SPORT AFTER APARTHEID
Celebrating victory in the 1996 Africa Cup of Nations tour- nament, a sporting achievement becomes a win for South Africa’s rainbow nation. Former presidents F.W. de Klerk (far left) and Nelson Mandela share the joy.
by President Jacob Zuma during the Social Cohesion Conference held in Kliptown. One of the issues he emphasized was that sports has economic benefits as it can promote sports tourism and give business opportunities to persons, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. This potential can only be realized
if the South African sports landscape can be transformed not only in terms of the composition of sports teams and the development of sports in communities, but also through the transformation of the composition and outlook of the sports bodies responsible for the management, governance and policy-making and the distribution of resources to various sports codes. Our long-term game plan should
through turbulences in its attempt to totally transform sport. During this period, the admission
of South African sports teams into the international community has moved fast, whereas the transformation domestically has been excruciatingly slow with a lot of resistance manifesting itself in all obvious and not-so-obvious forms. The 1992 unity dream brought
two diametrically opposing groups and philosophies in sport – which historically hardly agreed on what needed to be done – together to develop a shared vision in sport. They agreed on a uniform cause of action and a common vision.
Correcting a mistake However, this process was hurried up because South Africa wanted to participate in the international sporting arena. Many strategic questions were not answered and most of the issues of “principle” were not clearly defined. This led to an “uncritical assimilation” of everything that was apartheid (white establishment) sport at the expense of the ethos embodied by the non-racial (all peoples’) sport. The immediate adoption
of the apartheid sport systems – administrative technical system, selection procedures and modus operandi – without “transformation pedagogy” was a mistake in the unity process that created the monster we are living with today when it comes to transformation. Thus, the National Sport and
Recreation Indaba held in November 2011 became the epitome of a national united, non-racial and democratic sport system in the country. The NSRI and the recent National Summit on Social Cohesion and Nation-Building have made the remarkable admission that transformation in sport has been slow and failed. These fora believed that
something drastic needed to be done. The two conferences and their conclusions were characterized by the vigour displayed and positions articulated by the collective positive attitude of the masses of our people in their vision for a united, non-racial, non-sexist and democratic society. This collective attitude by our people resonated in all generations as demonstrated by their bold actions against the successive apartheid
colonial regimes and their laws culminating in the adoption of the Freedom Charter 57 years ago in Kliptown. The Social Cohesion Summit consolidated the vision enshrined in the recently adopted National Sport and Recreation Plan (NSRP). The plan together with the transformation charter are aimed at bringing about the establishment of a competitive and demographically representative sport system in the Republic of South Africa, guided by a value set based on equal opportunity, fairness and just behaviour, equitable resource distribution, empowerment and affirmation.
A new game plan The strategic focus of the National Sport and Recreation Plan is to reconstruct and revitalize the sport and recreation landscape for an active and winning nation whilst improving the quality of lives of all South Africans, especially sportsmen and women. Sports also has a profoundly
important role in nation-building by fostering unity and social cohesion as it has done during the 2010 FIFA World Cup, a point made
continue to take into account: the development of sports, especially within the previously disadvantaged communities; the transparent selection of teams and athletes and the fair provision of facilities and recreational facilities in all our communities, especially townships and rural areas. Since this exercise is capital-intensive, it requires all-round support from the public and private sectors. Collaborative efforts should also be put in place to maximize international collaborations to support all these programmes. Our aim is to build a solid infrastructural base, delivery architecture and sustainable human capital development programmes. In this era of hope, our claim for
a “Case for Sport” is supported by growing evidence that sport is an indispensable tool to fundamentally alter the quality of life of all our people. It is a vehicle for progressive human advancement and socio-economic advancement. Sport is demonstrably one of the
most significant cohesive factors in uniting our nation, whilst at the same time it demonstrates its own measurable social and economic values which South Africa should pursue through the implementation of the National Sport and Recreation Plan.
The Parliamentarian | 2013: Issue One - South Africa | 31
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