A multiparty delegation of the Portfolio Committee on Sport and Recreation undertook an oversight visit to Northern Cape from 31 January to 02 February 2005, dated 6 September 2005.

The purpose of the visit was:

• To liaise with the Head of the Department on the programmes of the Department
• To be briefed about information on mass participation programmes
• To be briefed on plans of school sport and how those plans relate to the Department for Education’s plans
• The Department should brief the Committee on key federations active in the province and meet with USSASA officials
• To meet with CBOs i.e. local sport council on what they have for rural areas
• To find out what plans the province has for indigenous sport
• To meet with municipalities to intensively discuss issues of monitoring, maintenance and building of facilities
• To meet with Metro and local government Chairperson of EXCO dealing with sport matters
• To look at one or two completed built facilities completed and how are they utilized

2. Composition of the delegation

The multiparty delegation was as follows:

Mr Frolick (ANC)

Mr Reid (ANC)

Mrs Ramakaba- Lesia (ANC)

Mr Dlamini (IFP)

Mr Herandein (NNP)

Ms N Borotho (Committee Assistant)

Ms T Madikane, MEC of Sport, Arts and Culture welcomed the delegation. Mr. Frolick, leader of the delegation introduced the members of the delegation and made some introductory remarks. He then briefed the MEC about the purpose of the visit.

The MEC made a presentation on the program, priorities and other challenges of the Department. She explained that the Department has done an audit of all facilities in the province, preparing for the 2010 World Cup and submitted the audit report to the SAPA office. She mentioned that the team from FIFA was supposed to come to their province for inspection of facilities between 30 December 2004 to 29 January 2005 but there were some delays. She also mentioned that part of the department’s mandate was to develop a plan on how to deal with the issue of facilities.

Ms Madikane mentioned that the most important aspect was that their province was the small province and was disadvantaged primarily because they do not have the provincial team. She noted that they have a soccer stadium in Galeshewe. The stadium’s capacity is eight thousand. She also mentioned that their province was not really a soccer province. She mentioned that the Department and the stakeholders would work together for the province to stand a chance for the 2010 event and that would give FIFA or SAFA a reason to go to Northern Cape.

Ms Madikane further mentioned that the department had put aside money to build a stadium. The Department had identified a site, but they were still negotiating with Debias for a site to build the stadium on. She also mentioned that the ABSA stadium was privately owned by the rugby fraternity and had a capacity of twenty thousand.

Ms Madikane mentioned that they had two programmes, namely Sport and Culture. However, the department had combined these programmes because of the remoteness of the province and for the area to benefit. In 2004, the province launched sport council and discovered that the regions were not ready. The Department had also opened the stadium in Kgalagadi region and was planning the mass participation launch to be held in Kgalagadi. The department had a project that identifies all problems in facilities, maintenance and the utilization of facilities.

• The department’s biggest challenge was that of connecting the feasibility study and making sure that the identified land was suitable.
• There are no stadiums with enough capacity
• The province has very remote areas
• Lack of transport
• Mining Houses problems have not been attended to by the department
• High fees charged for utilizing the facilities
• Lack of personnel
• Lack of sport equipment
• Little budget for school sport

Mr Esau, Head of the Department, mentioned that the province was prepared and ready for inspection regarding the 2010 event. He also mentioned that the biggest concern in the province was the budget. The province was in the process of cutting the budget for 2004/2005 which stood at R6.4 million. The budget was cut down to R5.9 million. The estimate budget for 2005/2006 was R8.3 million and R1.46 million was for personnel expenditure.

He mentioned that the department had built facilities which became white elephants. Physical study is very important in the province, and the mass participation program is reaching the rural areas. They have one sport commissioner in each region, and they would be appointing more officials in April 2005.

