Minister of Sport and Recreation Ngconde Balfour's bold vision to lift sport onto an equal footing with the rest of the world has taken a step closer to reality by gaining the approval of the main sporting bodies.
Balfour's major shake-up will see the country's 142 sporting federations fall under the umbrella of his ministry.
The plan also includes a national sports academy that is to prepare the cream of the country's sports stars for top international competitions.
It has the approval of the cabinet and is intended to put an end to the fragmentation and fractiousness in sport.
The finer details of the plan are being withheld until Balfour has received the last few signatures endorsing it.
Once he has these, his next step will be to release a programme for implementation.
"I am grateful to all those individuals and organisations who sacrificed their time, effort and resources in drafting this plan," he said on Tuesday.
"I am especially pleased that all macro bodies have given it their full approval.
"The winners of this co-operation among sports bodies will be the young sportsmen and sportswomen of our country."
The plan will see organisations such as the powerful National Olympic Committee of South Africa (Nocsa) incorporated into a non-government confederation alongside Disability Sport South Africa (Dissa), the South African Commonwealth Games Association and other bodies.
The country's top athletes have endured a merry-go-round of support staff as each major international event, such as the Commonwealth and Olympic Games, brings with it a change in management, training and medical personnel.
Nocsa's chief executive officer, Lyndon Barends, confirmed his organisation was "part and parcel" of the restructuring, but declined to comment further.
SA Rugby's deputy managing director, Songezo Nayo, said his organisation was "happy to participate as we have always believed in one body that will serve as the voice of sport in South Africa".
"This will bring us all under one roof and will be very helpful to sports federations," he said.
Balfour's spokesperson, Graham Abrahams, said it was expected that the proposed model would be functioning by April 2005.
"We are very excited as it is the first time there has been a single-minded focus on where sport should go," he said.
The "independence of sports federations will be in no way threatened".
Balfour is to work with Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi in deciding the details of restructuring the national sports department to accommodate the federations.
He is also to liaise with Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel on funding the academy.
Its founding would follow the lead of Australia, which has an "academy of excellence" that has produced sportsmen and women who take centre stage in events such as rugby, cricket, Sports Union and the United Schools Sports Association of South Africa.
Abrahams pointed to the lack of cohesion in South African sport. He said the team for the All Africa Games in Nigeria in October was being prepared by the South African Sports Commission. The team for the Commonwealth Games in Manchester last year had been prepared by the South African Commonwealth Games Association while Nocsa was readying athletes for the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
"We are looking at having a more or less permanent team which will be drawn from the various organisations which will make up the confederation," he said.
The confederation and the academy would be directly linked and would take the reins in "preparing international teams for major international competitions", he added.