New Sports Policy - The Pursuit of Excellence

DA LAUNCHES NEW SPORTS POLICY, ‘THE PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE’

The Democratic Alliance last Thursday (2 Oct 2008) launched a new sports policy entitled ‘The Pursuit of Excellence’, which advocates the creation of a South African Sports Academy which, on the back of a series of poor performances such as at the Olympics and failure to qualify for the next African Cup of Nations, would be designed to bring talent to where it would be nurtured and honed.
“Our policy advocates for the establishment of the academy, a centre of sporting excellence, designed to identify, recruit and train a new generation of athletes and coaches, with the express purpose of improving South Africa’s performance in international sports; and to redress the imbalance between the amount we spend on hosting international competitions and that dedicated to the development of our sporting talent,” said party sport and recreation spokesperson, Donald Lee.
He said the DA understood the potential role that sport could play in our democracy and the defining role it played in shaping and influencing our identity, both as individuals and as a country.
“We also understand the role that sport has to play in more practical terms - as a means to enrich and fulfil the day-to-day lives of our people, to uplift and empower and, in the case of those with the ability and talent to achieve success at the highest level, as a diverse profession with the potential to open up a myriad possibilities.”
“At the heart of the policy is the principle of excellence, which should define every element of the Academy’s structure and purpose, and the practical creation of opportunities for those people who do not have the means to fulfil their sporting potential on their own,” Lee said.
He said the policy was designed to overcome the factors which were undermining South Africa’s ability to compete credibly at international levels.
“ Firstly, sport has become politicised and its administration subject to sustained interference and, secondly, following from this, a relentless drive for transformation and an ever-increasing hostility towards the pursuit of excellence has damaged our sporting institutions and resulted in a failure to produce a new and diverse generation of sports professionals able to compete on the world stage.”
The Academy would be housed at a national centre of excellence, would be funded primarily by the state and, as building and maintenance of infrastructure was the responsibility of municipalities, the current backlogs would have to be overcome and an amount should be ring-fenced as a separate and appropriate allocation that must be spent on sporting infrastructure.
Lee explained that the Academy would be tasked with developing a national programme of action across as many sporting codes as possible; identifying and recruiting South Africa’s sporting potential and pursuing a programme of excellence in developing that talent and thus placing South Africa on a par with the super-powers of world sport.
He said the Academy would operate independent of the state, but would report to Parliament on its finances and, ultimately, fall under the department of sport and recreation. It would form a partnership with leading sporting schools, across a range of sporting codes and establish a bursary scheme.
“Local and international coaching staff would be recruited, which would comprise the best expertise in any particular area, and its programmes would be benchmarked against international best practice.”
“The Academy would boast the best facilities and equipment and would offer both fulltime and part time training programmes,” he said.
Lee added that, in order for the model to be successfully adopted, the willing participation of schools and private sporting bodies was required. In addition, it would require a change in attitude on the part of government and a belief that excellence should be championed, promoted and supported, not just financially but individually, down to the very athletes themselves and the institutions that managed them.
“A South African Sports Academy must embody that attitude; it cannot be tainted by compromise or half-measure and, for that to happen, there needs to be a collective commitment to strive towards being the best, in everything we do.”
“If we do that,” he concluded, “there is no record South Africa cannot break; no medal we cannot win; and no competition we cannot dominate. Our potential is all around us; harnessing it is our greatest challenge.”
Read the full policy http://www.da.org.za/wp-content/uploads/sports_policy.pdf