Hon Chairperson, like I said, we must buckle up, we are going to move now. So, I will now focus on the critical work of our department. [Laughter.] It is wonderful to participate in this debate, and to have the humour back into sports because that is the glue that takes us all forward. [Laughter.]
However, we have to speak about the priorities that will enable us to deliver adequately on our mandate and the MTEF. And in keeping with our vision of an active nation, I would like to draw your attention to recreation and that programme of ours.
The Ministerial Advisory Committee on Recreation continues to assist the department to actualise the essence of recreation in our country. This committee has completed a report on recreation in our country focusing on, amongst others, the successes, strengths, weaknesses and failures of the current recreation landscape. The Minister will soon release the report for public comment.
In the meantime, the department will continue to provide secretarial support to the committee and will, over the medium term, develop a single governance framework for recreation to strengthen the delivery of our programmes.
The National Youth Camp will once again be held in all nine provinces in October this year to coincide with the school holidays. Let me say once again that the purpose of the camp is to teach young people leadership skills, life skills and national pride by using practical lessons in social cohesion in a rural, outdoor environment. As part of the 20-year celebration of our democracy, the 2014 National Youth Camp will focus on 20- year-old participants, the so-called "born-frees". We are expecting 3 000 youths, representing diverse cultural groupings, to attend and we are looking forward to having a wonderful time.
In keeping with the NDP's proposal for an initiative to encourage South Africans to walk, run, cycle or play team games on the second Saturday of every month, our department will continue with its Cycle4Life programme. To this effect, we will continue to work with the Burry Stander Foundation, Cycling SA and other government departments such as Transport, Health, Basic Education, the Defence Force, the SAPS and all of those that can help to ensure the effective promotion of this programme.
The Big Walk will be staged on the first Sunday of October this year with a view to encouraging participation in physical activities by all of us in this country. In delivering the Golden Games, we will again partner with the Department of Social Development. These competitive events for older persons are hosted with the conviction that people can significantly improve their quality of life by staying active and fully engaged in life.
As a department, we provide scientific support to our stakeholders. To this end, the athlete residential support initiative will be phased out in the current financial year and replaced by the Ministerial Sports Bursary Programme. The new approach will focus on setting the agenda for sport in South Africa and, let me also say, achieving excellence.
A talent identification and development strategy was developed in 2013 and is being implemented in conjunction with a holistic academy system. Assistance will be provided to support private initiatives such as the Dr Khumalo Football Academy and the Grant Khomo Rugby Foundation, where we aim to groom talented young stars for excellence so that they can represent our country in future. In this regard we will also approach the SANDF, the SAPS and Correctional Services with a view to investigating the possibility of talented young athletes being supported by their respective infrastructures.
In other African countries this initiative has produced exceptional athletes and good results. Programmes catering for the specific needs of the sport and recreation sector will be supported by a comprehensive research and development programme. Strong emphasis will also be placed on establishing and maintaining a knowledge management system.
Students benefiting from the Postgraduate Development Programme of our department, which is being implemented in partnership with the Culture, Arts, Tourism, Hospitality and Sport Sector Education and Training Authority, Cathsseta, in sports science, will be supported with access to the department's administrative resources assisting them with their studies.
The students will also present their research findings at the SA Sport and Recreation Conference, SASReCon, which is, as you know, South Africa's primary bi-annual sport and recreation conference, which is a valuable forum for South Africa's sport and recreation community to exchange views and knowledge on topical issues in multiple disciplines within sport and recreation.
This conference also assists with creating an interface and facilitates knowledge-sharing between coaches and the scientific professionals with the intention of ensuring that coaches continuously improve their skills and apply scientifically validated coaching methods.
Another platform for intellectual debate within the sector is our ThinkSport Journal, whose publication each year is coupled with a very good seminar.
Hon members, the department will partner with Sascoc on the roll-out of the talent tracking system to ensure that the athletes who succeed at national competition level are supported to develop into elite athletes. As Sascoc is the implementation agency in this area, the role of the department is to ensure that systems are in place from district to provincial level to ensure a flow of talent to the national level.
The NDP also acknowledges that South Africa has also been, and I quote, "positioned as a conference and sports event destination". In an effort to perpetuate this, selected national and international sporting events, exhibitions and conferences will continue to be used to showcase this wonderful country of ours as a sports tourism destination.
The department will provide institutional and intragovernmental support to approximately four major events approved in line with the regulations for bidding and hosting of international sport and recreational events.
In the current financial year, the scientific support programme received an additional allocation of R4,5 million to support the South African Institute for Drug-Free Sport, the view of which is to ensure that our agency complies with the World Anti-Doping Agency code. The expenditure on contractors in the scientific support subprogramme grew significantly from the 2010-11 to the 2013-14 financial year due to the department intensifying support to our elite athletes through our high-performance centres in preparation for major events over this period, including the 2012 London Olympic Games and the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow this year.
Fluctuations in the transfers to nonprofit institutions are due to once-off allocations of R84 million in the 2012-13 financial year to host the Africa Cup of Nations, and R36 million in 2013-14 for hosting the African Nations Championship.
As a result, spending in the major events subprogramme of the department fluctuated in the 2010-11 and the 2013-14 financial years. The available funds decreased to only R10,3 million for the current year, which poses a serious challenge as we have to fund our Ekhaya project and our sports tourism initiatives from this budget.
One of our other important programmes is sport support services. Federations are graded to ascertain their overall assessment of needs. The department works closely with those federations requiring institutional support, including financial management, fundraising and project management to enable them to be sustainable.
In the future, funding to all federations will be instituted according to the Recognised Sport Bodies Grant Framework. Funding to federations is provided across two tiers, namely guaranteed funding, fundamentally for administration, and conditional funding, meant for performance, which will constitute the bulk of the funding that will address issues of governance, development and, yes, transformation.
The department will continue to assist federations to ensure that they are able to submit the required documents in the format required, so that all targeted federations will receive their financial support early and timeously in the financial year.
The department will ensure that good governance prevails in all national federations. Steps will be implemented to address any alleged misconduct. Workshops to capacitate our national federations in this regard are planned and are under way for 2014. In addition to providing institutional support, the department will also prioritise federations and ensure that prioritised federations are capacitated to optimally deliver their programmes to realise the sector's vision of an active and winning nation.
Factors influencing the prioritisation of a federation will encompass support for school sport, and will include, amongst other things, the promotion of mass participation; exerting a strong presence with a national footprint; facilitating easy roll-out in terms of affordability and sustainability; and, yes, the promotion of equity principles, namely redress and transformation.
A federation to receive intensive support will be selected each year. I want to remind the House that in 2012 additional assistance was rendered to netball, and in 2013 tennis was the beneficiary. Basketball has been identified as the 2014 beneficiary and the National Basketball League is currently under way for the second year, and it is very successful.
The department will continue to support the Sports Trust, whose primary focus is on assisting communities by providing them with equipment, facilities and other resources required for the development of sport and recreation. The funds allocated to the Sports Trust are mainly used for priority projects identified by the department.
In the 2014-15 financial year, the department will continue with the establishment of the Thabang Lebese Player Benefit Programme with a view to assisting indigent athletes with their identified social and insurance needs. In terms of international relations, we will continue with the strategically focused approach that commenced in 2013.
In this regard, the agreements and programmes of action will be informed by the international relations strategy, and we will continue to build on and strengthen bilateral relationships to support sport and recreation development in South Africa by executing exchange programmes with international partners.