Darren Bergman

Darren Bergman is a South African politician who has been a Member of the National Assembly of South Africa for Democratic Alliance since 2014. Within the DA Shadow Cabinet, he was Shadow Deputy Minister of Sport and Recreation between 2014 and 2019, Shadow Minister of International Relations and Cooperation between 2019 and 2023 and Shadow Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition between 2023 and 2024 Quotes Unfortunately, 21 years down the line we are still looking at plans for transformation in sports. We have seen through the strategies of the Cricket South Africa (CSA) and the South African Rugby Union (SARU) and that they are resorting to quotas. Vernon Philander is a player that should never have been associated with the word quota. He is world class cricketer and an asset to our country. Yet the speculation around the selection of the team for the semi-final of the Cricket World Cup put an unfair and unfortunate spotlight on a player that did not deserve it. It is heartbreaking to see schools and community centres that have only the skeletal remains of tennis or netball courts. Multipurpose courts that are so eroded that the kids sustain more injuries than pleasure from playing on them. Funds are often the excuse but are they really the reason these facilities have been allowed to fall to ruin? We need to even the playing fields and we need to start with the foundation phase. It is no use just fiddling in the highest levels of sport when you run the risk of ruining players, teams, careers and codes. A grass-roots approach is the only way we can attain the laudable goal of representative sporting teams. External links Category:Living people Category:Politicians from South Africa