National Sports Plan and Indaba: briefing by Deputy Minister of Sport and Recreation

Meeting report

The Chairperson stated that with the Deputy Minister of Sport and Recreation’s presentation on the National Sport and Recreation Plan in preparation for the National Indaba, the Committee may not have enough time to do justice to the Department of Sport and Recreation’s (SRSA) presentation of the quarterly report. He stated that if there were not enough time, the Committee would have to negotiate with the Department to return and present the quarterly report at a later date. The Chairperson tabled the Executive Summary of the National Sport and Recreation Plan and invited the Deputy Minister to present the plan.

South Africa’s First National Sport and Recreation Plan and National Sports Indaba
Mr Gert C Oosthuizen, Deputy Minister of Sport and Recreation, offered apologies for Minister Mbalula, who could not attend as he was occupied with Departmental work. He stated that the goal of presenting the discussion documents on the Sport and Recreation Plan to the Committee was to get input to enrich the working document and to have a principled Sports Plan. There had been a process of developing a white paper into a policy document, but there had never been a plan, which was a working document that guided the country’s approach. In January there was a strategic session where the Minister resolved six priority areas, dubbed a ‘roadmap’. This was not the Sports Plan, but rather points of emphasis within the sports plan.

The country needed to speak of a stronger and wider participation base, in order to tap into the potential sporting talent. Broadening the participation base would feed into international success and how the country was viewed. The sports plan will need to address the fact that the enabling environment needed to be enriched and adequately resourced. Funding would need to be aligned to ensure optimal performance. The Sports Plan took place within a constitutional environment and a legislative framework, which spoke to all nine provinces. The funding plan spoke to ring-fenced funding in the Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) as a matter of urgency, which is why the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) was on the steering committee and why there was a consultative process with SALGA, the provinces and the MECs.

Facilities needed to be multi-coded and speak to the needs of the people. While the Department understood the independence of domestic and international sporting federations, the Deputy Minister stated that there needed to be clearer demarcated roles and responsibilities in sport. The Sports Plan needed to have a vigorous marketing plan and communication campaign to inform individuals of the ethical environment of a drug-free, doping-free sporting system. Private academies needed to fall in line with the academy system agreed to in the Sports Plan.

In the 18^th year of democracy in South Africa, there had not been the desired transformation results in sport. The Deputy Minister stated that he was shocked if he saw a team that was not representative of the demographics of the country. The Department included a draft transformation charter and a draft scorecard, which hoped to enrich the process. There needed to be an honest discussion as to a ‘catch-up’ strategy that was clear on transformation imperatives and the enabling environment. This strategy needed to stay away from quotas and instead speak to the root of society in South Africa. Broadening participation and transformation could not ignore the most important pillar of school sport. The Department of Sport and the Department of Education have aimed to develop sport in school in line with national priorities. Grassroots sport programs or ‘modified sport’ could also broaden the base and identify talent. This approach would get the youth of the country active and keep them off the streets.

The National Sports Plan needed to talk to recreation, because there was not active recreation in the country. Without active recreation, the country would not alleviate pressures on the national health bill. Long ago the Department requested the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) to assist in the process of establishing sports councils in the provinces. After the Sports Plan was agreed on, the delivery system of sport in this country would need to be strengthened by empowering sports councils with a clear demarcation of roles and responsibilities. Talent could also be developed in the Departments of Police, Defence and Correctional Services and career opportunities in sport provided for talented individuals. The National Sports Plan would have to address sport for peace, peace-keeping, peace-building and development. Organizations like the United Nations and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) were extremely busy in the area of sport for peace and development.
 
A large issue was that of professionalism in sport. The country needed to distinguish between amateur participation and professional sport. It was uncomfortable to hear stories of athletes under the age of 18 being professionally contracted for sport, put into an academy structure and then see no results. The Plan needed to speak to the transition between amateur to professionalism and post-professionalism.

The National Sports Plan needed to take the national sports calendar into account. Currently the cycle was based on a four-year cycle around Olympics. Funding needed to be aligned to an eight-year or 12-year cycle. There was a necessity of a Sports House, especially for the smaller federations. This Sport House would allow these federations to work more closely with SRSA and would add value through access to facilities and administrative support. A Sports House could also house regional, continental or international federations.

