By Sibusiso Mboto

Sports and Recreation Minister Makhenkesi Stofile has pleaded with municipalities not to sell sporting facilities, saying this would disrupt government's programme of getting communities to participate in sport.

Delivering the keynote address to mark the official opening of the South African Games, Stofile urged municipalities to show support of national government's programme by upgrading these facilities.

The Sport for All is an initiative in which government has built a number of stadiums and sporting facilities all over the country to draw young people in particular to do sport as opposed to drugs and crime.

"We need to have improved facilities to enable this programme to gain momentum. This however cannot be achieved if there are instances of stadiums and other facilities being sold by our municipalities to private entities," warned the minister.

He added that once the facilities were sold people were compelled to pay to make use of these, which limits participation by the public, especially young people.

"In addition when government builds sports stadiums we expect that people should make use of them for free, we do not expect to hear of councilors demanding payment for the use of stadiums."

The South African Games which are now on their third year have attracted over 5 000 athletes from all parts of the country.

They are regarded as a nursery where future stars can be identified and developed to represent South Africa at international level. During the next five days, hundreds of sportswomen and men will be competing in different sports codes. Source: BuaNews