Chairperson, firstly, I want to acknowledge and agree with hon members across the floor. We share your sorrow and your sadness about the nonperformance of our national team. To us it is not a joke, either here or in the streets. And we must never give the impression that the nonperformance of Bafana Bafana is a joke. It's not a joke, but something that we - including the members of the federation of football in this country - need to pay attention to; it needs to be addressed.
This is a matter that we not only take to heart, but also to action. I am confident that, as we conclude here, going forward as members of this House, we will take a long-term view of football and not just of the coach. Whether the coach is black or white, green or purple is not important. What is fundamental is the programme of action for football in this country. That is what I expect you, as parliamentarians on that side, to emphasise.
I expect sports practitioners in our country to understand that it doesn't end with the winning of one match, but it is about enhancing the vision of a winning nation. That is what is important to us. I am not going to respond to frivolous, exciting and nice-to-have issues in the debate that are really, more than anything else, unfounded, poor fabrication - Twitter and Facebook gossip. Period. [Laughter.]
As a department, we have never spent R50 million on the awards. It is totally incorrect to stand in the corridors of power, with chicken audacity and shout at the top of your voice, making such a poor statement about sport and recreation, and at the same time contradict yourself, in the same statement, saying, "no, we love the awards." This Chad le Clos you are singing about; you never knew about him when he was still growing up, but we affirmed him in the awards and recognised him. When we don't recognise these athletes, you are quick to speak.
Sport is not a political issue, it is about national consensus. Whether you are a DA or an ANC member - when we win, we are one. [Applause.] That is what is important. [Applause.] We must extricate frivolous issues from serious matters. You bring Nkandla in through the window. I mean, it has to be Nkandla. Something has to be said about Nkandla.
Inkandla inoyisile madoda. [Nkandla has defeated you, gentlemen.]
You thought we would not be here by now, but we are still standing and Nkandla is still there and we will continue. [Applause.] You thought the Nkandla issue would eat the ANC up from within, finish us off, and that we should be out of power by now. We are still here and our strategic objective is to remain in power forever, and so say our people. [Applause.] They have affirmed the ANC, now, today and tomorrow.
The agenda of sports in this country is what we have put before you ... [Interjections.]... and just remember these four points: What we are saying is that we cannot advance development without school sports; we cannot advance development without community clubs and mass participation; we cannot advance development without a strong academy system and, lastly, we cannot advance development without fundamental - fundamental to South Africa's history - transformation. Transformation, transformation! [Applause.]
Look, I am not saying that transformation is going to happen without the three. It's like the four pillars he is talking about - you are not in our school - they are dialectically intertwined. [Interjections.] You are not in the school of the ANC.
I am saying that these four issues we are talking about are intertwined. They reinforce each other; they are not mutually exclusive. [Applause.] What this means is that our approach to transformation is bottom-up. You do well at school; you level the playing field. You don't only have 20 schools that produce the Springboks and the Proteas, but you have kids playing rugby even in Soweto and the far-flung areas. As a result, in the 20 years, 30 years to come, you will have resolved South Africa's problem. That is what we are about to achieve ...