Once the Sports Plan was established and funding alignment was explored, the country needed to pronounce on the lottery and how SRSA would put the money to use, to achieve its objectives. The aim was to have a Sports Plan fundamentally agreed to, based on principle, and then as a consequence, ask how to align the funding to reach the objectives that SRSA set for itself. Once the Sports Plan was agreed on, it needed to become a working document. The Department foresaw that six weeks after the adoption, there would be a launch of the Plan, which would be accompanied by delivery agreements between SASCOC, SALGA and the Federations so that all parties were on the same page. SRSA had already communicated with National Treasury to develop a document in line with the Treasury’s budgeting regulations in order to align the process of budgeting with the provinces. This process was well on track and supported by the provinces. The Deputy Minister stated that he hoped that the Committee would embark on a genuine, principled and constructive debate with inputs guided by principle within the legal framework. The aim needed to be to transform sport for a better life for people in South Africa and also for a well functioning sporting system that taps into the talent.

Dr Benardus van der Spuy, Chief Director: Strategic Executive Support, stated that it was fine to have the White Paper on Sport and Recreation, but the challenging question was how to implement the policy document. This would make a big difference in putting the policy into practice. The Minister appointed a steering committee with representation from SALGA, SASCOC, from all of the provinces and the private sector. The steering committee came together in February of this year and met every second week thereafter to build on what had been developed and to enrich the Plan. The concept of the National Sports Plan and the Indaba was launched on 5 April at a media briefing at the Sport Stadium in Johannesburg. It was further discussed at the SASCOC Annual General Meeting (AGM) in East London. The Department also launched a website in April, for the general public to make input and comments on the Indaba. In May, the department finalised the first draft Sports Plan and it was circulated through the steering committee where members could make inputs and comments. The Minister’s office released a public opinion piece on the Sports Plan and the Indaba. In June, the draft of the Transformation Charter was finalised. SASCOC had a Transformation Committee that worked on their own charter, but the SRSA agreed to merge the processes so that the result would be a single transformation charter for all of South African sport. The next process was to have discussions with the various interest groups such as organized labour, the private sector, the media and international forums to allow them the opportunity to make inputs into the plan.

The National Indaba was scheduled for 26 and 27 September 2011. Various messages from South African political leaders underscored the importance of sport. Former President Nelson Mandela referred to the power of sport to unite people in a way that little else can. President Jacob Zuma referred to the power of sport to transcend racial, cultural and ethnic barriers. Former Deputy President Thabo Mbeki said “all things were possible when we work together”. This idea was one of the key messages that SRSA wanted to achieve through the National Sport and Recreation Plan. The goal was to get all the role players involved to start working towards the same objectives. The Minister of SRSA regarded this process as one of the most important times in the history of South African sport. The Deputy Minister also referred to the importance of a coordinated, integrated and aligned sports system within which all component parts were focused towards a common set of goals. The President of SASCOC also committed his organization and all the federations to the process of finalizing a National Sports and Recreation Plan for the country.

The main issues that SRSA wished to achieve through the National Indaba were to action the policy directives emanating from the revised white paper from the ‘what’ to the ‘how’. The National Sports Plan needed to be practical with activities and entities to be made responsible to ensure that these activities were implemented. The six priority areas identified in the Minister’s Road Map needed to be integrated into the National Sports Plan. The Indaba would facilitate collective buy-in by all stakeholders to the plan. The Indaba needed to streamline the implementation towards common objectives and fast track the transformation charter and the delivery mechanisms for all sectors and role players involved in sport and recreation. It was also important to elevate public awareness of the National Sport and Recreation Plan by means of targeted media campaigns.

The framework of the Plan comprised four sections: 1) a broad introduction to the plan 2) the key focus areas of the Sports Plan 3) important policy imperative and 4) the implementation of the Plan. Section 1 referred to the importance of sport for any country, especially the economic and social benefits to a country. It had a vision of what sport would look like in South Africa in 2020 and a statement of purpose and core values that should underpin a national sports plan. Section 2 comprised three broad strategic goals: an active nation, a winning nation and an enabling environment. Section 3 addressed issues of transformation, sports tourism, sport for peace and development and the UN drive for sport and the environment. Section 4 addressed aligning financial resources, television broadcasting and sponsorship from the private sector. After the sports plan was finalised the Department would like to have very clear roles and responsibilities of all of the role players. This would result in a list of things that the national departments, provincial governments, SASCOC, and sports councils would be responsible for. The Sports Plan needed to be implemented within an ethical environment to develop a code of ethics for athletes, coaches and administrators. The marketing and communication component of the National Sports Plan needed to ensure that enough was being done to get the message across to the broader public.

