The six papers which appear in this publication were delivered at a consultative conference of the National and Olympic Sports Congress which was held in Johannesburg from 1-3 November 1991. There is no doubt that this conference on development could not have been held at a more critical juncture in South Africa's history, particularly at a time when the country stands on the threshold of an era which is expected to usher in a non-racial, democratic society. Given the legacy of apartheid, development and preparation have become priorities for the National and Olympic Sports Congress. It was against the background of the inequalities and future projections for transformation of the sports network which brought delegates together from across South Africa and from all codes of sport and co-ordinating regional councils. A central theme of the papers is that the reconstruction of South African sport demands a national programme, one that would ensure progress towards an equitable sports structure but also one that would set realistic goals without raising expectations that are unlikely to be realised. A central challenge of the conference was the search for a suitable combination of high performance sport and mass participation. The gender question in sport also came under the spotlight. Sport's male-dominated, hierarchical and sexist structure was mandated for urgent review. Conference was told that black women have very few opportunities to participate in sport unlike white sportswomen and sports people overall. Five resolutions, aimed at transforming the present state of South African sport, were adopted at the conference. After exhaustive discussions delegates identified the broad themes to be: national development and planning, national sports policy, building one sports federation, sponsorship, rural areas, affirmative action and empowerment. Conference noted the absence of a co-ordinated national sports policy, the heavy commercialisation of sport together with the lack of vision and planning for the future of sport. In this regard it was resolved to intiate the acceptance and development of a national sports policy which would emphasise development, national identity and patriotism, democracy, accountability, non-racialism and non-sexism. If the conference deliberations are to be seriously implemented then the apartheid sports network will undergo structural changes which will develop the historically disadvantaged and unleash the suppressed talents of millions of people who are trapped in an unequal and resourceless system.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:rhodes/vital:30190 |
| Date | January 1992 |
| Creators | Roberts, Cheryl |
| Publisher | National and Olympic Sports Congress |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text, book |
| Format | 64 pages, pdf |
| Rights | National and Olympic Sports Congress, No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior permission from the publisher |
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