By OBAKENG MAJE
22 July 2025- The Democratic Alliance (DA) has accused the Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Gayton McKenzie of strangling grassroots sports, in favour of grand vanity projects that risk grand corruption. The DA said it condemns McKenzie’s ‘reckless’ decision to cut funding to national sports federations, undermining grassroots development and threatening South Africa’s Olympic future.
The DA spokesperson on Sport, Arts and Culture and Member of Parliament (MP), Joe McGluwa said they will move forward with an urgent oversight meeting in the Sports, Arts and Culture Portfolio Committee in Parliament, where McKenzie will have to come and explain his choice to strangle grassroots sport federations.
McGluwa said instead of investing in proven pathways for young athletes, the Minister is diverting funds to grand vanity projects, stripping funding from federations and directing it into these larger, and less transparent projects.
“The DA cautions loudly and clearly that this shift risks grand scale corruption. Diverting grassroots money to massive vanity projects in the sports space, with expensive bids, secrecy and confidential deal elements will risk a looting frenzy for insiders.
“For sports to flourish, and for SA to remain competitive, we need grassroots sports development support, funding, capacitating and resourcing – not strangling them in favour of massive international bids, games, and races,” he said.
McGluwa further said if these grand international sporting events could be courted for South Africa without defunding local sport there would be benefit in them. He added that they may bring fantastic investments into South Africa, but if they defund and strangle local sport federations in the process, they are undermining and damaging local sports possibly irreparably.
“The damage caused by McKenzie’s defunding of local sports is already clear. Olympic codes like athletics and swimming face cuts of up to 60%. SASCOC, tasked by law to coordinate Olympic sport, has been completely defunded, despite receiving just R12 million over three years.
“Young athletes from the Cape Flats are currently stranded in Europe (Spain or Portugal according to different reports), a tragic symbol of a collapsing system. Without functioning federations, there is no pipeline, no preparation, and no performance so McKenzie’s claim of “direct funding to athletes” is hollow,” said McGluwa.
He said the sports and arts communities are up in arms and rightfully so. McGluwa said the allocation to this department between the 2024/5 and 2025/6 financial years has not differed more than 1.6%, yet entities are facing cuts of 50-70%.
“And to date, McKenzie has not furnished Parliament with the details and schedule of these cuts. He is working in private, in silence, and without oversight or transparency. Despite repeated requests during the department’s appearance in Parliament, it remains secret.
“It is time for Parliament and South Africa to be apprised of these simple facts. Where is the money going? The DA has profound concerns as McKenzie defunds sports and arts: This looks like a scheme of patronage dressed up in tracksuits,” he said.
McGluwa said South African sport deserves much better.
Meanwhile, McKenzie who tabled his departmental budget for 2025/26 financial year said, over the past year, they have seen so many stars in both sports and the arts, both young and experienced, realise their God-granted potential and make us proud to say that we are South Africans. He said they must be honest, though, that what their home-grown talents are achieving is often despite the circumstances they are facing and not because of the platforms they are giving them.
“Our amazing success on the field is too often balanced by the dysfunction we continue to face off the field. Ours is a system that too often still excludes the majority of people in our country, from school age on through their adult lives.
“We are realising perhaps just 5% of our potential as a country, and still we are winning at just about everything we turn our hands and hearts to. Sipho in Khayelitsha can’t play hockey because the price of a hockey stick comes at the cost of a week’s food for his family. There are many Siphos in South Africa and we face similar challenges in the music industry,” said McKenzie.
He said they have many successful people who’ve received training in acting, music and singing – but many more who’ve had to make it by relying on raw talent alone. McKenzie said they are the exceptions.
“Imagine if more of us had the chance to hone these great talents, and be guided in expressing them. We have heard from many people over this past year who have been resistant to the changes being brought in this department.
“They want to see familiar decisions and behaviour. But how can we rely on the old ways of doing things if the old ways have not solved the problems of the past three decades? Change is difficult, but it’s necessary – otherwise Sipho and the other Siphos and Sashas will never play hockey one day for a gold medal at the Olympics,” he said.
McKenzie said that’s why the budget signifies them trying to start doing things differently. He said these changes will keep coming as they continue to adapt and change how they spend and support their plans to make sport, the arts and culture accessible to all their Siphos, Celines, Salmans and Siyamthandas.
“Today, I want to bring honour to our cricket players, netball heroines, the Springboks, our Olympic squad, our sprinters and runners, our boxing champions, our swimmers, and so many more. Of all the people I met over the past year, I’d like to tell the story of a group of young bulky Afrikaners coming to see me to help popularise their sport, a sport I knew very little or nothing about: strongman.
“I approached many sponsors on their behalf. I worked the phones. Most people were not interested except for SuperSport and Betway. Years after the majority of companies did not give a positive response, most of them were calling me asking to be introduced to the world’s strongest man, Rayno Nel,” said McKenzie.
The Guardian 