Minister ‘Razz-ma-Nothing’ yet to pay Olympic athletes

The DA condemns the Minister of Sport and Recreation, Fikile Mbalula’s, failure to deliver on his promises of incentives to Olympic and Paralympic medallists and his subsequent treatment of the athletes who are enquiring about the payments.

It is totally unacceptable for cabinet ministers to mistreat athletes like Sunette Viljoen for enquiring on the payment of the incentives that the Minister promised to pay but has failed to do so to date.

The Minister’s response to Viljoen’s queries saying, “You said you don’t need it … So I stick with your wishes” is totally uncalled for and clearly demonstrates his frustration of grappling the reality of his broken promises.

It is now clear that the Minister made promises of incentives to athletes without securing the funding first, now he is faced with the embarrassment of scrambling to find money to pay them.

The DA will be submitting parliamentary questions to find out:

• By when can the athletes promised financial incentives for good performances, who have yet to be paid, expect to get what was promised?

In his twisted logic, Mbalula wants the athletes to be so grateful to him for promising the incentives that they shouldn't dare have the courage to ask when they will be paid.

His spokesperson Esethu Hasane is on record saying:

“The Minister has a programme called the Excellence Recognition Programme; it does not really get budgeted for by the Department because we don’t know when and where athletes are going to compete, and how many athletes are going to win…”

The incentives promised to athletes by the Minister are not his pocket money that he can promise and threaten to not pay willy-nilly.

They are commitments on behalf of his Department that must be budgeted for and paid promptly to athletes. The Minister must demonstrate the same zeal he did when announcing the announcements, to pay the athletes what he promised them.

The Minister boasted that he was Father Christmas when he announced the incentives for the Olympics and Paralympics medallists. Unlike the real Father Christmas, who delivers on his promises, the Minister has to date failed to do so.

It is now clear that the self-declared Father Christmas of SA sport is nothing but a mere Minister of Razz-ma-Nothing.

Statement issued by Solly Malatsi MP, DA Shadow Minister of Sports and Recreation, 7 November 2016