Cape Town Premier Unveils Plans At Beyond Sport

Helen Zille, the Premier of Western Cape, has revealed her ambition for Cape Town to become a hub for social change through sport, citing the power sport has to boost equality and to be a force for development as vital to the city’s future – and hailing the fundamental part it has played in South Africa’s development as a nation over the last two decades.

Premier Zille, who was speaking at the Beyond Sport Summit, pointed to both her personal experience of sport and the developments driven by landmark events such as Rugby World Cup in 1995 and the FIFA World Cup in 2010 as she painted a vision of the benefits that the city, province and country would enjoy from a genuine investment in sport and development.
 
‘Nothing has united South Africans as sport has, bringing so many different parties to work together,’ said Premier Zille. ‘Sport is something we are using now, more and more, for children in really disadvantaged circumstances, to help them find their feet, find a direction and find a purpose, and to translate that into other spheres of their lives. I’m fascinated by sport as a social catalyst and a development tool, and in Cape Town we would love to be more integrated into these programmes because we have learnt exactly what sport can do.’
 
‘In South Africa we have had a transition that has been unprecedented anywhere in the world – and when we look back, every single one of us would agree how crucial sport was in that process. It provided the glue that bound us together in the critical moments when the centre threatened not to hold.’
 
Premier Zille, who leads the Democratic Alliance, South Africa’s official opposition party, singled out the presence of South African role models such as Oscar Pistorius and Lucas Radebe at Beyond Sport, praising the positive influence the two men have had throughout their careers not just as successful sportsmen, but as inspirational figures for an entire nation.
 
‘I love the story of Oscar Pistorius,’ she said. ‘Only in South Africa, believe me, would you get a man without legs competing against able-bodied people in international sports events. I think that is absolutely magnificent – it is a symbol of who we are. Our entire nation galvanises behind people like Castor Semenya, like Oscar Pistorius, and like Lucas Radebe.’
 
‘Lucas had a terrible tragedy in his life when his young wife died of cancer, and the dignity and the extraordinary role model he was as a husband and a parent in that process was crucial for many young men to look up to and say: ‘That is the model of fidelity and commitment that you should display in a family.’ Sport is an exceptional influence on society as a whole.’
 
Pistorius and Radebe will both be playing crucial roles at the Beyond Sport Summit this week. Cape Town follows in the footsteps of London and Chicago as the venue for the unique event, which is bringing some of the most influential and forward-thinking global figures from the worlds of sport, business, politics and philanthropy to Cape Town. They will be joined by other high-profile names from South African sport including Bryan Habana and Natalie Du Toit.
 
Meanwhile, Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th December will see the winners of the 2011 Beyond Sport Awards announced. 35 projects have been shortlisted, covering 18 countries and 22 different sports. They were chosen from close to 400 entries from more than 125 countries that submitted applications to this year’s Awards. The Beyond Sport Award winners will receive a substantial package of business support to help them grow and become sustainable in the future.
 
Beyond Sport is a global initiative that seeks to celebrate and support any organisation or individual with the goal to drive positive social change through sport. Its global partners are Barclays Spaces for Sports, TIME Inc and UNICEF.

View the full speech at the Beyond Sport YouTube page.

For the full programme of the Beyond Sport Summit and Awards 2011, or for more information on Beyond Sport, visit www.beyondsport.org.