Chairperson, Deputy Minister of Sport and Recreation, Mr Gert Oosthuizen, the chairperson of the parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Sport and Recreation, MECs from various provinces, the director-general, hon members, distinguished guests and all our invited guests from different sporting codes in the gallery ...
... sanibonani. [I greet you all.]
It is now exactly a month since the President, his Excellency J G Zuma, delivered the state of the nation address in this august House, setting out a clear programme of action that this government will be pursuing and executing in the next five years. The President's address is indeed a clarion call for action to all of us, more so to the sporting sector, concerning the direction that this nation will be taking in the next five years.
We return to this House this afternoon reinforced and emboldened by the appointment of eight new members of the provincial executive councils for sport, with one having been retained. Please join me in congratulating the incoming MECs and the returning MEC and, of course, I wish the colleagues a successful run in their term of office. [Applause.] We congratulate the incoming chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Sport and Recreation and we are looking forward to a closer, more dynamic and enhanced working relationship with the portfolio committee and the MECs. The appointment of a female chairperson of the portfolio committee alongside seven women MECs is indicative of the ANC's commitment to gender parity. It is a good omen for the development of women in sport and augurs well for transformation in the sport and recreation sector.
Wathinta abafazi, wathinta imbokotho. [Kwaqhwatywa.] Malibongwe! Igama lamakhosikazi! Uza kufa qha. [You strike a woman, you strike a rock. [Applause.] Let it be praised! The name of women! You are going to die.] As the Deputy Minister and I have been retained, I would like to have a round of applause for that. {Applause.] In the last financial year, we took deliberate and direct action to ensure that as many South Africans as possible participated in sport and recreation activities. Indeed, this is beginning to bear fruit, as we saw over the three past financial years that 61 694 people were given access to participation in sport.
In the past two financial years, 2011-12 and 2012-13, support was provided to 1 461 athletes and 77 coaches, while in 2012-13 alone 90 athletes were supported. At the end of the year under review, 58 athletes and coaches were assisted by means of scientific support programmes. The support provided to these sportsmen and women contributed towards their achievements nationally, continentally, and consequently internationally.
Development remains the critical foundation for progress at grassroots level through to elite sports and high performance. Hence our theme for this year's Budget Vote speech is correctly coined "accelerating sport development, our non-negotiable mandate". We implore all stakeholders to walk hand in hand with us to address the issues of development across all the sporting codes in South Africa, in particular the 17 priority sports codes that we have identified.
We reflected in our National Sport and Recreation Plan, I quote:
Worldwide sport strategies are focused on increasing levels of participation in sport and recreation, as well as achieving success ...
... at an international level.
International experiences have shown that, indeed, successful sporting nations do not just derive their success from the air. Meaningful investments are required from an early age for enhanced and effective participation in sport. As we have further argued in our National Sport and Recreation Plan, no country can expect to achieve and sustain success at an elite level without a strong participation base in the community. We have therefore identified school sports as the central starting point for sport development in this country. We shall indeed not end there, as we will also be putting in place facilities in communities, working together with the municipalities and the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs. In his response to the state of the nation address the President reflected, and I quote:
One of the success areas of every nation must be its ability to compete with the nations on the sports fields. We have to improve our sports performance.
In this regard, the President has given us a commanding instruction to work with various stakeholders in investing in school sport, and the provision and maintenance of adequate sports facilities in our residential areas.
We have met with all MECs and stakeholders and mapped a way forward and plotted a strategic way forward in terms of what needs to be done. In sport and recreation, we know very well, we can be all over the place and want to do everything that everybody wishes us to do, but we have identified four to five areas that need real emphasis in the next five years and even beyond.
Arising from the implementation of the national sports plan, firstly, is school sports. School sports provide a platform for all learners, skilled or unskilled, with an opportunity to develop their potential at a very early age. Our philosophy, approach and belief are that school sports is the bedrock of our entire sports development continuum. It sets a foundation from which some of the great sportspersons can develop their potential.
Abigail Pakisi, on Facebook, has made the plea that we should help to improve school sports as it is central to development. Abigail, you will be pleased to know that we take the issue of school sports very seriously as we concur with you that there cannot be any meaningful development without grassroots development, which is mainly provided at school level.
In 2011, we made a commitment with the Department of Education, whose aim is to ensure that each and every learner at school participates in sports. I said at the time that we needed to move away from a situation where school sports are not just an extramural activity, but a core element of the school curriculum. Currently, there are about 24 000 schools in South Africa, comprising about 12,2 million learners. Of these schools 18 786 are registered to participate in the league system. As a department we intend to set aside 25% of our budget, which is approximately R400 million, for school sports development.
When we started with this programme in 2012 there were only 5 137 participants across eight codes at the 2013 national school sports championship in Mangaung. There was a total of 11 780 participants across 11 sports codes. This programme is growing exponentially on an annual basis.
At this year's championship we will further include new sports codes. Swimming and goal ball have been added to the championship and a further addition has been two new codes for indigenous games, kho-kho and kgati. We anticipate that the number of participants will increase to 15 000 at the 2014 championships. It is our stated policy commitment that all schools and all children in our country should be afforded the opportunity to play at least one sporting code during their schooldays.
It is from this programme that we seek to identify talent to harness, incubate, nurture and develop it to elite performance level. We will also continue to integrate the rest of the priorities, sporting codes and indigenous games into the school sports system over the medium term and to pursue the alignment of the school code structures and the federation structures.
