Having said that, all and sundry (including ordinary laymen) showed displeasure at those statements.
Questions such as what would happen to Boks, Bafana and Cricket, if such actions were to be meted out to such sporting codes, reigned supreme?
After a public outcry, the National Sport Ministry and other sponsors gathered to remedy the situation.
However, we went beyond the reproach to find out what might have triggered such a move and sport in general.
We probed the Head of Sales, Marketing and Distribution at BestMed, Alan Fritz to share with us his opinion on the above concerns.
Sowetolife Magazine Online: What is your take on the current sport status in our country, generally?
Alan Fritz: My take on sport in South Africa is two-fold. Firstly I have been associated with sport in particularly rugby and swimming since 1978 and administered sport from the lowest level of club administration to national level.
I have seen the sports movement struggle to achieve the potential of making us a true sports nation but must admit that SASCOC over the last 6-8 years has made great strides in bringing structure and co-ordination to South African sport. There is a misnomer in South Africa that we’re a sporting nation as our weather makes us an outdoor nation.
This is absolutely not true as we have pockets of excellence in rugby, cricket, swimming etc. We don’t have an integrated approach to sport development although SASCOC has put some real effort in co-ordination of high performance sport. The lack of excellent facilities throughout the country hampers our ability to develop sports.
The role of the state in promoting sport is seriously hampered by huge backlog in other spheres of society but more so by the lack of will and skills throughout the country.
Sport needs to play a bigger part in creating economic prosperity, transforming society but most importantly, contribute to promote healthy lifestyle to reduce the burden of disease on the fiscus.
Secondly, we have to breed excellence in sport as no society achieve without role models and leadership.
High Performance Centres and sports academies like the one at Tuks University should be funded by the government to ensure we drive excellence and competitiveness that will make us world beaters on a consistent basis.
SLM: Various leading rugby players’ are leaving our shores for greener and thicker, deeper pockets, thus affecting dearly our Bok squad. Is this fair or not?
AF: I am not sure I agree that this will necessary affect the selection of the Springbok team negatively. I have not come across a report that the few top players that have signed for overseas based club is not available for selection.
Rugby is unfortunately a professional sport and market forces will always and has always been a major issue in supply and demand.
I am not sure that any rugby playing nation in the world has more rugby players from pre-school (like Bulletjie rugby programmes) to national level.
We have a huge amount of talent that needs to be unearthed to supply our representative teams. Not every talented player will play for South Africa.
Classical example, Kevin Pietersen the South African born English cricket player left our shores because he believed at provincial level that Hashim Amla was favoured above him and that he was better than Amla.
Although, time has proved him wrong not everyone will play for the national team.
South African rugby is extremely healthy can you just imagine how healthy the sport will be if they transformed the sport to be within all communities?
SLM: Recently, the country woke up to news that some Swimmers heading to June Games in Barcelona should pay/or would be subsidized. Does this kind of model encourages our young, aspiring Swimmers to perform to their peak for the country or they would be poached by other countries as has happened with others?
AF: Swimming has been by far the best performing sport code since re-admission after the end of apartheid into the world of sport, yet corporate South Africa prefer to invest hugely into football, rugby and cricket(big three).
For swimming to maintain it’s competitive edge it has to participate internationally and that requires funds to do so. We are a big swimming nation and with the right level of support we can do even better. It is not ideal for sports stars to make a contribution to participate internationally as such sport stars are representing the country and the country (State and
Business) has a moral obligation to make it possible for such athletes to participate internationally.
SLM: BestMed is the proud sponsor of various sporting codes in the country, what makes the company unique on this approach?
AF: We at BestMed understand that the need is huge and sports cannot survive without sponsors but most important our aim is to get the nation active and healthy because the burden of disease is highly costly and will put huge pressure on the resources of the country.
The prevalence of lifestyle diseases are on the increase in South Africa and it will affect the economically active population that drive our economy that is suppose to generate wealth for this country.
SLM: What matters most money or honour?
AF: It is no secret that our country faces moral decay and corruption is a cancer that is destroying our value largely associated with money.
No one can survive without money and not even our sports stars, and they must earn a fair remuneration to sustain themselves. In my book honour will always come first as it is honour that makes you’re a bigger star.
