Note to editors:Please find attached soundbite by Tsepo Mhlongo MP.
On Tuesday, the South African Hockey Association (Saha) confirmed the withdrawal of the SA men’s hockey team from the (International Hockey Federation) FIH Pro League for 2023/24 despite having qualified for it.
The team worked so hard to merely have their ambitions stifled due to a lack of funding.
Eighty sport federations must share R110 million annually, which is less than 10% of the budget in the sports programme. This translates to hockey only getting R4 million annually from government.
The DA calls on the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture to scrap agencies like Love Life, a skills development programme which received R40 million and has not delivered the desired outcomes and give more funds to federations. The department gave R10 million to the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) which should also be scrapped because the agency does not deliver anything in sport development.
It is high time our government invest more money in our sport teams that excel, instead of wanting to send R1 billion to an already well-funded football club.