DA invites Minister Mbalula to visit one of its sports development centres
The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes Minister Fikile Mbalula's comments that quotas in sport have been counter-productive. We have long argued that the emphasis in our sport policy must be on grass roots development, not top-down quotas.
Indeed, this has been our approach in the places where we govern. And we believe it should be the focus of the national government as we go into the Sports Indaba next week on the 21 and 22 November.
Today I will be joining Western Cape MEC for Cultural Affairs, Sport and Recreation, Ivan Meyer, and the DA's Shadow Minister of Social Development, Patricia Kopane, to inspect a sports development centre established by the DA government.
This facility, based at Kenmere Primary School in Kensington, is one of more than 100 Mass participation, Opportunity and Development (MOD) Centres established by the Western Cape government.
These centres form part of the Western Cape government's two tier sports development programme.
MOD Centres: The MOD centres give children in underprivileged communities access to sports as a way of promoting youth development, and protecting them from social dangers like gang involvement and drug use. These centres help to create opportunities for growth and development that these young people would otherwise have been denied.
The Sport, Health, Advancement through sport, Research and Policy development (SHARP) Programme: This programme develops the skills of talented young sportspeople drawn from MOD centres, so that they can become the sports stars of tomorrow.
I will today be writing to Minister of Sport and Recreation, Fikile Mbalula, to invite him to visit one of our MOD centres, so that he can see first-hand the enormous potential of this programme if it were to be rolled out nationally.
Sport, especially in South Africa, plays a pivotal role in building a proud nation. The DA-run Western Cape government has developed a number of initiatives in addition to the MOD and SHARP centres that seek to use sport as a means to build social unity and encourage redress.
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.
Initiatives such as these reflect the DA's commitment to progressively develop sporting talent.
In the same way that the Western Cape Provincial Government has helped to create an environment in which sports participation can grow, the national government has an important role to play in helping South Africans to realize their sporting potential.
We believe that the establishment of a South African Sports Academy, which would help to develop the best sporting talent our country has to offer, should happen as a matter of urgency.
Sport, and the development of new sports talent, should be driven by the pursuit of excellence. This emphasis should define not only our country's athletes, but also the institutions designed to produce them.
Statement issued by Japie van der Linde MP, DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Sport and Recreation, November 17 2011
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