Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula dismisses reports by writer Stuart Hess that the Sports Awards cost R50 million a year.
Johannesburg - The Department of Sport and Recreation South Africa (SRSA) has noted the article by Stuart Hess ( “How about a 3D Dale Steyn, Mbalula?”) which misleads the public about the South African Sports Awards spending.
SRSA dismisses the repeated misleading reports by Mr Hess that the Sports Awards cost the taxpayer R50 million a year.
SRSA has never spent that much on Sports Awards.
While we respect Mr Hess’s right to express himself freely, we also would like him to be mindful of his responsibility to report accurately with facts that do not mislead the public.
Mr Hess correctly puts it, however, that South Africa needs to celebrate its sporting achievements. The Sports Awards he downplays are one of many ways undertaken by SRSA to celebrate these achievements.
SRSA, together with Sascoc, embarked on the creation of the SA Sports Awards brand in a bid to reward SA sports stars for their efforts in keeping the passion of sport alive in the hearts of millions of South Africans through their efforts in local and international sports events.
In addition to these awards, SRSA hosts exhibitions of people and events that played a part in the sport development in South Africa at various venues across South Africa. Such initiatives serve as a vehicle to educate children about the history of sport.
In particular the exhibitions focus on emotive stories connected with prominent players, leaders and others, and they helped bring along democratic change in the country. The exhibitions honour the heroes of yesteryear, whose sporting achievements weren’t recognised by the society of the day.
We urge Mr Hess to pay attention to all SRSA projects that have been undertaken to honour our sports achievements and get over his obsession about the Sports Awards which he fixates himself over.
* Fikile Mbalula is the Minister of Sport and Recreation RSA.
** While the exact figure is in dispute, there is no doubt the awards function did cost a lot of money – Sports Editor
Cape Times