Minister of Sport and Recreation Budget speech

Minister of Sport and Recreation Budget speech
Minister of Sport and Recreation, Mr Fikile Mbalula, gave his Budget Vote Speech on 20 May
2015.

________________________________________________________________

TRANSFORMAITON and Development: Our main priority

Chairperson
Deputy Minister of Sport and Recreation, South Africa, Mr. G. Oosthuizen
The Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on sport and Recreation
MEC’s of sport from various provinces
The Director General, Mr. Alec Moemi
Honourable Members
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

Total budget at a glance

Honourable members, we return to this house this afternoon to present the ninth smallest budget
allocation among all the 40 national departments, i.e. the budget allocation for the national
department of Sport & Recreation in South Africa! In this particular occasion of 2015/2016, the
total allocation for the Department stands at R988.5 million, having gone up only by R18, 1m
from the previous year’s allocation of R970.4 million. This constitutes a 1. 87% budget growth
from the previous year.

R628, 6 million of this budget has been allocated towards the provision of mass participation
opportunities and recreation under the banner of our ACTIVE NATION programme. In practical
terms, this means that 64% of our entire budget is channeled towards our development. This
prioritization is not by coincidence or some miracle of nature. It is a deliberate and principled
stance informed by our commitment that it is only through optimal investment towards
development that we can truly achieve transformation in sport. A bird’s eye view of the rest of
our budget allocation per programme is as follows:
a) R628, 6 million to support the provision of mass participation opportunities in sport and
recreation.
b) R133, 2 million to develop and maintain an integrated support system to enhance the delivery
of sport and recreation.
c) R124, 8 million for provision of strategic leadership, management and support service to the
department and the sector
d) R92, 2 million to support the development of elite athletes.
e) R9, 7 million towards the regulation and management of the provision of sport and recreation
facilities

My colleague, Deputy Minister Gert Oosthuizen will later share with this honourable house our
plans and allocation regarding Programme 1: Administration as well as other specific sub-
programmes under various programme areas.

National Sport and Recreation Plan

It must be noted that this budget allocation will only fund smaller portion of the approved
National Sport and Recreation Plan. In order to implement the National Sport & Recreation Plan

in full, an estimated budget of R10 Billion, per annum is required over the next three years. Due
to other competing priorities and pressures on our national treasury, there is currently no space
for additional funding. We are however encouraged by the space and support which we continue
to receive from our government to ensure sport and recreation thrives. We implore all potential
partners, particularly the private sector to join hands with us in the implementation of the
national sport and recreation plan.

Highlights of the Previous Year!

Today, we meet at the time when the nation mourns the untimely departure of our struggle
stalwart, former MP, Ambassador and Mayor, Mme Ruth Segomotsi Mompati. As the Sport &
Recreation Sector we dip our banners and salute this gallant fighter for her selfless contribution
towards our democracy. As we do so, we remember also those from our own ranks who left us in
recent times. We remember our recipient of Steve Tshwete Lifetime Achievement and Order of
Ikhamanga in Gold, Dr Steve Kalamazoo Mokone. We remember also Joel Magolego, Senzo
Meyiwa, Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, Phindile Mwelase, Tinus Linee, Shakes ‘Kasi Flavour’ Kungoane, John
Shoez Moshoeu and others!

On the hand, we also meet at a time when love and peace is in the air as the football nation still
celebrate the league title of Amakhozi a mahle. Congratulations Abafana bokuthula noxolo!
Congratulations also to one of Mzansi’s most decorated and prolific defenders and Kaizer Chiefs
Captain, Tefu Mashamaite for the multiple categories he won at the PSL awards. Tefu, you are
truly a well-rounded footballer, a disciplined leader and a role-model to the multitudes of our
young people out there!

We recognize and appreciate also the outstanding achievement of our cricket captain and the
world’s best batsman AB de Villiers. We are inspired by the ever rising performance of our
athletes as they smash records after record in local and international competition. The recent
performance of Anaso Jobodwana who broke SA’s 200m record, the performance of Steven
Mokoka who broke the SA’s 5000m record and the performance of Annemie Smith’s who
improved her own SA record in women’s hammer throw, are testimony to the fact that our
preparations for Rio 2016 Olympics are well on track!