• The department has transformation programmes
• There is a committee responsible for school sport
• They have mass participation programmes that also address social problems in the communities. The mass participation funds were from the national department’s conditional grant
• They have training for Sport and Recreation coordinators. They have increased the number of committee coordinators and coaches. They intend signing incorporating agreement
• They have the Facility Audit Project, which assists the department with the municipality and privately owned facilities. This project had also assisted the department in identifying the problems regarding the facilities
• They signed co-operative agreement with municipalities involved with the usage of sport facilities
• They had successfully launched the mass participation national programme that was inaugurated by the Minister
• They have thirty-three activity coordinators and they had exceeded the required targets stated in the blue print of Sport and Recreation
• The activity coordinators went to the national training in various mass participation sport codes, the training was conducted jointly with national federations and the department
• They had also conducted courses for the coaches and referees. The federations in the province assisted in the process
• They had established clubs in the communities where there were no clubs existing. They introduced those clubs to organized sport structures and to the federations
• The equipment tenders were done nationally and were not done successfully, and in 2005 were given to the province
• They had a committee coordinator appointed for basketball in Siyanda and the coordinator managed to get the sponsorship from the sport shop
• In 2005/2006 financial year they would increase the number of coordinators from thirty-three to seventy and would also include the three sporting codes in the existing code, which would be: street volleyball, street netball and street baseball.
• In the current financial year the department of sport had an agreement with the Department of Education that sport involving both departments, eg winter and summer games divide the payment
• They have school sport and sport officials working together, preparing for SA Games and they also worked together in launching the rural and farm school programmes
• One-on-one meeting with the federations namely Rugby, Soccer, Cricket, Hockey, Swimming, Netball, Athletics and Boxing were held.
• The department has a good relationship with cricket. Cricket is the only federation reaching the rural areas. Cricket has developing officers in Namaqua land
• They have the amateur league in the province, the women sport and a large number of women participating in sport, especially in rural areas

The department urged the Committee to raise the issue of schools sport budget with the national Department

Mr Frolick welcomed the federations and expressed concern on the issue of Mayors who were not present at the meeting. He briefed the federations about the purpose of the visit. He then gave an opportunity to the federations to share their views, challenges and successes.

• The district was running the soccer leagues, but not all of them were functioning due to lack of sponsorship
• The regional office was also running the SAFA Castle Regional League sponsored by SAB and the SAFA Regional Woman ‘s League without a sponsor.
• There was a SAFA Vodacom Provincial League and its offices were at the Galeshewe stadium. This League was played throughout the entire Northern Cape
• They have a good relationship with the department
• Teams’ major problem is lack of transport
• The region has a bus that is only used for the developed teams
• Facilities in town are not accessible are charged a fee of R200 per day to utilize the facility
• Racism is a problem
• There are eighteen district associations, and each has a district league running

• They have a good relationship with the Department and other federations.
• There are only two facilities that are accessible for boxing and have started with female boxing.
• Lottery had assisted with funds for equipment
• Most boxers are in Frances Baard Municipality
• They have training programme for woman boxing, coaches, referees and administrators
• Lack of transport
• The main problem is USSASA that takes their established boxers
• A tournament was held in 2004, five medals were won

• They have a good relationship with the Department but lacks transport
• They have a problem with coaches and officials who attend the training course and then disappear
• They established clubs in the regions
• They have training programme for athletes

• Problem of exorbitant fees paid to the traffic department to host events every weekends
• Lottery had granted them 54 bicycles for the development of previously disadvantaged areas. These bicycles are worth R5000.00 each. They were insured for R180 per month each. However, it is difficult to afford this as the riders, the clubs and the provincial bodies do not have the necessary funds
• Their province was the only known province to host interclub events at the different club levels throughout the province
• Transportation of the development riders
• Most of the development riders are from the underprivileged communities
• Lack of funding
• They have consulted the local traffic department for funds but were unsuccessful

• The taking away of Professional Cricket in Griqualand West and the Northern

• The lack of funding for Amateur Cricket from the United Cricket Board due to the awarding of the franchises
• Loss of sponsorship for both Professional and Amateur Cricket due to the fact that there is no professional brand to attract sponsors
• The drop in interest in club/schools cricket due to the fact that these cricketers no longer have a professional team in the province
• Difficulty in sustaining Amateur/Development programmes due to lack of funding
• Potential retrenchment of staff and subsequent curtailment of all amateur/development programmes due to lack of funding
• Vast distances and shortage of facilities in outlying areas