The transformation charter contained a scorecard that identified six dimensions on which to measure national federations in their progress on transformation. Each of the six dimensions had certain indicators. Once the scorecard was agreed on, a progress audit would be necessary to proceed with setting targets for the focus areas. The Transformation Charter Scorecard comprises four sections: 1) the moral and strategic reasons for transformation 2) the Transformation Charter itself 3) the multidimensional score card measurement system 4) the commitment by the federations to the scorecard.

A drafting team was currently evaluating the received inputs to finalise critical areas of the National Sport and Recreation Plan at the Indaba in September. An official launch of the National Sports Plan would follow later in the year and an agreement would be signed between the Minister and key stakeholders. The Department would assess the alignment of its five-year strategic plan with the National Sports Plan. There was total commitment from the provinces to align future planning processes with the National Sport and Recreation plan. SRSA needed to ensure that it could monitor and evaluate the progress of the Plan and update plan if necessary.

Major contributions that the Department required were inputs to the Transformation Charter and areas of cooperation between the relevant stakeholders.

Discussion
Mr B Holomisa (UDM) stated that it was not new to talk about the need for improvements to sport in this country. There needed to be a focus on how to convince the government to re-prioritise sport with an appealing mission and objective. If the white paper was titled the ‘ Sport Review’, it would underscore the need for government commitment at the National Treasury level. A memo should be drafted to Cabinet to sensitise Cabinet to the idea that SRSA wanted to position sport to promote economic and national cohesion. There were countries like Australia who used sport as a national revenue generating mechanism. On the issue of facilities, SRSA needed to work with the departments of Transport and Public Works as there were often negative impacts on the environment of nearby communities. SRSA needed to use another approach to re-prioritising sport as soon as possible - other wise the National Sports Plan would be another policy document gathering dust in their office.

The Chairperson added that in future, SRSA should make the document available to the Committee earlier in order to allow Committee members make proper inputs.

Mr G MacKenzie (COPE) agreed with Mr Holomisa’s comments on the reprioritisation of sport. He commended the author of the Plan on its sound objectives. In past budget debates, many initiatives had suffered similar problems of significant talk with no actual action taking place. The Committee was concerned with the Plan’s priority of school sport in every school would require significant commitment and coordination with the departments of Education and Public Works. These were major issues that were possible impediments to this plan. On the issue of sponsorship, the South African Football Association got a R2 Billion TV deal from Supersport. This begged the question of how do the other codes survive? He agreed with the Deputy Minister that contracting of young athletes was a worry. Over the past 17 years coaching expertise had not been transferred and had left a large vacuum in the Model C schools when coaches retired. Who was going to control Sports House - was it going to be representatives from the smaller federations, government representatives or a combination? The section on transformation was very encouraging, but it needed a large PR push in order for citizens to really understand what was meant by transformation. Transformation was not simply a talking point, but rather a shift of the mind and the heart.

Mr D Lee (DA) asked how serious was this Department with sport? The big problem was that the Department could not fill vacancies. If vacancies were not filled, the Department could not deliver. SRSA needed to lighten the workload by appointing qualified people. The coordination across departments that was occurring nationally needed to also occur at the provincial level. Were the provincial Departments of Sport and Education communicating with one another? Transformation would never happen as long as the resources were not provided. People could not be expected to play rugby and have an interest in rugby where there were no rugby fields. This would be a long and expensive process and dedication needed to come not only from the SRSA, but also from the Department of Education. On the issue of bidding for events, during municipal elections, the question was asked: “why could we build Billion Rand stadiums but not build a R50 000 house?” The time had come to prioritise what the country could afford internationally. It was criminal that there were rollovers of billions of Rand from the lottery, since the lottery was established to assist sport in this country. The Department needed to find a way of getting Lotto money for sport to the people.

Ms G Tseke (ANC) raised a concern about the treatment of Members of Parliament at the Sports Awards with regards to accommodation and travel accreditation. The venue was a mess and it was unacceptable. If the Department wanted to invite Committee members to an event, it needed to afford members the dignity that they deserved. Members were also requested to pay for their own accommodation upon leaving the hotel. On the issue of integration between sport and education, both a draft integrated sports plan and a draft schools policy had been presented to the Committee, but the Committee had not seen the progress. Did both ministers meet and agree to the implementation of the documents?