As we set the scene and prepare to host the 10th edition of the South African Sport Awards, we
are proud that we do so in the year when the reigning Sport Star of the Year is a woman, the
prolific striker of Banyana Banyana, Portia Modise. Following an impeccable international career
punctuated by unparalleled accomplishments, Portia has now announced her retirement. We
congratulate her and reassure her of our continued support as our Sport Star! She has served us
all and has served us well. More than 113 caps and 100 goals is not a child’s play. It is testimony
of ultimate sacrifice and supreme dedication to national pride, Patriotism par excellence!

In this year, G-Sport Awards will also be celebrating 10th Anniversary. Over the years, G-Sport
has dedicated itself to raise the profile of South African Women in Sport and most significantly, to
encourage Corporate South Africa to back female athletes.

In his state of the nation address President Zuma urged all South Africans to rally behind our
national teams. We would like to echo these words by the President and implore all South
Africans to wear their national colors or team colors and root support our national teams in the
sport battle field:
• Team South Africa will participate in the Africa Games in Brazzaville, Congo on 4-19 September
2015,
• The Protea Netball team will participate in the Netball World Cup in Sydney, Australia in August
on 7-16 August 2015

• The Springboks will participate in the IRB World Cup that takes place in England on 18
September – 31 October 2015.

We take this opportunity to also say, ‘Good luck’ to all the runners who will be taking part in the
90th Comrades Marathon on the 31 May. To all 23 000 participants, we say, ‘You have trained
hard to make it to that starting line. Whether you arrive 11 am or 5pm at Pietermaritzburg, enjoy
the race and cross that finish line with pride!

Emanating from our engagements with the public broadcaster, we have now ensured that boxing
returns to our television screens and radio. Boxing is a popular sport with a deep rooted history,
a history of triumph over adversity and a heritage that South Africa is proud of. The key idea in
the delivery of boxing is to recognize amateur, professional and development boxing across both
genders. The first tournament will be broadcasted on SABC 1 at the beginning of June 2015. This
initiative will strengthen our boxing turn-around strategy due to increased visibility that will
safeguard the return of the sponsors to the sport.

Further to our support to the sport of boxing, we have also set aside R10m towards development
of amateur boxing this year. As a result, South African National Amateur Boxing (SANABO) will
receive a once-off allocation as part of being chosen as the Federation of the Year. This move will
assist to unearth talent that would increase the pool of young boxers, who can represent the
country at international competitions such as the Olympic Games.

Our support towards the development of Basketball and Netball in South Africa is yielding serious
results. The Netball Brutal Fruit League and the National Basketball League are growing in
stature. Our wish is to see these leagues attracting more support so that one day, the athletes
participating in them, can be fulltime professionals, who can go and represent our country at
national level, without worrying about their time from the office. In this financial year, we shall
step up our preparatory processes to introduce two more Premier leagues of Hockey and
Volleyball. Announcements to this effect will be made in due course.

Transformation and development

Transformation in sport remains an emotive issue to which many people have attached various
interpretations. Imposing quotas was seen as a way to speed-up the process but this has clearly
not worked on a sustainable basis. Change has to take place from the ground up and that means
it has to start at school and club level. We need to pay particular attention to issues of equity,
equality, excellence, access, organizational culture and good corporate governance. The thread
that remains integrally linked to all this, is Development. There can be no transformation without
development. It is for that reason that our thematic approach to this budge statement is
Transformation and Development.

In line with the National Sport and Recreation Plan, a pilot transformation audit was conducted
on the big five national federations, namely rugby, cricket, football, netball and athletics and the
results were published in 2014. Following this successful pilot, further National Federations were
subjected to a transformation review to monitor progress and another transformation barometer
was published in March 2015, detailing the findings of this review. The federations that were
assessed include all those that are identified as the school sport priority federations. This, to
ensure that as financial assistance is directed at them, they also reciprocate with a transformed
participation environment and governance.

Because of the importance of transformation for the future of South African sport, this is an area
on which we dare not fail. Internal capacity will be empowered during 2015/16 to assist National
Federations to implement the Charter and to accurately complete the scorecard. Federations and

sport bodies that fail to meet defined and stated targets will be named, and shamed and
encouraged to meet these targets. We believe Federations should have key focus on school sport
as a starting point towards the long journey of sustainable and transformed sporting codes.

