Cycling SA President William Newman attended the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee’s (SASCOC) General Meeting at SASCOC House in Johannesburg on Saturday 5 April.
SASCOC President Gideon Sam opened proceedings with his address, which centred largely on the National Federations (NF) adhering to the essence of the National Sport and Recreation Plan (NSRP) in all of our actions and to be cognisant of the Government White Paper on sport.
Sam stressed the importance of the transformation charter following the first report of the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) on their findings in five sporting codes, viz. rugby, cricket, football, athletics and netball.
In the Minister of Sport’s keynote address, Honourable Fikile Mbalula said that the current EPG findings had not been favourable, exposing cases where grassroots structures were non-existent, decline in black participation, lack of infrastructure and willingness to implement Transformation and Development, and the quotas as per the NSRP had not been enforced.
Cycling South Africa will be one of the next 11 NFs to be analysed. Sports and Recreation South Africa (SRSA) will be conducting road shows in all of the provinces to highlight the EPG charter. The quota system is now changed to 60/40 compared to the previous 50/50 ratio. It is imperative that all sporting codes have development plans in place when coming under review.
Implications facing those sporting codes that do not conform, and who resist Transformation and Development, include the withdrawal of national colours, withdrawal of funding, no support for the bidding and hosting of national events, deregistration of NFs, and barring of sponsors. Mbalula appealed to all NFs to commit to a united, non-racial, non-sexist sport sector.
Part of SASCOC’s General Meeting included presentations on various projects:
Part of SASCOC’s General Meeting included presentations on various projects:
- Academies of Sport, presented by Ezera Tshabangu – 05.05.2014
- Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, 23 July to 3 August – 05.05.2014
- Monitoring and Evaluation, presented by Patience Shikwambana – 05.05.2…
- Provincial Sport Confederations Visit Updates, presented by Patience S…
- SASCOC Constitution – 05.05.2014
In brief, SRSA is ready to implement sport academies across the country. The Monitoring and Evaluation process reported on the membership review, where cycling was one of the seven NFs assessed. Partnerships are encouraged in the Provincial Sport Confederations (PSC) and SASCOC has allocated R500K to each PSC. Medal expectations and athlete representation is depicted in the Glasgow 2014 presentation, with 71 Commonwealth countries expected to take part.
Newman said: The importance of SASCOC’s General Meeting focussed once again on Transformation and Development. This time however, it is of huge significance given the EPG report and findings. The Minister has clearly outlined the priorities and implications for those NFs that do not conform. I urge all our affiliates to ensure that Transformation and Development maintains a high priority and to pull out all the stops to develop plans and execute them.
“As per my address at the Cycling SA AGM, and on many previous occasions, club development is critical to the growth and development of our sport and the best tool to implement meaningful T&D.”
