The South African School Games: 03-06 December 2006

The Department of Sport and Recreation South Africa in conjunction with the National Department of Education will be joined by the Western Cape Department of Sport and Western Cape Department of Education in hosting the South African Schools Games in Cape Town in December 03 to 09, 2006. During this event the Minister of Sport and recreation, Revd Dr AM Stofile and his Deputy Gert Oosthuizen will officially launch the national School Sport Mass Participation Programme and its logo. The KwaZulu Natal Department of Sport and the Department of Education had a successful launch of their provincial SSMPP last week in the Mkhanyakude District, Ndumo in Jozini.

The South African Schools Games will be attended by an estimated 5 000 learners and officials representing nine provinces. 3 900 learners will compete in the following disciplines chess, basketball, gymnastics, drummies, table tennis, volleyball, tennis, softball, and baseball in different venues ranging from Kenwyn, Rondebosch, Bellville, Kuilsrivier, Crawford, and Belhar. A spectacular display will exhibited during the official opening ceremony in December 03, 2006 at 19:00 at the Bellville Veladrome. In line with the government's initiative this is an event that will promote the national identity and social cohesion, which will culminate to building a winning nation and consolidating the African Agenda.

To quote the words have the Sport and Recreation SA Deputy Minister, Gert Oosthuizen: "We must restore school sport to the status it enjoyed in the past. A status that saw the sports fields of our country flooded with learners, especially on a Wednesday afternoon, during the inter-house and inter-school matches. The school going youth enjoyed at least two periods of physical education per week. They don't anymore! The rise in anti-social behaviour amongst our youth, unfortunately, parallels the demise in school sport and physical education. We, have to look no further than to prioritising the reintroduction of these activities in our schools. The Memorandum of Agreement between the departments of Sport and Recreation and Education facilitates this."

Sport and Recreation SA and the National Department of Education are now jointly implementing provisions of the Agreement. During the course of this year we will see 798 schools participating in 56 clusters comprising of schools in close proximity to one another that will facilitate regular interaction between them. It will involve more than 200 000 learners to start off with. The strategy is aimed at obviating crippling transport costs that tends to inhibit such interaction between schools. The availability of financial resources currently, constitutes the only impediment to a more expansive programme. Sport and Recreation SA's target is to see, that all 27 000 schools in our country are involved in the project.