The United Kingdom and South Africa both share a real passion for sport, which has been a catalyst for a successful partnership programme in recent years between our two countries to help improve and develop our sporting systems.  A range of UK organisations have been engaged in South Africa, helping to run a diverse portfolio of projects.  Examples include: UK Sport's IDEALS project which develops young individuals through excellence and leadership in sport; the British Council's Dreams + Teams project; a youth cricket/drugs awareness project in the Western Cape; and the private-public partnership, which has seen the Metropolitan Police, Charlton Athletic Football Club, British Airways and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office working together on a two-year social/football coaching project in the communities of Khayelitsha and Mitchell's Plain in Cape Town, a project we hope to replicate in Durban in 2009 and 2010.

This brochure will give you a visual and written flavour of what the UK has been engaged in with their South African partners in recent years.  The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the UK and the South African governments in 2005 has led to annual Protocol of Actions, and provides for an excellent foundation for bilateral sports co-operation in the years ahead. South Africa is looking forward to hosting the 2010 Soccer World Cup and London the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.  We are also bidding to host the 2018 Soccer World Cup.  I hope that we can use this partnership to learn from each other as we prepare for these important events, and just as importantly, leave a lasting legacy for our societies.

Gerry Sutcliffe, Minister for Sport