JOHANNESBURG - Sports Minister Nathi Mthethwa will face growing scrutiny in the coming weeks and months as debates around transformation in South African sport increasingly point fingers at the government’s poor performance particularly at school level.
Whether it be the country’s poor medal return at the Tokyo Olympics or Cricket South Africa’s Social Justice and Nation-building (SJN) hearings, what has become increasingly clear is that Mthethwa and, by extension, the government have a lot to answer for.
Mthethwa did admit during his testimony at the hearings that the government had not done enough to enhance sport at school.
“We have engaged with the minister of basic education on this matter, and we seem to be agreed ... because we had to sit and say ‘what impact have we made as government on school sport?’ And we had to be frank with ourselves as a government: not much. Especially when talking about public schools,” Mthethwa said.
The minister has called the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee to account for Team SA’s poor return in Tokyo where just two athletes - swimmer Tatjana Schoenmaker and surfer Bianca Buitendag - won three medals between them.
At a media briefing on Friday, Sascoc’s president, Barry Hendriks, said the organisation would take time to do introspection, which included the meeting the organisation is due to have with Mthethwa.
Asked about the composition of the Olympic team, Hendriks highlighted how in one instance it had met targets regarding female athletes, but acknowledged that the racial demographics didn’t match that of the country.
He explained that a picture showing athletes heading to the opening ceremony was not a proper reflection of the team, highlighting the absence of the men’s football team, the men's sevens rugby team and a number of other athletes who chose not to go to the opening ceremony either because they had events the next day or in some cases weren’t even in Japan yet owing to the Covid restrictions the country had in place for the Games.
Sascoc’s role in the racial demographics of the team, was really in overseeing the athletes, Hendriks said, claiming the organisation had no direct role on team selection. “Transformation (targets) are worked out between federations and the government,” he said.
2 weeks later….Still pinching myself to make sure I am not dreaming 💭
(Ps. Sorry, not sorry for the Olympic spam🤩) pic.twitter.com/V0zLe22AMX
In terms of the agreements, federations including swimming, athletics, cricket, rugby hockey and various others have to submit figures to the Sports Department, through the Eminent Persons Group each year. At his SJN appearance, Mthethwa said only softball had regularly exceeded targets and could be said to be transformed in the manner the government would like sports to transform.
Hendriks on Friday highlighted the part that schools play in transformation.
“(We have to take) a huge step back as well, if we simply focus on putting players of colour into teams without taking into account how we transform our school sport and school sporting system, the community sport system with clubs and facilities, working with local municipalities, creating the stepping stone platform to universities, local to regional, provincial to international level,” said Hendriks.
“We cannot take the context of changing civil society and think we can just place athletes into teams without the foundational aspects being changed as well. It is a long-term process, which Sascoc is geared towards achieving.”
The ball is firmly in Mthethwa’s court. Through his action in dealing with Cricket SA’S administrative mess he has shown himself willing to pursue change at that level. In terms of transformation at grassroots, it is a far harder job, which will involve getting buy-in from colleagues in the departments of basic and higher education, provincial governments and local municipalities.
Mthethwa has the data obtained through the EPG process that gives him a starting point. If South African sport is to truly transform as he apparently wants to see it transform then the work doesn’t start with Team SA, the Proteas or Springboks, it starts at the schools, and that is where Mthethwa’s role is critical.
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