‘Money is not our problem’

Transformation and proper planning in sport made up the bulk of the agenda as Sport, Arts and Culture MEC Onicca Moloi and Limpopo Sports Confederation (LSC) President, Eric Muneri addressed guests during the confederation’s Annual Congress held at the Protea Hotel Ranch Resort on Sunday.
Moloi quoted former President Nelson Mandela’s famed 2000 ‘Sport Has the Power to Change the World’ speech wherein he said it has the power to inspire and unite people in a way that little else can do. She further quoted: “It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope, where once there was only despair. It is more powerful than governments in breaking down racial barriers. It laughs in the face of all types of discrimination.”
Moloi then stated that codes like rugby, chess, cricket and swimming have been neglected in the province and that she was planning to meet with Education MEC Ishmael Kgetjepe, to discuss how this situation could be improved.
She went on to encourage the federations to concentrate on the youth as the age groups five to nine and ten to fourteen years form the largest part of the province’s population.
She further said that the lack of money was not the biggest problem in sport in the province and that there is an abundance of talent in the province, referring to athletes such as Caster Semenya and the late Mbulaeni Mulaudzi. According to Moloi the province’s planning is poor when it comes to sport: “Can anyone tell me why a sporting complex that has the capacity to host seven sporting codes in Malamulele is sitting idle as a white elephant. A few weeks back I went to that centre and I was welcomed by unkept grass with no sign that it was a sporting complex,” she stated.
The MEC informed the federations that their responsibilities were to promote, advance and assist all sporting codes in the province before telling the guests that: “Blaming apartheid for a lack of transformation in certain sporting codes has begun to sound like a broken record.”
During his opening speech Muneri encouraged all federations to move away from the ‘business as usual’ approach and to start doing their work differently by working harder and smarter and to apply all technologies available. He further told the guests to move away from the ‘I am still waiting for…’ phrase as waiting is not a verb in the world of sport, he explained. He then described planning as a key management function and asked the attendees to review their federations’ strategy plans and advised them to look at what their vision and strategy were, why they wanted Limpopo to participate in sports, who their athletes were and if the federations had enough team members.
The tea break was followed by a closed meeting of the confederation.

Story and photos: THINUS DU TOIT
>>thinus@observer.co.za