On Saturday, SASCOC elaborated on three main areas of focus for the national Olympic Committee during this new Olympic cycle leading up to Tokyo 2020.
High performance, coaching and funding models are the three pillars SASCOC President Gideon Sam and the board are strategically concentrating on, in order to deliver Team SA successfully to various international and continental games leading up to Tokyo.
Sam was speaking at the first Olympic governing body’s general meeting for the 2017-2020 Olympic cycle at Olympic House in Johannesburg, where 78 of the national federations, together with the new Minister of Sports and Recreation, Thembelani Nxesi, Deputy Minister of Sports and Recreation Gert Oosthuizen, Director General of Sports and Recreation Alec Moemi, SASCOC CEO Tubby Reddy, SASCOC board members, and other dignitaries gathered.
Sam urged all national federations to channel their efforts to fully support athletes from all parts of the nation, including small towns and villages.
“We need to prepare teams for Team SA to participate internationally and continentally. It is our responsibility as national federations to ensure that we provide athletes with everything they need to be considered to be part of Team SA. We are judged on what we have done at international and continental competitions,” he added.
He urged national federations to analyse critically how they can produce athletes with the potential to go on and represent the country.
“For SASCOC the athletes are central and we need to ensure that they are well looked after,” he added.
Sam congratulated national federations who are successfully hosting major events in the various provinces and urged them to continue with their excellent work. “As federations, you should continuously think out of the box so that you develop sport and raise funds for athletes,’ he added.
Sam gave an insight on the status of coaching development in South Africa. “The team is working very hard to ensure that the Coaching Association of South Africa (CASA) is launched. As a board we have in principle agreed to launch it in KwaZulu-Natal on a date to be advised. Some members have already registered to be part of CASA.”
“Funding remains a fundamental issue in our business. When our athletes compete internationally, they are doing so against athletes who have sponsorships of approximately £20-30million for the 2017-2020 Olympic cycle,” said Sam.
“As SASCOC we have to find smarter ways of preparing our athletes. As leaders in the sports movement we have to sit down and work out how we are going to overcome this funding issue. As we identify our high performance athletes we have to identify how we can get funding,” Sam reiterated.
Sports and Recreation South Africa (SRSA) Minister Nxesi began his keynote address by conveying his condolences to the Durandt family and friends, and the sporting family as a whole on the sudden loss of accomplished boxing promoter Nick Durandt. He acknowledged and thanked Nick for his immense contribution to the boxing code in South Africa.
On that note, he also passed on his sympathies to all the families who lost their children in a bus crash outside Pretoria on Friday.
Nxesi reassured the delegates of his absolute commitment to the sports portfolio and the vision of SRSA as an active and winning nation.
He emphasised the achievements of the teams in Rio and thanked SASCOC for successfully delivering Team SA to the Olympics and Paralympics. “Let me celebrate with you the achievements of Team South Africa at the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and reiterate the country’s thanks for the tireless efforts of SASCOC in this regard. These achievements provide a solid foundation for further successes to come,” Nxesi stated.
“To this end, we have committed additional funding in this financial year for the establishment of the National Training and Olympic Preparatory Centre (NTC) to be based in Bloemfontein. Since the Confederation presented the project to Sports and Recreation, the Department has engaged all provinces to commit 5% of their conditional grant budget to this vision. Today, I am pleased to inform you that the provinces have agreed to increase their commitment to 10% of their ring-fenced budgets,” the Minister indicated.
Nxesi touched on three main challenges he has noted in the short time he has been in office. “School sport is still a challenge and I have noted the death of physical education and sport in a majority of our schools. This is very wrong, as access to sport is defined as a fundamental right in various UN conventions. Are we surprised that young people turn to anti-social behaviour when they lack the opportunities to participate in sport? If the call for radical economic transformation is to have any meaning, it must include the demand for access for all learners to sport and physical education.”
As indicated by President Sam, funding was also a major concern that the Minister discussed. “We can all agree on one thing: the budget for sport and recreation is woefully inadequate. My job is to raise this with the relevant powers. I will need a task team to work with. We are going to have to make a strong case for sport and make the best use of the funds we already have.”
“We are going to have to ensure that where money has been budgeted for sport – wherever it resides – in education, in the provinces or municipalities – we have to ensure that that money is actually used for sport – and used optimally. We are going to have to go back to National Treasury with proposals and to cost the priorities in the National Plan for Sport and Recreation for presentation to Cabinet,” Nxesi added.
Nxesi discouraged delegates from working in silos, as this hinders efforts by the sporting fraternity to coordinate efforts for optimal results as stated in the National Recreation Plan. “We have to jointly create the necessary platform for coordination of resources and the efforts of all the role players,” Nxesi added.
The Minister also discussed issues of transformation and compliance, reporting and proper financial management as core fundamentals to running any effective organisation or business.
Sam concluded the assembly by thanking the delegates for robust discussions and a successful meeting. He reiterated his concerns about sponsorship for sport, and urged everyone to support the drive for South African sport to access funding.