The SALGA Games 2023 became the focus of intense debate among Newcastle Municipal Councillors during a recent Council Meeting. This followed the Amajuba District Municipality‘s decision to withdraw its local SALGA squad from the upcoming event.
The move left the Newcastle Municipality grappling with a financial dilemma: Either forfeit the R287,000 accommodation payment or allow local councillors to attend the Richards Bay event without the participation of local athletes.
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With the SALGA Games taking place from 8 December to 11 December 2023, the Newcastle Council Meeting saw the Municipal Manager Zamani Mcinecka stating that steps into rescuing the situation would be looked into in the hopes that the Amajuba District Squad could attend the event. While the rescue plans came to an abrupt halt, the Amajuba District Municipality has officially stepped forward to clear the air on why it decided against participating in the sporting event.
“The decision follows serious reflections and considerations of the municipality’s financial position and pressing service delivery matters that need to be prioritised. The municipality has been in regular contact with both the National and Provincial Treasury since the beginning of the financial year. The engagements and consultations with Treasury are as the result of the plans put in place for the municipality to self correct and address its financial difficulties.”
Due to long standing budget constraints, faced by the municipality, the Communications Unit pointed out that mitigating plans were then implemented. These include prioritisation of service delivery initiatives and reduction of spending. The focus was directed more toward water and sanitation provision.
“Participating in this year’s edition of the SALGA Games would have meant the municipality must have a budget allocation of just above R3,5 million covering costs of about 450 athletes, coaches, technical officials, and supporting staff members. These costs exclude the amount that would have been spent on the final selection of the team to represent Amajuba District at the games,” stated the Amajuba District Municipality’s Communications Unit.
In addition to this, the government entity highlighted that it had initiated plans to participate in the annual games following its successful hosting in the previous year.
“These included establishing planning teams, engagements with sports federations, interactions with the local municipalities, and plans to finalise the teams to represent the district. The final steps to select the district’s team were unfortunately disrupted following the cancellation of the Amajuba Games which were called off for the same reason stated above,” said the Communications Unit.
However, the Communications Unit stressed that the cancellation of the Amajuba Games did not mean the end of planning for the SALGA Games 2023.
According to the entity, the leadership and administration are considering other funding options such as engaging the private companies to lend a helping hand to ensure that the district’s talented athletes are not denied an opportunity to compete with the best within the province.
Furthermore, Amajuba District Mayor, Cllr Ndabuko Zulu stated that not all is lost, as there are still more possibilities to ensure that the athletes can play the games they love. “We have unfortunately found ourselves in this awkward position because of errors committed in the past. As leaders, we cannot, however, occupy our positions to blame those who were there before us. Ours is to ensure that we take responsibility and rectify the previous mistakes. As we speak, we are faced with a situation whereby if we make further financial mistakes the municipality might lose its grant allocations and equitable share. For us to have water coming out of the taps we are required to allocate millions of rands to uThukela Water.”
He further stressed that it was also an urgent requirement that the municipality look into plans to reduce its debt accounts to be in a financially better position.
“All these require that we make huge sacrifices. Our withdrawal from the 2023 SALGA Games do not by any way mean we disregard the role played by sports. Our financial situation has compelled us to take such a decision,” stated Mayor Zulu.
As the Amajuba District Municipality prioritises financial responsibility over participating in the SALGA Games, readers are invited to share their thoughts on this matter in the comment section below.
