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Nathi Joins the ‘Verkrampte Aunties’

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Sports minister Nathi Mthethwa recently said that the team that SA sent to the Olympic Games in Tokyo does not reflect the demographics of the country.

So, in one fell swoop, he spat on the achievements of all sportspersons along with showing that he has no grasp of the committment and dedication required to reach this high level.

It seems as though he is joining the old verkrampte aunties in the stands by measuring success based on the colour of the participants and not on the glory that they bring to South Africa.

I dare him to ask the ordinary viewer from any country if they also “did the math”?

The path to glory is a long one requiring dedication, talent, good nutrition, coaches and support.

Let’s deal with the fundamentals Minister – like taking a long term view when identifying talent, for it was the communist countries that took sporting glory to extremes by creating camps for identified talent. Is this what we want?

We all agree that we want the attainable – Gold Medals from South Africans in a team that represents all South Africans.

We all seem to disagree on the Ministers disagreeable way of presenting the problem without a solid holistic long term solution in place.

The solution will take time and money – long term identification, nurturing, nutrition and training.

Initially SASCOC said the estimated number of athletes and officials in the SA Olympic team would be 303, while the Paralympic team would total 72. They expected South Africa to win 13 medals in the Olympics, and 19 in the Paralympics. A budget of R12.2 million had been allocated for preparation for the Olympics, and a further R44.3 million for Games itself. R2.8 million had been budgeted for preparation for the Paralympics, and a further R17.8 million for the actual Paralympics.

In other words the budget allocation per athlete and official for the Olympic Games only was R146 204.62. The budget allocation per athlete and official for the Paralymmpics was R247 222.22.

At one stage athletes expected to fund themselves and had estimated their individual costs at R50 000 per athlete to attend the Olympic Games.

The South African Sport and Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) sent a squad of 185 athletes to participate in 17 of the 33 sporting codes in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games in Japan.

South Africa managed to win three medals, after Tatjana Schoenmaker claimed gold and silver in the 200m breaststroke and 100m breaststroke respectively‚ and Bianca Buitendag took silver in the surfing.

The medal tally from the 2016 Olympics in Brazil in 2016, was 10 medals (two gold, six silver and two bronze) in the most successful year since readmission.

Mthethwa said the time had come for the government to accelerate transformation so that teams reflect the demographics of the country at international tournaments.

“The team which represented SA at the Olympics is not reflective of the demographics of the country‚” said Mthethwa during his engagement with media on 5 August 2021.

“We are taking time to engage and accelerate transformation in the sporting sector guided by the Eminent Persons Group (EPG)‚ which is monitoring the level of transformation in the sporting arena.

“Before they went to Tokyo‚ we took time and met with all the 16 national federations in the country and I can say it here and now that it was only softball which was given the nod by the EPG in terms of transformation‚ and in terms of the pillars underpinning that.

“It means softball met all the transformation requirements and the rest fall in the category of conditional pass and that’s how far behind transformation is. Besides the category of those who got a conditional pass‚ there are those who performed the worst to dismal failure.

“That is the situation we are faced with and we have made it very clear to the federations that they must not pay lip service. They are asked to accelerate and on the other side‚ we are also pushing ourselves as government because the most strategic pillar of transformation and development is schools sport.

“The issue of transformation is sacrosanct, because if we take away the acceleration trajectory we won’t achieve it.”

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Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.