The speakers, Jake White (former Springbok Coach),
Marion Keim (Director of Interdisciplinary Centre of Excellence
for Sport Science and Development at the University of the Western Cape), John Malherbe (independent documentary film maker)
offered insights and perspectives on the subject from
their individual standpoints and Vernie Petersen (Director-General)
for the Department of Sports and Recreation. Breaking with tradition, the HSF featured John Malherbe’s short documentary, Who Cares. Who Cares highlights an
ongoing initiative in the Cape which has used sport to break down racial and ethnic barriers within marginalised
communities and helps to promote social cohesion among community members, especially the youth. Malherbe spoke of the
important role that the media plays in highlighting developmental sporting initiatives and concurrent social issues.
He said that creating linkages and exposure contributed positively towards building sustainable projects. As a rugby coach Jake White felt that there had been lip service paid to sport development with a resultant
lack of ‘genuineness’ being shown from politicians and sports administrators alike. This, he said, has resulted in the
moribund state of development across the country. What had to be put in place were workable systems that,
most importantly, could be measured. Marion Keim who specialises in the research of sport in peace building echoed White’s sentiments from a research
perspective when she pointed out that the number of home grown sports researchers in South Africa is negligible and,
as a result, there is extremely low capacity to drive evidence based sports policy in the country. For Keim, the
responsibility lies principally with government who, she argues, must understand the importance of research and
“on the ground” initiatives working to build multi-cultural sports teams. Vernie Petersen felt that consolidation of all existing efforts would need to be undertaken by making sports more
accessible through the schooling system. Lack of coordination between sports and education was a stumbling block
at this stage. As a result there was inadequate focus on getting sport integrated into the education curriculum.
He was confident, however, that this would be turned around when draft policy is finalised for school sports.
The policy includes the re-introduction of compulsory physical education during school times. | Discussion From a sports performance perspective, the Director-General said that the country had to adopt a more realistic
approach to identify and develop talented youth who could, with the right inputs, represent South Africa at an
international level. To achieve this, one of the areas to be dealt with would be the current lottery distribution
system that favours schools with audited books. With respect to advancing sports development and unlocking economic
benefits the Director-General said that government thinking was to tap into the growing market of sports tourism across
sporting codes. Jake White argued, however, that South Africa is a ‘jack of all trades and a master of none’. His argument was that
for sports performers to be competitive on a global scale, government would have to identify, develop and fund sporting
codes where South Africa had a competitive advantage. South Africa, he said, had to learn to concentrate on sporting
codes that would win them gold on the international field of play.
Expressing a contrary opinion, Marion Keim felt that government was too focused on high performance as opposed to
broad-based integration of sports programmes as well as good physical education programmes that were not aimed at high
performance. A good example of an integrated system, she said, could be found in the Western Cape NGO sector that is
working to devise development strategies. A full report on the Roundtable will be published shortly and posted on the site with a printed version sent to HSF Friends. 
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