Mr J McGluwa (ID) stated that there was big work awaiting the Ministry on school sports and revitalisation of sports itself. This Committee and others were very important in forging partnerships. A few weeks ago this Committee grilled the South African Rugby Union representatives. The Chairperson was very vocal on the issue of transformation. The Sport and Recreation Committee had been labelled as toothless and when the Committee speaks on transformation in sport, it was labelled as political inference. He congratulated the Chairperson on the stand that he took on the transformation issue. Today the Deputy Minister assured the Committee that it had a role to play and it needed to be vocal on the issues of transformation. Regarding participation, the document was not vocal on participation of the elderly, the disabled and street children. With the Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG), special provisions needed to be made to monitor the expenditure of this funding when it comes to sport. He was completely against the transformation scorecard, simply because there were no punitive measures. The plan needed to address human resource issues and the Department needed to come up with recruitment plans that could create jobs.

Ms M Lishiva (ANC) asked about monitoring and evaluation regarding the many stadiums that had become ‘white elephants’. In the Makhado municipality, there was a 6-year old stadium not being used and the people were vandalising it. Did the department have the number of young people who benefited from the R27 million allocation for the ‘Love Life’ programme?

Mr S Mmusi (ANC) asked if the Deputy Minister could elaborate further on the issues of recreation and of disability. He added onto the issue raised by Ms Tseke that it was high time the Department began to treat Members of Parliament with decency. These were recurring issues whenever members were invited to Departmental events.

Mr J Van Der Linde (DA) stated that the Department needed to address the problem of transportation to tournaments and a lack of money available for athletes to travel. How was Love Life going to be part of this Plan? How many of the Department’s people would attend the Indaba - as the dates clashed with those of the Rugby World Cup in September? As a result of the clashing dates, was there going to be a secondary leadership participating in the Indaba? Why had the funding for the Golden Games continually decreased? The presentation spoke of recreation and the Golden Games was an opportunity to keep people active. There was much good in the Plan. Much good but there were also problems.

The Chairperson stated that the issue of the date of the Indaba on 26 and 27 September needed to be answered because it was fundamental for everyone to attend. The Department needed to be part of the monitoring of the transformation scorecard because at the end of the day people accounted to the Department. He asked whether there was the capacity for this type of monitoring?

Mr Oosthuizen responded that in terms of leveraging facilities, the Minister was in the discussion process with colleagues in Cabinet to achieve a level of entrenchment.

The comments on reprioritisation were noted and well taken, but it was important to distinguish several issues. With the history of the Municipal Infrastructure Grant, sport was in a separate category, yet had to compete against cemeteries and the like for funding. This had been changed and now sport stood alone with a ring fencing of its funding. With TV sponsorship, the Department could engage SAFA on plans for sponsorship funding but the Department could not instruct the Federation on how to spend that money.

The Chairperson added that SRSA needed to engage the sponsors in order to look broader at the other codes as possible recipients of sponsorship.

The Deputy Minister responded that the consultative process was taking place, and SRSA was meeting with sponsors, corporate divisions and parastatals to inform the various actors what the Department sought to achieve with its sports plan.

The Deputy Minister agreed that the notion of a strong public relations campaign post-Indaba, specifically on transformation, was crucial to its success.

The 22% of revenue that SRSA received from the lottery was not enough and the Department was lobbying for a fairer distribution of the percentages. The Department was engaging with DTI on this issue and were waiting on the outcomes of this engagement.

The Deputy Minister was unaware of the treatment of Members of Parliament at sports awards and was shocked, as he was only hearing these reports for the first time. He apologized unreservedly on behalf of the Department and assured the Committee that he would investigate the matter and return to report back to the Committee. The host province would need to be spoken to, as would the service provider.

The point regarding the discussion on punitive measures for the transformation scorecard was taken. However the Department needed to unpack the issue within the legal framework and understand the independence of international federations and what their charters dictated.

On the question of human resources, the Department and the Portfolio Committee identified a need to expand the organogram of the Department in order to ensure the necessary resources to deliver on its mandate. The Ministerial Task Force resolved to embark on a new organogram. That process was being developed. Once the plan was completed, the consequentials would kick in and speak to the organogram of the Department. Clearly, at present, the Department was too small and the resources were not available to deliver on its mandate. Leadership development was needed as part of the sports plan where people could be trained, empowered and able to deliver a service.

