Playing political football
SKANDAAL: SA Minister Lindiwe Sisulu.
Of all the unimportant things, football is the most important.
My apologies to the late Pope John Paul II if I got his quote wrong.
But the former head of the Roman Catholic would probably be more upset about how the sport that he loved has been used by the South African government to beroof its people again.
Never has football been made to look as unimportant as by the new R1bn plan hatched by SA Tourism board - the commercial arm of Lindiwe Sisulu’s Ministry of Tourism.
With South Africans sukkelling for over a decade with loadshedding and the crisis deepening almost every day, they have somehow managed to come up with a scheme that involves using public funds in very questionable ways.
They plan to invest R1bn in Premier League club Tottenham over three years to promote tourism to South Africa.
And while I understand that their portfolio is to look after the interests of our vital tourism industry, it just doesn’t sit right.
Yes, the Premier League is one of the most viewed competitions in the world, with growing markets in the Middle East, Asia and North America to tap into.
But the government seems completely out of touch here - as usual.
Rather than indirectly investing in SA by giving the money to an English club, they could have done the exact same thing with our national sports teams - with cricket and rugby world cups on the way this year.
And it would not have cost R1bn of public funds.
That money could have been redirected to solving the Eskom problem.
But once again, our leaders just don’t seem to have to get their priorities right.
In this case, football is just not important.