Minister of Sports and Recreation, Fikile Mbalula recently launched the third edition of the SA Schools Sports Championships, to be held at UP’s High Performance Centre.

The SA Schools Sports Championships, comprises of 14 sporting codes in which 10 000 school learners from 18 000 schools across the country participate. The tournament will take place from 10 to 15 December 2014.

The tournament is run by the Department of Sport and Recreation in collaboration with the Department of Basic Education. Its main objective is to ensure that school children across the country are encouraged to participate in sport, and that mass participation of schools in sports programmes offered by government is promoted. A tournament such as this one not only enables school children from rural and urban areas alike to grow and develop through sport, but also to improve their learning skills.

Minister Mbalula sharing a light moment with the President of the South African Football Association, Mr Danny Jordaan

According to Minister Mbalula, sport in schools is the bedrock of the development of sport in a country. Therefore, his department is targeting all 27 000 schools in South Africa for the development of sport. “To me this is a fundamental programme of government in terms of development of sport, and it addresses the deficit of development in all sporting codes. This programme is ideal in transforming sport from a grassroots level”, said the Minister.

Minister Mbalula acknowledged the role of the University of Pretoria in ensuring that there is sports development in the country. “Universities are key to talent development. We know that 80% of medals acquired from the Olympics and other international sporting tournaments are by universities such as Tukkies. This is an institution of higher learning which has continued to produce and nurture talent from school level up to university level”, said Minister Mbalula.