Honourable Premier
My Colleague Minister Zandisili Chris Stali
Head of the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture Adv Rod Solomons
Head of the Western Cape Education Department Ron Swartz
Colleagues from the respective National Departments
Other senior officials from the Office of the Premier and the respective Provincial Departments present
Members of the Corporate Sector and NGO's
Ladies and Gentlemen, Distinguished Guests

I hope that this conference here today will one day be remembered as the one that was the catalyst for the renewed injection of energy and enthusiasm in our schools.

In its January 8th Statement this year, the National Executive Committee of the ANC called on the Nation to Open the Doors of Learning and Culture as envisaged in the Freedom Charter.

In assessing in this 50th Anniversary Year of the Freedom Charter, we can definitely claim some successes, but it is equally clear that much more needs to be done to further open the doors of learning and culture.

For far too long has sport in our schools been underestimated as a means of developing and defining the psyche of our nation. Sport is an integral part of the life of a nation.

Sport can be a catalyst for economic development, just think of all the countries that hosted world sport events, such as the Olympics, Rugby or Soccer World Cup events.

When the Premier was sworn in after the elections last year, he articulated the vision of this Provincial Government as building a Home for All in this province.

In order to arrive at this vision, we have adopted our economic development strategy, which we refer to as Ikapa Elihlumayo - "Growing and Sharing the Cape".

In Education, we have serious challenges in providing the knowledge, the skills, values and attitude for iKapa Elihlumayo. But we are committed to quality education to produce the human resource personnel necessary to grow the Cape.

For this reason the Premier has instructed us to finalise by the middle of this year, our Provincial Human Resource Development Strategy with a focus on youth, to meet the demands of the new economy.

And therefor ladies and gentlemen, like you are doing here, we as education will also be hosting a provincial indaba on 23 and 24 March, as part of the process of developing our human resource strategy for Ikapa Elihlumayo.

It is important that we collectively identify the problem areas in our schools that impact negatively on the development of sport, and that we put in place strategies to resuscitate sport in schools.

Our country and province are on the verge of huge possibilities. Economic activity towards the Soccer World Cup in 2010 is going to increase rapidly. This also means that the Soccer World Cup is an opportunity in a life-time for our learners and youngsters to showcase their talents.

Therefor we in government will do everything in our power to create the conditions in which our learners can excel in sport. This means providing sportsfields, training equipment and facilities and sports equipment.

We have huge social problems in many of our schools, including drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, HIV-Aids, and lack of discipline among learners.

Probably one of the biggest challenges for not only us in education, but for all of us in our communities, is the drop-out rate. At the moment only half of the roughly 80,000 learners who enter the education system in grade 1, reach matric.

There are various reasons for the drop-out rate, and we all have some idea of what those reasons are. It varies, but in the majority of cases the reasons are linked to poverty, and the social ills influenced by it.

Many of our parents in poor communities take their children out of school early so that they can help put food on the table. Many learners, influenced by their parents, simply have an attitude that a matric qualification means nothing because it won't give him a job.

One of the ways in which we are trying to address this, is with the introduction of Further Education and Training from 2006, which will equip our learners with skills, which are relevant to the needs of the economy.

With FET we have the possibility of incorporating sports, sports management and sports marketing into our curriculum, which can give our learners exciting new opportunities and keep talented learners in the system.

But our parents have the biggest contribution to make, by encouraging our children to go to school, by being positive role models, and not to take them out of school to go and work at an early age.

Although poverty is no excuse for mediocrity, there is a link between excellence and wealth. In many of our more affluent schools parents invest significantly in nurturing and developing the sporting talents of their children, and it is seen as an integral part of the education of the child.

We have a situation where some of our public state schools raise their fee structures so high, with the result that poor learners are denied access to education, even though the learner lives within walking distance to that school.

When you enquire about why the fees are so high, you find that the school actually budget for full-time sports administrators and coaches. However in most schools poor parents cannot afford this. The result is that the performance divide between the "haves" and the "have-nots" is widening.

Ladies and Gentlemen, just in this week I was alarmed to read that 25% of youth under 20 years-old, are using drugs, according to a research survey conducted by the Medical Research Council.

Apparently the drug Tik has become the most popular of choice, increasing from 121 treated cases in 2003, to 376 in the first half of last year alone. Drug lords and gangsters are preying on our young and vulnerable children.

Furthermore, the influence of the HIV-Aids pandemic on our education system is potentially so huge, that it could take years and years to undo the damage done to our future generations.

At the moment, about 1 in 4 people in South Africa, aged between 14 and 49, are HIV positive. Without effective prevention, up to half of the 16 million young people under 15-years-old, are likely to become infected in the course of their lives.

More than half of the newly infected with HIV are between 15 and 24 years old. By or before the age of 16, one in every second young person has had penetrative sex. One in two sexually active teenagers will have had more than one partner in the past year.

Reviews of sexuality education programmes internationally show that open communication about sex and sexuality promotes less risky behaviour, and helps reduce teenage pregnancy, STI's and HIV.

We must put in place programmes to create awareness around issues of substance abuse and HIV-Aids, create an understanding of the effects of it among our youth, and extract from them a commitment to actively participate in the struggle against these social evils.

Therefor this initiative of Minister Stali and the department can make a valuable contribution in empowering our young people to lead positive, healthy and happy lifestyles. This programme has an important role to play in promoting awareness and changing the attitudes of our learners.

The sports are an indispensable means of improving the social fabric of our society, and can make a very real contribution to ensuring our children lead meaningful lives.

We have a duty to revive sport in our schools, and ensure mass participation from our learners. Competitiveness from a young age is healthy, as long as it is nurtured in a positive spirit.

Incorporating sports and reviving mass participation in our schools, will give renewed opportunities to our learners to remain in school and complete their education.

We must use school sport as a nursery for talent identification and development, which will lead to our learners moving onto higher honours and make us all proud.

But in all our work, we are guided by the President's call for partnerships. If indeed we are going to Grow and Share the Cape as a Learning Home for All our Children, we all need to join hands.

Schools cannot operate in a vacuum and require wider, sustained support from the broader community. We must build dynamic partnerships with the private and social sectors.

If indeed we are going to further open die doors of learning and culture, if indeed we are going to grow and share the Cape, we will need the energy and the efforts of people like yourself, to make this a reality.

I want to commend you for your continued initiatives and input as part of our efforts of building a Home for All, and I wish you all of the best in your deliberations over the next two days.

I thank you