DAVID ISAACSON

Does anyone remember Vision 2030? Or, for that matter, the National Sport and Recreation Plan that was devised in 2011?

That’s the plan that was going to make SA a sporting powerhouse, while also transforming sport across the spectrum.

That’s the plan that was going to be reviewed in 2020, but seems to have vanished into thin air?

You might recall the term “an active and winning nation”, which was a central part of the plan.

So too was Vision 2030, which comprised 16 ideals, including:

80% of priority federations being ranked in the top three in the world;
50% of all South Africans participating in sport or active recreation;
SA a choice destination for major events and sports tourism;
Physical education and sport in all schools;
Sustainable talent identification;
Sufficient sports facilities;
Transformation achieved; and,
Good corporate governance.

We’re a little more than halfway to 2030, but we’re light years away from achieving even one of the above ideals.

The number of schools with sports facilities remains too low, transformation is far from being achieved and as for creating sufficient sports facilities, municipalities countrywide have a nasty habit of allowing the existing ones to fall apart.

And the dream of SA becoming a choice destination surely died when we gave up on the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Durban.

It’s time to accept that the plan drawn up in 2011 has gone belly up.

SA sport is, by and large, without focus or finance, and simply swirling around, the plug hole looming.

I’m loathe to suggest another indaba to draw up another plan destined to die another premature death, but a clear strategy is required.

There are four pillars of sport in this country — high performance, transformation, development and corporate governance.

None are worth a sausage without funding, and the first step is to get Lotto and government to commit money based on four-year Olympic cycles. That’s not negotiable.

High performance should probably be driven by a committee of world-class coaches and sports scientists, who are in abundance in this country.

Maybe transformation could work better if focus were placed on a handful of federations at a time, like my suggestion for high performance sport.

The administrators and quasi-politicians from the 75-odd national federations making up the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) can decree that they want SA, for argument’s sake, to win 15 Olympic medals by 2032 (the best to date is 10).

Then each of the 30-plus Olympic codes would submit its plan detailing what it would take for it to win medals, and how long it would take to do it.

The committee of experts, without interference, would then examine all the plans and decide on a handful of programmes that are viable and fit the purse.

If that works, we can fantasise about more funding to unlock even more programmes.

The same concept could be applied to transformation, development and school sport.

There is unhappiness, and justifiably so, that transformation is not where it should be after 27 years of democracy. Yes, local sports bodies have fallen short for a multitude of reasons, from lack of will to lack of means.

KwaZulu-Natal Aquatics found in a study that it would cost around R25m to produce a black Olympic swimmer. That’s about R8m more than what Sascoc currently receives from government and Lotto in a year.

Maybe transformation could work better if focus were placed on a handful of federations at a time, like my suggestion for high performance sport.

Lotto gives millions to small sports projects every year, but perhaps some of this funding could be coordinated to tie in with transformation programmes.

Solutions must be found for the mounting problems of SA sport.

Right now too many national federations are stretched trying to cover all these areas and, quite frankly, they cannot succeed on their own with the resources they have.

They’re trying to keep their heads above water, but the void of the drain is calling.

A plan, anyone?