Pretoria - The South African Local Government Association (SALGA) has expressed its satisfaction regarding an oversight visit by the Portfolio Committee on Sport and Recreation, which assessed the use of conditional grants allocated to the provinces and municipalities for sport and recreation.
The week-long overview visit was conducted and concluded in the Eastern Cape and Gauteng on Friday, and the Portfolio Committee was accompanied by SALGA, taking note of concerns raised and recommendations made.
“SALGA is pleased with the oversight role that the Portfolio Committee on Sport and Recreation is playing in encouraging municipalities to fast track construction and refurbishment of sport facilities in communities, by making use of the Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) and Urban Settlement Development Grant (USDG),” it said.
In 2003 Cabinet took a decision to consolidate a number of local government infrastructure grants into MIG in order to streamline reporting by municipalities for a number of grants administered by a number of departments.
SALGA encouraged sector departments to play a larger role in municipal planning and monitoring of their sector projects, as this will improve performance and reporting on capital projects.
It has observed that some municipalities are investing tremendously in the development and refurbishment of sport facilities, which includes soccer stadia, swimming pools, municipal halls and others.
“The MIG programme is the largest local government infrastructure development funding programme in South Africa. The programme was introduced as part of major reforms implemented by government to improve service delivery in a coordinated manner involving all spheres of government,” it said.
During the National Members Assembly held in March in Midrand, SALGA signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the South African Sports Confederation and Olympics Committee (SASCOC) to promote sport development.
The two organisations recently concluded a conference from which a declaration on sport development emanated.
SALGA said there was commitment from local government to work together with all relevant stakeholders to tackle impediments in sport development, and to transform the sporting arena.
It called on municipalities to prioritise sport development in order to promote social cohesion and human development. - SAnews.gov.za
