it is not by accident that many parts of our country continue to be deprived of certain amenities and facilities, and you will hear more about this today. Everybody would have seen this, especially the hon members coming from the provinces.
This is not by accident. It is a direct product and legacy of a number of Acts. One of them that I always refer to is the separate amenities Act, which was based on the Group Areas Act which, in turn, was based on the Population Registration Act, and so on. These disparities are the product of a deliberate programme of distorted planning and distorted access to resources. It is common knowledge that our communities continue to be in that distorted order even today.
It is also common knowledge, as Chancellor Merkel would agree, that unless we deracialise and regulate the ownership of the means of production or the ownership of the economy, it is not going to happen overnight. We have to make sure that in education, health, housing, etc, money is made available.
However, we also have to make sure that, in terms of sports facilities and amenities, there is a special dedicated fund to do that or it's not going to happen. We do not have the bank account that the Ford Motor Company had to build the Ford stadium in New Brighton. We don't have the bank account which General Motors, Mercedes Benz and all these private sector companies had to build the facilities that we have, albeit in a distorted way.
Facilities that are located in a distorted way were not necessarily built by government, even under the old order. They were built by the so-called patriotic businesspeople. So we must make a call to the patriotic businesspeople of the current conjuncture to make a contribution in this respect.
We are not complaining as if nothing is being done in this respect. A number of partners have been able to assist us to make do with the small budget that we get from Parliament in terms of building facilities, something which Gert will be elaborating on just now. We make do by stretching the little bit that we have together with other state departments like, for example, Health, Education, Social Development, Correctional Services, and so on. We must continue to lobby for more assistance.
In the past five years we have been reporting on the growth of the mass participation programme. We are satisfied that participation of our people in sport has improved. This is not my view, but that of the researchers of both the Centre for Information Systems Research, CISR, as well as the University of Pretoria. It has improved precisely because of our efforts in mass participation.
With regard to that, however, we have had to deal with the issue of developing that to a higher level because they can't just remain at a recreational level. Our people must also be part and parcel of the elite performance in all spheres of sport. Our strategy, which was announced in May 2004, is that we should start with school sport. Thereafter we have to go to community sport and rebuild the clubs with the basis being the schoolkids, who will go across to community sport.
I'm glad that hon MEC Kgothule from the Free State is here to hear what I have to say. I dub him "the gold medallist" in the delivery of our programmes in the development of sport. [Applause.] I know that his neighbour from Gauteng will contest the fact that they were the first province to have the co-ordinating sports structure launched by me. That is true; however, Free State will also say that we allowed them to be the first even though we were ready ahead of them. So Gauteng leads and others must just follow.
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure to go to Gauteng to launch - the first in the country - a school sports co-ordinating structure. I don't know how many people were there, but I know how enthusiastic and excited those people were. Again, MEC Kgothule, our congratulations to you and to Premier Ace Magashule for identifying you as MEC.
Communities in the Northern Cape continue to be plagued by the distances between places. One has to spend the whole day travelling from Kimberley to Upington. When one gets to Upington, one has to struggle to go back to Okiep and so on. But, nonetheless, they are doing a sterling job in terms of mobilisation and organisation. I have no doubt in my mind that the next school sports structure that we will put in place - no, it will not be the Western Cape - will be in the Northern Cape.
We want to make a call and a plea to all members of this august House to please go and help with the establishment of these structures. They are not going to be established by ghosts; they are going to be established by us in our communities and constituencies.
Our partners are also found outside state departments. They include the local authorities, international bodies like the European Union, UK Sport and the UN. Again, the Deputy Minister will talk about that.
All these partners have been able to release some funds for us to build facilities in areas like Ikhwezi in Jansenville, at Qunu in King Sabata Dalindyebo Municipality, Batho location in Mangaung Local Municipality, Winterveld in the City of Tshwane, Melville in KwaDukuza Local Municipality, Gamanamela in Polokwane Local Municipality, and Lekgalong village in Rustenburg Local Municipality. With the little that we have, we are making a difference in those communities who never had much development.
In Vhembe we have just opened the largest indoor sports facility which will focus on boxing and related activities. This facility is rated as the largest south of the Sahara. It is a very important facility for that community and we have no doubt that it is going to produce more champions than old man Baloyi is already producing.
We have 11 students who are studying for qualifications in physical education and sport administration in Cuba. They come from all nine provinces. We can only make a call to the provinces to make use of them when they graduate. Some of them will graduate this June. I know MEC Kgothule will definitely make use of them to assist in the implementation of the physical education programme that we introduced in 2005. This programme is not taking place in 2010 because nobody will do it. But this time there will some people to do it.
We have always reported in this House that we are meeting a brick wall with respect to accessing the municipal infrastructure grant, MIG. These provinces and the local authorities are stealing that grant. All of them will agree - they steal that grant. When there is pressure to pave the streets, human-resource-related issues, or electricity problems they go for the MIG. However, I can announce that, at least from the side of the National Lottery, we now have a Minister and a national chairperson who seem to be in tandem with us in trying to use those funds for national development strategies.
The MIG is an embarrassment because if one compares it with the Building for Sport and Recreation project, which was terminated in 2004, one will see that over four years we had built over 364 facilities. During the years of the MIG, we have only built 155 facilities.
We are agitating and lobbying for this august House to stand with us in insisting that the MIG be reverted to a poverty alleviation grant, just as the Building for Sport and Recreation grant was. We were able to manage the Building for Sport and Recreation Project grant according to our prerogatives.
Our concern is also that sports facilities are not going to be sustainable without provinces and local municipalities budgeting for their maintenance when they are fully constructed. Even though we have the plans for everybody for whom we are building a facility, we also do need the provinces to make follow-ups on this.
In the field of sport and science, we must accede to the fact that gone are the days when you and I ran on the road, pulling a tractor tyre with two boulders in our hands, trying to be fit so that we could perform better. Today our children need proper scientific support and advice. To this end, we are strengthening that advisory service. We are not going to give those scientific support services but we will co-ordinate the scientists and institutions that have them for the purpose of providing those resources to our children. We pay the money, they provide the expertise.
To this end, we also pay for the Commonwealth Games. I heard somebody in the motions talking about the Commonwealth Games in India; we paid for that. We paid for the preparation, conditioning, transport and everything related to those games. All federations are recipients of that grant.
Chairperson, I have to report on Caster Semenya. I know you agree. Caster Semenya has been a model of what science can do in the field of sport. Instead of people talking in general terms, specialists say what needs to be done. I am glad to report that the third world war that we declared has been won. I know people don't think there was a war. There has been a war for the last five months and we won 99% of the issues that we went to war for.
The last battle, which I have no doubt will be won in the next three weeks, is the announcement that Caster will go back to the track. [Applause.] Scientists in South Africa and abroad agree on what should be done and they will make an announcement in due course. Thank you very much. [Applause.]