The Western Cape Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport (DCAS) has invited provincial federations and athletes who may have been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic to apply for financial assistance.

According to a statement released by DCAS yesterday, the sector has suffered economically, with many events having been cancelled (including the Two Oceans Marathon and the Knysna Oyster Festival), and Provincial Trials for the Winter Games, Indigenous Games, Golden Games and leagues & festival support for Club Development have been adversely impacted.

To protect the well-being of the sport sector and minimise the impact of coronavirus,

applicants have until 19 May 2020 to submit their applications for assistance.

DCAS Minister Anroux Marais said: “We have a responsibility to protect the well-being of sport federations and recreation entities, and will not hesitate to take a safety-first approach to our operations over the coming months. We will continue monitoring the situation, and we are committed to work with our partners in ensuring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sport federations, recreation entities, affected events and programmes will be minimized to ensure sustainability of the Sector. We are therefore grateful that R1 million was made available from the National Conditional Grant to minimize the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Provincial Sport Relief Fund Criteria

An important aspect of providing financial assistance, the statement continues, is ensuring that there are objective criteria in place to evaluate application. 

The following criteria were, therefore, confirmed:

• Confirmation of the financial impact per sport federation, structure, recreation entity;
• Validation of any loss that is being claimed;
• Use of previous events to quantify loss of income;
• Proof that sport federations and recreation entities were earning an income and are now out-of-pocket;
• All sport federations are to be in good standing with the Western Cape Provincial Sport Confederation.
• Evidence that athletes were confirmed to participate at events that have now been cancelled or postponed due to COVID-19, and whose income is generated solely by participation in that event. These events may include major road races and events where the athlete may be eligible for an appearance fee;  
• Evidence of earnings must be provided for coaches and technical support personnel who work with athletes whose sporting events have been cancelled or postponed due to COVID-19, and make their earnings solely from these events; 
• Athletes on the Department’s High Performance Programme and/or who are preparing for the 2021 Olympics & Paralympics and are hopefuls for team South Africa selection for those and other major International Championships and events. These athletes must not be on SASCOC’s OPEX Programme as specific criteria will be set here.

The Application Process

The criteria for accessing this support, the identification of beneficiaries and the mechanism through which the relief fund will be managed and finalised in consultation with the Western Cape Provincial Sport Confederation. Stringent criteria and audit/checking processes will be put in place taking the above factors into consideration. A committee comprising officials from the Department, Western Cape Provincial Sport Confederation and independent entities will be put into place to manage the applications and the allocation of funding from the Western Cape Provincial Relief Fund.

Application forms can be found on www.westerncape.gov.za/cas 

Sport federation applications must be submitted to Crystal Pather on Crystal.Pather@westerncape.gov.za, and Recreation applications to Philasande Macwili on Philasande.Macwili@westerncape.gov.za 

Please note: Deadline for applications is 19 May 2020 at 16h00.