Sport as an important nation-building tool deserves all backing it can get

Perhaps our ANC government is not as thickskinned, or embarrassed, when it comes to criticism as we sometimes think.

That’s one way to look at the announcement by Sports, Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa that our medal winners at the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics will get significant financial rewards.

There was an outcry after the stunning victory by Tatjana Schoenmaker in the 200m breaststroke in Tokyo (in a world record time, too) that there was no money to reward her.

The SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) is, to all intents and purposes, broke and the government, initially at least, tried to look the other way when it came to recognising such athletic achievements.

Now, medal winners will get between R100 000 and R450 000 and their coaches between R30 000 and
R120 000.

World record-breaking feats will get an additional R180 000, according to Mthethwa.

The financial incentives will apply to both the able-bodied and paralympic competitors in a welcome recognition of the importance of the achievements of the latter.

Fortunately for the government, we didn’t have a fantastic record in the latest Games but, no doubt, there will be questions about where the money is going to come from and probably some more uninformed comments about the value in supporting “minority sports”.

The bigger issue here is ongoing financial support for sport as a whole by the government.

Money is tight and there are many other social problems which need addressing, so sport does not have a high priority when it comes to government spending.

Yet, implementing “austerity” measures, like a cap on the salaries of MPs, ministers and senior civil servants and their perks could save enough money to fund many a sporting code for a long time.

Sport is an important nation-building tool and deserves all the backing it can get.