•  Rated by the United Cricket Board to have the best Development Programme in the Country
• Very positive report from National Transformation Monitoring Committee, chaired by Mr John Smith
• Overwhelming support and buy-in from Provincial and Local Government
• A very successful and sustainable development programme
•  All representative teams in the province have met and surpassed the National Transformation targets as set by the United Cricket Board of SA, ie. all teams are chosen on merit
• Locally produced players constitute in excess of 75% in both Amateur and Professional teams
• Highly successful Amateur and Professional team results over the past five years
• Facilities are of international standard (for professional cricket - De Beers Oval) and first class (Amateur -Yorkshire Cricket Oval - Galeshewe)
• More black teams in Premier League than white teams - totally merit

• They have six regions
• They have a council dealing with transformation issues
• They received funds from lottery to build a multipurpose facility
• Their facilities were accessible and they charge low fees
• Their problem is security in facilities, especially during big matches
• They were negotiating with soccer to renovate the stadium that fit 40.000-50.000 people

• The delegation expressed its concern about the absence of the Mayor and the rugby federation at the meeting

• The delegation sought clarity on the issue of lack of transport and also on what was SAFA doing to assist other than sponsoring one bus
• There were no disabled sport mentioned by the federation and there were no facilities for the disabled

• Cricket caters for the disabled and blind, and they are preparing for blind cricket tournament
• The deaf people who were interested in playing soccer approached soccer federation

The delegation proceeded to visit the cricket facility.

Mr. Reid, member of the delegation welcomed members from the sport academy and briefed the meeting about the purpose of the visit.

Mr. Coetzee, the Manager of Sport Academy mentioned that the Academy is situated in the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture. The Academy has signed an agreement with the National Institution for Higher Education for a suitable location. In the past two years they had the rough time because of the resignation of managers. The Academy has thirteen priority codes but only seven codes are actively involved.

Mr. Coetzee mentioned that the satellites would be situated in the following regions; Frances Baard (Kimberley), Siyanda (Upington), Pixley Ka Seme (De Aar) and Namaqua (Springbok). Meetings were also held in Siyanda and Namaqua for the establishment of the satellites. Municipalities were requested to provide a co-ordinator to assist in establishing satellite academies and no response was received from these municipalities. Follow-up meetings are scheduled to fast track the matter.

The satellite will work with the schools, local clubs and regional sport structures and will be a feeder to the provincial academy. The provincial Academy will concentrate on the elite athletes. He also mentioned the issue of service providers; he said this was still a challenge in the province. The academy makes use of the testing center in Free State, but is in a process to register local professional people as service providers, as well as the SANDF.

Mr Coetzee stated that the academy board was in a process of establishing Financial Committee, which will deal with all the financial matters of the academy. The funders of the academy are: The National Lottery Board, Department of Sport, Arts and Culture and South African Sport Commission. This committee will also help to secure funds and sponsorship for the academy.

He also mentioned the role of the following stakeholder:

Federations:

They have to identify and provide the respective squads for the academy. These squads will receive service from the academy as is spelled out in the Blue Print.

School Sport and Department of Education:

This component should provide athletes to the satellite academies. All relevant services will be provided to these athletes. This process of establishing these satellites has already started.

National Lottery Board:

This is the head funder for the academy. At this stage Provincial Department of Sport, Arts and Culture helps also with the funding of the academy e.g. the administration and certain programs like disabled and women sport

South African Sport Commission:

The Sport Commission gives strategic direction to the academies and monitoring the progress of the academies. It also assists with the funding of the academy.

The following questions were raised:

• Which six codes were not actively involved?
• Which programmes are in place?
• What was the participation of women?
• Did they involve the private sector to assist them with funds?

