Funding woes continue to plague sports codes

● Surfing was one of only two sports to win silverware for SA at the Tokyo Olympics, but the code is feeling the cash crunch as it gears up towards Paris 2024 qualification.

Officials in the national federation are not sure how they will pay for the trip to El Salvador in May and June to try to qualify for the Games, which will take place in Tahiti.

At about R70,000 a person, it’s an expensive endeavour that might have to be passed on to the surfers.

The problem, the Sunday Times has been told, is the delay in government grants, where normally allocation letters are issued by late October and the cash arrives in time for Christmas.

Surfing is one of many sport bodies struggling with haphazard funding that could force some, if they are lucky enough to have investments, to dip into them.

And next year the pressure will increase as many codes seek to qualify for the Paris Games.

Funding woes have been exacerbated by the National Lotteries Commission effectively closing off applications in July.

Hopes of a late call for applications before December were dashed this week.

The next window opens on April 1, 2023, but with the process taking up to eight months for successful applicants to receive the money, it’ll be too late for many athletes embarking on qualification and preparation campaigns.

Sport minister Nathi Mthethwa has previously said he was engaging his counterpart at trade and industry over Lotto funding for sport, while Sport SA president Barry Hendricks recently said his organisation, formerly called Sascoc, had been in regular contact with government.

As calendars switched over to December this week sports bodies were still waiting for their allocation letters.

Department of sport, arts and culture (DSAC) deputy directorgeneral Sumayya Khan said a new process had been implemented after the Covid-19 rescue packages for the past two years.

She said the total budget for all sports bodies — there are around 75 national federations — was R117-million. “This year federations had until August to submit their applications with all compliance requirements,” Khan said.

“Until today several federations have not submitted all compliance documents. Some have not even submitted the business plans for adjudication,” she said, adding that the department had established a joint committee with Sport SA to assess applications and business plans.

“Ideally the committee would prefer that all applications are adjudicated at the same time. This [is] to ensure an equitable allocation of funds. The delays in adhering to deadlines by federations has hampered this work.”

She added that DSAC and Sport SA were also considering introducing an application system on a three-year cycle.