More than half of South Africa’s 75 national sports federations do not have permanent employees, a department of sport, arts and culture (DSAC) official told parliament on Tuesday.
Addressing the portfolio committee, the deputy director-general for recreation development and sport promotion, Vincent Campbell, said 15% of bodies had one to three employees, 20% had 4-10, 9% 11-30 and 5% had more than that.
“It paints a picture as to why some of the federations are not able to manage their affairs efficiently and effectively because these people are probably employed full-time elsewhere and do this as a passion and a love for the sport.”
Campbell said only 15% of federations had CEOs and 14% had CFOs.
“Now we understand why some of these particular federations are unable to supply us with proper financial statements and audited financial statements,” he said, adding 12% had COOs and 7% had human resources officers.
“That 15%, 14% and 12% are linked to our major federations.”
In terms of places of work, only 8% of federations had their own permanent office space, with 53% renting and 39% having no office facilities.
“Without a permanent domicile it does not bode well for the professionalisation of the sector. If you look at the issue around staffing you are unable to attract sponsors if you don’t have a good governance and management structure in place.”
Campbell reiterated DSAC’s proposal for a central sports house for smaller federations to share.
On raising the cash for minister Gayton McKenzie’s Project 350 — aimed at getting 300 Olympians and 50 Paralympians to Los Angeles 2028 — Campbell spoke about creating a central fund similar to the solidarity fund used during Covid-19, which was also run independently of government.
“We’re mooting a similar thing and we’re working on the modalities around this particular method.
“The idea is to have a fund where the corporates can come in, contribute — even federations that are doing well with millions in their banks will contribute to this fund — to then augment the meagre resources that we have as government to ensure that we give every federation the best possible opportunity in terms of funding to achieve their full potential.”
It was not immediately clear whether this fund was the same as the one proposed previously by South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) president Barry Hendricks.
But the plan seems to shift responsibility for the funding of McKenzie’s brainchild away from government.
Campbell said a total of R98.5m was budgeted for sports bodies for the 2025/26 year and transfers had been made to 57 organisations by the end of last year.
Campbell’s presentation to parliament also covered athlete support, in which he included Sascoc’s Operation Excellence programme.
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