Two hundred and fifty million rand has been allocated to school sports programmes in the country despite the challenges the programme faces. 

On Tuesday, the Portfolio Committee on Sport, Arts and Culture received a briefing from the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC) and the Department of Basic Education (DBE) on the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to integrate sports and cultural activities into the school curriculum across the country. 

Dr.Cynthia Khumalo, Acting Director General DSAC stated that challenges in the joint implementation of the school sport programme include Inadequate sport infrastructure in schools in previously disadvantaged communities. She said this limits participation and with the support of the DBE, they can unlock the resources to build more infrastructure in schools.

Other challenges include:

Inadequate funding: Annually, DSAC commits over R220m through the Conditional Grant for the School Sport Programme and there are competing funding priorities for the voted funds or norms and standards.

Stakeholder management and cooperation: The programme depends largely on the smooth cooperation among stakeholders. However other stakeholders have used the school sport programme for their own agenda.

Dual mandate of delivering school sport and uneven support and capacity

Duplication of programmes with federations: Despite the limited resources, there are duplications of the same programmes with the federations and government-led school sport programme, resulting in misalignment.

Khumalo said they were one year into the implementation of the MoU and called for more oversight to be conducted, something the departments needed to revisit. 

Eugene Mthethwa, an EFF MP, exposed the department’s failure to translate policies into tangible programmes that create long-term careers in arts and culture. He critiques the over-reliance on events, workshops, and camps, which offer no real qualifications or pathways into higher education and employment.

Dr Patricia Watson, DBE Chief Director for Care and Support in School stated that the school sports and enrichment programme at DBE is a flag ship of their enrichment space and that their collaboration with the DSAC is invaluable because it is through a collective effort and collective areas of expertise that they are able to deliver programs at the school level. 

*The article is Published by IOL