DA questions NC govt’s R30 million soccer league
16 March 2020
The Democratic Alliance (DA) is concerned by reports that the ANC is pushing for the Northern Cape provincial government to buy a PSL soccer team at a cost of R30 million worth of taxpayers’ money.
While Premier Zamani Saul has long since indicated that he wants to get the province involved in the South African soccer league, we had assumed this would be through negotiations with private investors. We had no idea that this would likely entail government procuring its own team, as was indicated by ANC Northern Cape provincial secretary, DeshiNgxanga, in media reports over the weekend.
We acknowledge the potential of sports tourism to boost the Northern Cape economy, as we all know this province has exceptionally high unemployment and poverty rates. However, the acquisition of a provincial soccer team cannot come at a cost to taxpayers and at the expense of service delivery.
The DA therefore has a number of serious reservations regarding the latest developments around a state-owned soccer-league.
The first most obvious concern is about where the government intends siphoning the R30 million and also what the additional ongoing ‘maintenance’ costs of owning such a team would entail. Already departments and municipalities are struggling to stay afloat and services are at an all time low, with critical services being severely under resourced and understaffed.
Secondly, it is common knowledge that this government has failed dismally with regards to state-owned entities. What then of a state-owned soccer team? Who will manage this team and why should we expect it to be managed any better than Eskom, SAA or even the province’s Kalahari Kid Corporation? The move by the ANC government to usurp control of more and more sectors is highly questionable, given its clear inability to manage what it already has.
Thirdly, is the glaring blurring of the lines between the party and the state, as was evident by the fact that it was not the Premier who spoke on the upcoming multi-million rand deal, but rather the ANC’s Nxganga. This is deeply unsettling and we cannot help but question the underlying intentions behind this soccer initiative.
The DA will submit our written concerns regarding the soccer project to Premier Saul and we will further be asking for an urgent presentation to the legislature portfolio committees on government’s aspirations to host a PSL team in the province.
There is no doubt that the Northern Cape needs some winning goals to inject economic life back into this province but we cannot accept a situation whereby taxpayers money is simply kicked around, without any substantial benefits for the people of the Northern Cape.
Issued by Andrew Louw,DA Northern Cape Provincial Leader, 16 March 2020