Good Governance

Chairperson, we present this budget statement with renewed vigor and verve! This is because we
do so against the backdrop of a ‘clean audit’ finding expressed by the Auditor General on our
2013/2014 Annual Report. To properly elucidate this point and contextualize our upbeat, we
borrow an extract from an article of 20 September 2012 by the South African Institute for
Chartered Accountants:

“Many people are familiar with the terms, “qualified” and “unqualified” opinions on audit. These
refer to an opinion expressed by auditors on the financial statements of entities. Unlike private
sector audits, the Auditor General’s audit scope is much broader. Besides the audit of (1)
financial statements, it also covers reporting of (2) performance against predetermined objectives
as well as, (3) compliance with laws and regulations. In the South African public sector audit
context, an entity needs to be unqualified in all the audit areas mentioned above in order to
obtain a clean audit.”

In this context the overall overarching understanding by the South African government and the
Office of the Auditor General of South Africa, a clean audit means an unqualified audit opinion
with no matters of emphasis.

School Sport

School Sport remains our only, viable and currently structured mechanism through which to
truly address issues of development in sport. To that end, we are committed to maximize access
to sport, recreation and physical activity in every school in South Africa. The third edition of the
South African Schools Sport Championship staged in 10-15 December 2014 saw participants from
provincial school teams taking part in 14 different sporting codes, including learners with
disabilities. This National Championship has increased opportunities for learners from all schools
to participate in an integrated national multi-coded sport event. More than 11 205 participants
took part in the 14 sporting codes which formed part of this National Championship. Most of
these learners are mostly from previously disadvantaged communities where they had very little
or even no opportunities to participate in sport.

Of course, the success of our school sport programme requires well-oiled, motivated and
capacitated machinery. By end 2014/2015, we trained 2 770 educators throughout the
provinces utilizing the Mass Participation Conditional Grant. These educators together with the
254 school sport coordinators we have employed through the Conditional Grant Allocation
will serve as force multipliers for school sport implementation. A total of 726 schools have also
been allocated sport equipment and attire as part of our rolling intervention to capacitate a
specific number of schools on annual basis.

As part of the many exit opportunities from the School Sport programme, Ministerial Sports
Bursary is provided to selected learners from Grade 8 until they complete their high school
education. New recruits were identified during the 2014 national school sport championship to
join those already on the programme. At the moment the department has already exceded its
target of 40 athletes supported each year at an amount of up to One Hundred Thousand Rands
per learner.

We will also partner with SASCOC on the rollout of the talent tracking system and ensure
that the athletes who succeed at a national competition level are supported to develop into elite
athletes. As SASCOC is the implementation agency in this area, the role of government is to
ensure that systems are in place from a district to a provincial level to ensure a flow of talent to
the national level.

Club Development

A network of club structures integrated into provincial and national sport structures spanning
urban and rural areas across the country forms the basis of sports provision in any sport system.
There can be no viable and accessible community sport without well run and accessible club
systems. In the previous financial year, we piloted the new club franchise model in KwaZulu-
Natal and Limpopo.

Through the club development allocation of the Mass Participation Grant, over 578 clubs
received support in the form of equipment and attire while more than 106 clubs received
support in terms of staging tournaments and leagues. Over 3 410 Individuals from different
sporting codes were trained on club development in sport-specific areas such as technical
officiating, administration and coaching. In this financial year we shall continue to consolidate this
process and use the new club system as a change agent for transformation and development.

Community Sport

Through our various sport promotion campaigns and events that were implemented in the
2014/2015 financial year, more than 30 000 had access to sport and recreation. In this financial
year, we have set aside R54, 3m to consolidate and strengthen our key community sport
progrmmes like Youth Camps, The Big Walk, Golden Games, Andew Mlangeni Golf Development
Programme.

WINNING NATION

National Training Centre

Working with SASCOC, the Free State Provincial Government and through contributions from all
provincial departments of Sport & Recreation, we have set aside an amount of R26m per
annum over the MTEF period to strengthen the National Training Centre based in the Free State
Sport Science Institute. This National Training Centre is an Olympic preparatory centre for team
South Africa and one of the three components of the National Academy System for elite and high
performance sport. It prepares National teams and athletes with regard to scientific, medical and
sport specific support. Once finalized, the National Training Centre will be a major game changer
in our elite athletes support interventions.