• The non active codes were Hockey, Netball, Tennis, DISSA, Amateur Golf, Table Tennis
• Programs and services are in place for the seven active codes namely, Athletics, Boxing, Cricket, Gymnastics, Rugby, Soccer, Table Tennis
• They had women soccer, squash and most codes are 50/50 male and female
• Yes, they did contact private sector for assistance but they were unsuccessful

• The government (the Premier and MEC’S) should meet with service providers and request them to provide the academy with equipment
• They should get the cooperate sector on board
• They should work with the Department to solve the problem of transport
• The Portfolio Committee should have a joint meeting with the Portfolio Committee on Labour to deal with the issue of mining houses
• The MEC should form the sub-committee to deal with the critical issues in sport including the issue of racism and facilities in the province

Mr Reid, the leader of the delegation welcomed the members present and briefed them about the purpose of the visit in the province.

• Each town in the province has a sports council and the town sports council was elected by the sports clubs and schools
• Their funding was taken because of financial constrains of the province
• They are funded by the sports academy
• They are working very closely with the schools in sport
• They had elected the provincial sports council on the 25 February 2005
• The province would be hosting the Sport Award on the 26 February 2005
• They are in the process of formulating the constitution policy and they had compiled the constitution of SASCO, NEC and Sport Council to assist them
• Lack of funding
• Lack of Transport
• Lack of governing body
• Lack of equipment
• They had indigenous programmes in schools
• They had training programmes for teachers to train children
• The facilities in the mining houses were not utilized

It also came to the attention of the delegation that there are mass participation programmes throughout the province at all levels.

The Mayor welcomed the delegation and Mr Reid briefed the meeting about the purpose of the visit

• Lack of closed ground in schools
• Stadiums were utilized by school children
• Lack of office structure
• Their schools were not part of USSASA
• The community participate in the budget
• Facilities are maintained by the municipality
• The fee charged for the facilities was agreed by the community and the municipality
• They had only six sporting codes, namely soccer, netball, rugby, cricket, baseball and volleyball
• They have programmes of integrating and transformation
• They have only two integrated sport codes, namely karate and basket ball and most teams are integrated in schools
• Last year the lady from London (Score) had a program to mobilize people in sport but people were not interested
• Youth participate in sport and they were in the process of mobilizing mothers and grannies
• They had applied for lottery fund but were unsuccessful
• They had requested funds from the district municipality for lights and tracks in the stadium and they were unsuccessful
• They had one facility that was vandalized, namely Ice Water
• There was no progress in swimming and facilities for swimming were not accessible
• They do not have the indigenous sport
• Facilities in town are available, but there is racism

The Mayor welcomed the delegation and introduced members. Mr Reid briefed the meeting about the purpose of the visit.

• They do not have sports council
• Soccer is the main sport played
• In schools, all sporting codes are played and the district is affiliated to USSASA
• Rugby is played but only in white areas
• The De Aar golf course is developed but due to lack of funds, is not developing
• They had boxing and consists of white and black
• They had soccer and netball played in one place
• They had cricket but only at school level
• They had no indigenous sport
• They had received funds from lottery and they built cricket pitch but not completed
• They are in the process of transforming the white sporting codes
• Sport was not a priority
• They had developed a relationship with Love-Life to interact in sport and to assist them to make sport their priority
• Facilities are accessible
• They had spent R400.000 to renovate the multipurpose center
• They had a programme of going to the community to listen to their problem
• They was no progress with DISSA
• They had a good relationship with the Department
• They had a problem of responsibility and accountability
• Lack of transport
• The department does not participate in their forum meeting
• They had a sport activity coordinator

• There is lack of transport for disabled persons as well as capacity building.

• Department of Provincial and Local Government together with Sport and Recreation South Africa in the advent of the new dispensation of Municipal Infrastructure Grant that a special reservation be made for building basic facilities. MIG must be able to tell how many facilities are built in the country and the funds meant for building must be ring fenced.

• National department must assume responsibility that rural areas especially poverty stricken areas are provided with resources

• Prioritization of sport codes should be biased to the disadvantaged.