Nelson Mandela Sports Day to launch next month

"This event will be consistent with the government programme to observe 67 minutes of our time in honour of Nelson Mandela and the United Nations resolution on Nelson Mandela International Day," Mbalula said during his budget vote on Thursday, 23 May 2013.

He said investigations were also under way to set up a National Sports Hall of Fame.

In the meantime, exceptional athletes, coaches, administrators and technical officials will have the opportunity to be profiled in the Little Green Book while they are living. The second edition of this book will be produced in July, Mbalula said.

In November, the department will honour its sports stars at the South Africa Sports Awards at the Sun City Superbowl.

Mbalula said the National Sport and Recreation Plan, which has been anchored in the heart of the National Development Plan (NDP), had been costed and would be submitted to the National Treasury.

He said R10 billion would be needed to fulfil the plan.

The department last year unveiled a school sports bursary, which offers R100,000 towards covering the costs of education and support required by pupils.

"We believe that this intervention is also a life-line and a life-boat to many poor families who cannot afford to send their children to better schools in our country," he said.

Mbalula said the scheme had opened many opportunities for sports veterans and legends, and had attracted retired sports people who had registered with the department to offer help as coaches, officials and sports administrators.

Despite its limited budget of just over R848 million in 2012/13, the department had been able to undertake a number of initiatives, which included supporting the country's Olympians and Paralympians during the 2012 London Games.

The department also supported the Netball Diamond Challenge and the Basket Ball League in partnership with the interim structure of Basket Ball SA and National Basketball Association (NBA), and enhancing the work of Boxing South Africa as well as the South African Institute of Drug Free Sport.

However, the opposition took aim at how the department had chosen to allocate its budget, adding that it was spending on lavish items by for example budgeting R21 million on the 2013 SA Sports Awards event.

COPE MP Graham MacKenzie suggested that various methods should be used with which to top up the sports department's budgetary allocation, such as allowing taxpayers to make donations to sports areas or by putting levies on sports tickets and sports licenses.