The co-operation between Sport and Recreation SA and the Department of Basic Education lays the foundation for the delivery of an integrated school sports programme. One of the biggest challenges facing the school sports programme is teacher involvement and capacity of educators in the delivery of sport. It is imperative for the two departments to put focused emphasis on empowering educators.
A further challenge in delivering sports in schools is the shortage of suitable sporting equipment and apparel. In some cases when schools do get equipment it is of inferior quality, despite the exorbitant prices being charged by service providers. To address this the department is implementing norms and standards regarding the specifications of what sport equipment and consumables can be purchased and distributed.
One of the most important policy initiatives government has undertaken is the national norms and standards for the building of new schools. Although this policy clearly directs that all new schools that are being built should have sport and recreation facilities as part of the establishment process, this has unfortunately not yet been implemented.
We are also going ahead with an initiative to register at least two schools per sporting code per province as specialist sport schools. This work will ultimately see the accreditation and operation of 890 schools across the breadth of our country, representing the 16 priority codes of schools sports. We have already accredited 12 such sports-focused schools and are exponentially increasing this number to reach the desired target by 2032. The second phase of this initiative, which is under way, will see schools from KwaZulu-Natal and the Northern Cape included.
As I stand before this august House today, learners have already been identified at the National School Sports Championships held in 2012 and 2013 for placement in the specialised schools. These learners are fully funded to ensure that they receive quality education, while developing as athletes in various codes.
Despite the signed agreement between the Department of Basic Education and the Department of Sport and Recreation, there are still structural challenges that need to be addressed. Our consistent call to have physical education delinked from Life Orientation and made a stand-alone subject has been ignored and disregarded. We strongly and firmly believe that physical education is key to ensuring that sport at school becomes an integral part of the curriculum. We believe that there should be dedicated teachers for physical education. It remains our call that the Department of Basic Education should ensure that there is adequate availability of skilled physical education educators in all schools and a dedicated period for physical education, outside of Life Orientation, on which learners must be assessed, with particular focus on schools in rural areas.
Following the success of the school sports league system, the option of introducing a university sports cup, and supporting leagues, will be explored. This will provide a clear developmental pathway for talented athletes as they leave school. The importance of school sports for the development and growth of sport in our country is reflected in the growth in expenditure over the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework period. The main activity in the school sport subprogramme is the National School Sport Championships. The amount allocated is R32,2 million at national level, and R210 million, which is 40% of the conditional grant. But, as I have reflected, this amount is too little to meet the objectives that we have set ourselves for school sports.
Given the magnitude of the school sport programme and the limited available public funds, we have commenced with a process of mobilising private partnerships and funding to increase the participation base for school sports, particularly the age-specific league programmes within specific sports codes. We have formulated a new funding model to finance the National School Sports programme.
The second aspect we have identified is club development. Even though an integrated and sustainable club structure is recognised as a prerequisite for the foundation of the South African sports system, currently there is no accurate picture of which clubs exist and their membership status, and many of the clubs that have been developed have not been sustainable. To this effect, we have produced a club toolkit to assist with classifying and grading clubs and conducted a pilot study in the Mopani District Municipality in rural Limpopo province, and eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal, where we are piloting a franchise system of club development. The outcomes of the pilot study will determine the extent of the further roll-out of the system. We will also be conducting a comprehensive audit of clubs linked to 16 of the 64 recognised national federations that are supported.
The third aspect is community sports. Sports participation opportunities will continue, in 2014-15, to be provided to communities through our community sports subprogramme. We will continue to fund loveLife with the funding choices aligned with the objectives of the sports plan and the department. LoveLife will continue its focus on developing the capacity of young out-of-school and unemployed people in rural and marginalised communities that have limited opportunities. A new crop of SRSA-specific groundbreakers from communities surrounding the 2010 Fifa legacy pitches will be supported.
As regards facilities, which is the fourth aspect, this financial year we will continue to lobby for facilities and to co-ordinate the provision of sport and recreation facilities by municipalities. We will also continue to lobby that the municipal 15% grant must be wholly allocated to the Sports and Recreation Department, because this money, whilst it is allocated to municipalities, stands to be diverted from time to time because of the challenges that municipalities are faced with. If the total figure of 15% were allocated to us, on which we have done thorough work in terms of looking after it, we are convinced that we would be in a position to implement the roll-out of infrastructure and facilities at all levels in the communities. We will continue to roll out outdoor gym infrastructure this year and we have allocated R10,4 million to achieving this particular purpose.
The other aspect is the academy system. We have, through the National Sport and Recreation Plan, made a commitment to support the development of South African sport through a co-ordinated elite sporting academy system. The essence of this system will be to create centres of excellence that will support and enhance levels of performance of talented athletes and to create a new generation of coaches, administrators and technical officials. We have signed a co-operation agreement with the government of the Kingdom of Lesotho on the High Altitude Training Centre at Ha Rapokolana in the Lesotho Highlands - sorry, Basotho. [Laughter.] We have, further to this, established a national training centre for South African elite athletes in partnership with the Free State Department of Sport and Recreation, the South African Sports Confederation and the Olympic Committee, Sascoc, the Free State Sports Science Institute and the Free State Sports Confederation.
We are pleased to announce that the Netball Premier League and the Basketball National League, which we have always promised to implement, have successfully seen the light of day. [Applause.] We are also planning to implement the roll-out in diversification of sport to a volleyball premier league and also a national professional hockey league for South Africa. The scoping exercises will be concluded in the current medium-term period. We believe these leagues will contribute immensely to the professionalisation of sport in South Africa and contribute to the transformation process in sport.