Minister Stali Hands Over Sporting Equipment To 220 Schools Of Western Cape

Five Hundred thousand learners of the Western Cape will for the first time have direct access to nine different sporting codes, MInister of Cultural Affairs, Sport and Recreation, Chris Stali has announced during a hand-over of sporting equipment to 220 needy schools at Khayelitsha this morning.

Addressing about two hundred receipts who braved a typical wet Cape Town weather, Mr Stali said " the intervention signals the beginning of a process of narrowing the gap that exists between the advantaged and previously disadvantaged". He said this was " a deposit into the sporting future of learners who had in the past been spectators rather than full participants due to lack of equipment and exposure"

He said that if South Africa was going to be a winning nation " Government and other role players have to focus attention in school sport and invest into the future. Mr Stali said there was a need " to go back to basics and revive the competitive spirit through the re-introduction of Wednesday sporting days". He said there was merit in the remarks of the NOCSA president two days ago on the representivity of Olympic team to Athens. He said interventions and strategies such as this hand-over will contribute great towards long-term goals of having well-balanced representative teams.

The equipment will be become the property of a cluster rather than individual schools to enable access to a greater number of learners within a cluster. Clusters have been recently piloted where a high school forms a committee with a primary school in its close proximity and run the sport jointly. Several clusters have been established in Bonteheuwel, Elsies River, Mannenberg, Gugulethu, Nyanga, Langa, Phillippi, Mitchell's Plain and Paarl.

Mr Stali said the equipment has cost the department half a million rand and another tender for additional equipment valued at R360 000 will be put out in September this year to enable the department to extend its provisioning to more schools speedily. He also announced that a further R270 000 will also be spent on equipment for the Indigenous games to facilitate training for participants of the Western Cape teams to represent the province in the next games in Bloemfontein. This means the department would have spent more than a million rand on sporting equipment this financial year.

He has called on all role-players to take full responsibility for the equipment and use it effectively to benefit the learners. He said plans have been made to deliver the equipment to beneficiary schools that are situated far from the city, that could not attend the function due organizing problems experienced by the department.

Enquiries:Mandla Yeki
Spokesperson for the MEC of Cultural Affairs, Sport and Recreation
Cell: 082 553 3477