Regarding the R27 million for the Love Life programme, the Department would follow up and provide the Committee with the participation figures. This was a very important programme in terms of HIV and AIDS. This money was consequential of another agreement, the Department did not ask for this money, but was told that this was the money that was allocated to SRSA.

Recreation was one of the six priority areas in the sports plan. In terms of recreation for people with disabilities, the Department had been visible in its effort to support this demographic group. If SRSA could be more enriched in this area and told to focus on more it would gladly do so.

In terms of transportation funding for athletes who could not afford travel, the Department needed to distinguish between private entities separate from the Federation or development curriculum and its policy that no child be excluded from organized sport because of a lack of funds.

Regarding the clash of dates of the Indaba and the World Cup of Rugby in New Zealand, clearly one could not travel to New Zealand for seven weeks. The official opening of the World Cup was 9 September, the Springboks play Wales on the 11^th, Fiji on the 17^th, Namibia on the 22^nd, the Indaba takes place on the 26^th and 27^th and then a match versus Samoa on the 30^th. The Word Cup dates did not clash and would not impact attendance at the Indaba.

Deputy Minister Oosthuizen stated that the difference between professional and amateur sport was not something to be taken lightly. What was the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in terms of development of their own codes and other codes? Was it fair that professional codes receive government funding? The Department needed to ask: ‘how were they contributing to development?’ There were different approaches to developing sport in the Model C schools and this system seemed to produce sporting talent. SRSA’s challenge was to develop sport in the no-fee schools. Unless there were enough facilities and the school-sports program was developed, the country would not succeed in tapping into the huge resources of talent in the country.

Mr L Suka (ANC) asked whether there was a document for discussion outlining the framework of the Indaba that would be available in the build-up to the Indaba.

Mr Mackenzie reiterated the question of ‘white elephants’ and asked whether there was a plan to sell some of the World Cup stadiums that were currently underutilized and have those funds redirected into the National Sports Plan.

Deputy Minister Oosthuizen replied that Ms Lishiva’s question on facilities was not alluding to World Cup stadiums and was noted but not responded to, because SRSA would look into the issue and would follow up with the Committee. On the issue of World Cup stadiums, it was up to SRSA to manage the facilities and ensure that federations shared and used facilities. Selling facilities would be the “beginning of the end,” as it would result in higher ticket prices that were unaffordable for the average man.

The Chairperson stated that at some stage a joint meeting with the NCOP on this matter would be necessary, so that different voices could be heard

Dr van der Spuy proposed that SRSA used the opportunity of SASCOC’s AGM, to determine how many of the federations would be able to attend the Indaba at the top level. If there was a problem, then SRSA would have to reconsider the dates. SRSA would forward documents to the Committee of all the inputs that the Department received from the provinces. The key documents on the website referring to the Indaba documents included the draft National Sports Plan and the Transformation Charter. In the draft National Sport Plan there was a reference to critical issues including documentation for fixed proposals, criteria of the prioritisation of national sport, the public opinion piece that the Minister’s office prepared and other documents that could enrich the whole process. SRSA would also add the inputs from the provincial Indabas. SRSA would have to examine the problem of the private sector misusing the website inputs to promote their private sports products.

Mr McGluwa requested additional information regarding public opinion. He asked whether Committee members, when deployed to their respective provinces, could play a role in assisting SRSA to determine systemic problems regarding missing facility submissions from the municipalities?

Mr Lee asked from which six provinces had SRSA received inputs?

Dr van der Spuy responded that SRSA had received inputs from Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Free State, North West, Gauteng and Limpopo

The Chairperson asked where did the inputs of individual sportspeople, who do not belong to any club, go? The Chairperson postponed the Department’s presentation of the quarterly report due to lack of time. He asked Prof Singh to address the Committee regarding the progress of the boxing report. The Committee gave Professor Singh 14 days, which had long since expired to submit the report.

Professor Paul Singh, Chief Executive Director of Client Support, stated that the report was clearly requested by the Committee within 14 working days from the date of the meeting. He needed the acting Director General to sign off on the final edited report, so that it could be forwarded to the Committee. The problem was that the Department was still finalising the report.

The Chairperson asked how many days notification did Professor Singh give the legal advisors prior to the meeting to edit the document?

Professor Singh replied that he gave them a week.

The Chairperson emphasized that it was important to stick to the timeline.

The Chairperson closed the meeting.