DA's plan for sport will result in real development
The Minister of Sport and Recreation, Fikile Mbalula's proposal to introduce a quota of 60% into national teams is misguided and is yet another example of the ANC trying to manipulate outcomes for a few rather than broaden opportunities for all.
What sport needs above all to transform, is an excellent development strategy for promising sportsmen and women from disadvantaged communities, so that they will be picked for teams on the basis of the value they add to the team effort.
Manipulating quotas will actually undermine the achievement of sustainable diversity in our sports teams. Quotas provide a convenient diversion from the much greater challenge of identifying young talent, and ensuring its development.
This new policy approach is in fact completely bizarre because it runs contrary to the department's white paper on sport and recreation which notes that "national teams should be selected on merit but transformation should be implemented at school/youth levels to prepare a broad basis of athletes for participation at higher levels in future."
Mr Mbalula's announcement also flies in the fact of the approach taken by the National Development Plan, which is now all but dead in the water.
Minister Mbalula's comments also contradict his statement in 2011 that "Sport quotas are exhausted and have generally been counter-productive."
His comments should therefore be dismissed as nothing more than a last-minute election campaign gimmick to manufacture relevance in his party. South Africans will see through this. They apply the well-known ANC "divide-and-rule" strategy.
The DA leads the way in ensuring real grass-roots sports development. In the DA-led Western Cape Government, we have:
The Sport, Health, Advancement through sport, Research and Policy development (SHARP) which develops the skills of talented young sportspeople drawn from MOD centres, so that they can become the sports stars of tomorrow.
Club Development: Redress in sport is achieved primarily through development programmes designed to help disadvantaged people overcome discrimination. The Western Cape government has prioritised the establishment of sports clubs across the province, especially in rural areas, which help to build a new generation of sportsmen and women.
Western Cape Sports Schools: These schools recruit talented sports oriented students, and provide them with the resources and facilities to turn them into champions. In a similar way to the SHARP centres, these schools not only create opportunities for the students enrolled in them. In addition, they play an important aspirational role by creating positive role models for children in poor communities.
Our policy is also clear in what needs to be done to address sport development: We would:
Prioritise investment in grassroots level sport, with a specific focus on women, the youth, people with disabilities, the aged and rural communities;
Invest in a national talent identification process;
Require national federations to develop transformation plans to broaden participation in their respective codes;
Focus investment in sport and recreation facilities at local and provincial level on facilities for communities in previously disadvantaged communities;
Promote the roll-out of MOD centres across all provinces; and
Invest in audience development for priority sports - across all South African communities.
The DA has the proven policy solutions to ensure sporting development that corrects the wrongs of the past. South Africans can choose this real plan over poorly planned election-gimmicks by voting for the DA on 7 May 2014.
Statement issued by Winston Rabotapi MP, DA Shadow Minister of Sport and Recreation, April 19 2014
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