MEDIA STATEMENT BY: 
MR BONGINKOSI DHLAMINI MP
IFP SPOKESPERSON ON SPORT AND RECREATION

28 January 2008

Following Bafana Bafana's crushing 3-1 loss to Tunisia in the African Cup of Nations last night, the Inkatha Freedom Party believes that it is time for the government to start acknowledging that they are not doing enough to promote and develop sport at school level. 

Bafana Bafana is a national asset and the IFP believes that the Department of Education and the Department of Sport and Recreation should take responsibility for the dismal state of youth sports development in this country.  

Sports development is not a priority at school level anymore and we believe that the Department of Education should reinstate school sport as part of the curriculum, as it was previously done.  

At the moment sport at school has become only for the elite, with parents who can afford to enrolling their kids into sport academies. We believe quality sport training should be available to all children if they chose to participate. 

Furthermore, we want to call upon educators who are sports fans to take the time to nurture and develop sport talent at school level. 

We also believe that the Department of Sport and Recreation should make sure that provincial sports academies are not just one desk, one office and one person institutions, but that they are proper functioning institutions dedicated to sports development in all provinces.  

Lastly, the IFP would like to call on government to increase funding for school sports in South Africa. Currently we only allocate approximately 41c per child for school sports, which is a national disgrace. 

The IFP believes that if we want all our national sport teams to do well in future we must now start by developing school talent into the next Lucas Radebe and Benni McCarthy. 

FOR MORE INFORMATION: 
Mr Bonginkosi Dhlamini MP:  083 254 8576
Liezl van der Merwe: 083 611 7470