Recognition and Honouring Events

Vision 2030 as articulated in the NSRP places responsibility on South African athletes and sports
administrators to strive for excellence at all ethical costs and attain dominance and supremacy in
whatever platforms they perform and compete at. To complement these pockets of excellence
and stimulate a culture of optimum achievement, the department will still continue with its
various ‘recognition and reward’ programmes. Key among these will be the introduction of the
Sport Hall of Fame and Museum, which we have already committed to open in this current
financial year. This year will further witness a special edition of the SA Sport Awards as we
celebrate the tenth anniversary of this programme and retrace the impact which this proramme
has done over years.

SPORT SUPPORT

In the Sport Support Services the spending focus in the medium term for Sport and
Recreation Service Providers is to provide financial and non-financial support to 68 recognized
sport and recreation bodies. This will come at a cost of R126.1m which increases to R138.7m in
the 2017/18 final year. R107m of this allocation is for transfers to National Federations.
Going forward, the allocation to the federations will be linked to their implementation of the
Transformation scorecard and compliance with their transformation targets. As we indicated
before, we cannot continue to render lip service to this issue of transformation. It must therefore
constitute an integral part of our business process and organizational practice.

PUBLIC ENTITIES

The South African Institute for Drug-Free Sport (SAIDS) continues to show improvement
in their work. During the MTEF, the entity’s funding will increase from R19.8m in 2015/16 to
R23.0m by 2017/18. Special assistance and support will also be given to the South African Drug
testing laboratory based at the University of Free State to meet the obligations of the new anti-
doping code. This support is necessary as this is the only accredited laboratory on the entire
African continent.

Efforts to assist Boxing South Africa in its turn-around strategy and also to implement all the
resolutions of the 2013 Boxing Indaba are currently ongoing and bearing fruit. Boxing South
Africa plans to host 22 international tournaments in the country in 2015/16, which will not only
improve the visibility of the sport domestically and internationally, but will also increase its
popularity with all the relevant stakeholders, including athletes, supporters and sponsors.

INFRASTRUCTURE SUPPORT / FACILITIES

One of the worst impediments to sport participation, particularly in our previously disadvantaged
communities is the issue of sport facilities. In giving true expression to our commitment to
development, we will continue to prioritize the issue of ensuring access to facilities for our
communities and schools. Our focus will be on facilitation for the building of 380 facilities by 2019
in line with the National Facilities Plan. We have allocated an amount of R5.1m. We have also
allocated at amount of R2, 4m towards Technical and Management support aimed at ensuring
that facilities for sport and recreation are delivered according to established norms and
standards.

We will continue to monitor the use of the 15 percent of the p-value of the Municipal
Infrastructure Grant that is ring-fenced for the building of sport and recreation facilities to
ensure that it is aligned with national infrastructure priorities. We will also continue to develop
and/or refurbish children’s play parks by facilitating discussions between the relevant
municipalities and organizations wishing to invest in corporate social investments. This proved to
be very successful in 2014. SRSA will collaborate with the Department of Environmental Affairs
who will assist with the greening and beautification of the public open spaces and the
accompanying recreation facilities.

African Union Sport Council

The department continues to play an active role in multilateral and bilateral sport platforms,
particularly in Region 5 of the African Union Sports Council. Our work through the region and the
rest of the continent remains an indispensable instrument through which we can unite the
continent and use sport to undermine discrimination in all its varied forms. As the sport and

recreation sector we were saddened by the recent acts of Xenophobia and Afrophobia. Such
tendencies have no space in the sport sector.

We condemn in the strongest terms any form of violence against other nationals. We will for this
purpose, table a special resolution at the Committee of African Ministers of Sport (CAMS) to
consider dedicating the African Games to the promotion of a continental campaign against
Xenophobia and the promotion of African brotherhood and fraternity. Our clarion call in this
regard remains one that says:”There is no place for any form of discrimination or racism in sport.
We are AFRICA!”

Appreciation

I wish to thank the Portfolio Committee of Sport and Recreation for their oversight, support and
leadership; the Deputy Minister, Mr. Gert Oosthuizen for being his sterling support at all times,
our Director-General, Mr. Alec Moemi and his administrative team for their commitment and
passion.

Our appreciation also goes to our public entities SAIDS, and Boxing SA; loveLife; the Sports
Trust; SASCOC, and all the sport and recreation bodies that we work with, for their continued
cooperation and support.

We thank you!