Kodwa questions quality of sports leadership while aiming to lift schools

Sports minister Zizi Kodwa on Tuesday questioned the quality of local sports bosses as he spoke about an upcoming school sports indaba aimed at uplifting development efforts.

The indaba, which will include international experts from countries like New Zealand, Germany and Jamaica, will be hosted by his department in Johannesburg next week Thursday and Friday. 

The plan is to build a clear policy and vision for school sports, and he added that he wanted to speak to federations after the indaba.

"That sports indaba will not just end in itself, we will engage federations," Kodwa said at the opening of a multipurpose sports court at Lofentse Girls’ High School in Orlando East, Soweto.

"There are issues … we want to raise with federations. And I may not raise those issues now, whether it's Cricket South Africa, whether it’s broadcasting rights, whether it's sub-licensing, but also the issue of money and funding [of] some of the federations."

Most of the country's 75-odd sports bodies struggle with cash flow and rely heavily on government funding.

"Our federations internationally on the global stage are doing extremely well, but there's a challenge we must address. Part of that challenge is the issue of leadership, [with] which we have little to do," he said, without expanding.

On the indaba, he said it was important to have a unified policy.

"We don’t have a policy where we’re able to say this is the foundation, the grassroots, which heralds sport development in the country.

"[One] element of policy sits with the department of basic education, [another] element sits with the department of sport, arts and culture.

"We want to make sure that we’ve got, as part of developing grassroots, as part of developing what we call foundational sport in the country, a policy framework that almost all sporting codes will herald from … that sports indaba would be significant in many ways."

Kodwa said they had invited several overseas experts on the matter.

"We are learning from some of the best countries that got the best school systems because we are building an almost 30-year vision. We want to have a vision of school sports in the country."

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