Government’s R150m relief plan for sportspeople and artists will be a boon for some, but many more people working in SA’s broader sports industry face bleak times amid the lockdown.
To be eligible to apply for financial assistance from the department of sports, arts and culture, one has to be an athlete who lost out on earning potential because a competition was cancelled. Their coaches and technical support staff can also apply.
The most obvious contenders would be boxers contracted to fight in five tournaments that were postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Another potential problem could be the department’s stipulation that applicants must have their taxes in order, because some are not registered taxpayers.
The department, announcing the fund this week, also stipulated athletes on the Operation Excellence programme run by the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) could apply. Acting Sascoc president Barry Hendricks said his organisation was working with national federations to get applications in ahead of tomorrow’s submission deadline.
Golfers and professional caddies will also get assistance through a separate relief programme run by the Sunshine Tour.
More than 160 golfers on the local men’s circuit and the top 25 on the women’s tour, as well as about 90 caddies, will get stipends for April and May, tour commissioner Selwyn Nathan said.
The Sunshine Tour and the Women’s Professional Golf Association were stumping up the money themselves.
“We’ve had some very smart people on our board, people who are good at governance and are in it for the love of the sport. We’ve saved money over the years,” said Nathan. “If it [lockdown or other restrictions preventing golf tournaments] goes on further we have the money to go for a few months.”
If it goes on further, we have money to go for a few months
— Selwyn Nathan, Sunshine Tour commissioner
Tennis SA (TSA) can also ride the storm for a while, says CEO Richard Glover. New measures include cost-cutting, he said, pointing out they had two scenarios of partial restarts, in June and in August.
The SA Hockey Association (Saha) has also been hurt by the timing, with income from levies on player registrations not coming in at what normally would have been the start of the season. “If it lasts longer than a month we’re in big trouble,” Saha CEO Marissa Langeni said.
She said many school hockey coaches had no income during the lockdown. The same is true of coaches across tennis, golf and swimming, officials confirmed. These coaches are not eligible to apply for help from the government’s relief package.
Swimming and tennis are among the federations helping athletes and coaches to apply for government’s relief fund. Athletics SA emailed its members on Friday asking them to submit applications by noon tomorrow. All applications must be sent by federations.
Department director-general Vusumuzi Mkhize said the relief was “applicable to activities from March 15 to June. It is based on loss of income suffered during this time ... They need to declare if they are receiving income from other sources. If that is the case they do not qualify.”
Glover believes there could be light at the end of the tunnel. “There will be new opportunities. We must try to take advantage of the millions of kids who want to get outside to play sport.”
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