‘Facilities, coaching will help even playing field’
STRUGGLE veteran Andrew Mlangeni doesn’t believe that sports quotas alone will improve sports development in townships and other historically disadvantaged communities.
For him, the solution lies in building sports facilities in these areas and ensuring there is proper coaching.
“When I was in Parliament, I belonged to the sport and recreation committee for more than 10 years. I started when Steve Tshwete was the minister of sport, and then during the time of Makhenkesi Stofile and (Fikile) Mbalula.
“We have always said we want to see sports facilities built in the so-called previously disadvantaged areas. It has been our line throughout that unless we develop facilities for black children, sport will not grow. We never agreed to the quota system,” he said.
He was speaking to The Star yesterday before today’s Andrew Mlangeni Green Jacket Award ceremony, an event to honour the country’s sporting heroes and heroines who were discriminated against during the apartheid era. The event was due to take place at the Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg.
In April, Mbalula came under fire for his reluctance to endorse SA Rugby’s bid to host Rugby World Cup 2023, after he revoked rugby’s privilege of hosting and bidding for major and mega international tournaments as a consequence of not meeting transformation targets. Three other sporting codes were also penalised.
Mlangeni said it wasn’t just about numbers and politics.
“People must be leading national teams on merit, not in order to meet certain political ambitions.”
He was concerned that the plans to establish a golf academy in Soweto remained a pipe dream.
In 2012, members of Soweto Country Club approached Mbalula asking for funding to build the Andrew Mlangeni Golf Academy.
“Mbalula did give us R75 000, and said you will build on that. I don’t know what they are doing now, but I do know that they haven’t started building.
“At the moment, they have the Andrew Mlangeni Golf Academy, something on paper. I would love to see an academy, whether it is built in my name or not, so long as it would help develop our kids. I will be happy if it could be done while I am alive, something that we can refer to in future, something concrete. At the moment, it’s ceremonial.”
He said, however, he was pleased that some Soweto children were receiving coaching clinics.
He praised Mbalula, who he said was playing a big role in transforming sport in a way that no other minister had done.
Among the sports personalities who have been honoured so far are Jomo Sono (soccer), Brian Mitchell (boxing), Josia Thugwane (athletics), Penny Heyns (swimming), Makhaya Ntini (cricket) and John Smit (rugby).