Millions pledged for school sports

Sport and Recreation Minister Fikile Mbalula pledged to spend a quarter of his department's budget on school sport development. File photo: Courtney Africa

Sport and Recreation Minister Fikile Mbalula pledged to spend a quarter of his department's budget on school sport development. File photo: Courtney Africa

Published Jul 17, 2014

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Parliament - Sport and Recreation Minister Fikile Mbalula on Thursday pledged to spend a quarter of his department's budget on school sport development.

“School sport is the bedrock of our entire sport development continuum,” he said in his budget vote speech.

“As a department we intend to set aside 25 percent of our budget, which is approximately R400 million for schools sport development.”

He said it was unfortunate that a clear government directive, that all new schools be built with sports facilities, was often ignored.

“We cannot over-emphasise the need to incorporate sport facilities in the plans drawn ahead of the construction of new schools. If we fail on this, we will forever have a backlog of facilities in our country and thus, reduced participation levels.”

He said government would press ahead with plans to register 890 schools across the country as specialist sports schools.

Sapa

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