A politician with a great enthusiasm for wielding power but with little sense of responsibility can be a terrible liability. Sports minister Fikile Mbalula has always been something of a maverick, as was evident from his recent knee-jerk denial, before ascertaining the facts, of the US$10m “bribe” paid to SA for hosting the 2010 World Cup.

This week, Mbalula told the administrators of four sports codes — cricket, rugby, athletics and netball — that they hadn’t achieved sufficient racial transformation, so they will now be prevented from bidding to host major international tournaments.

While there is some sympathy with his message, his delivery is, as usual, tone deaf. For one thing, it isn’t clear why Mbalula is empowered to make unilateral decisions that will have knock-on effects on tourism and investment without any consultation.

In the end, it smacks of another ill-conceived bid at pre-electioneering.

Of course, sporting codes should reflect the underlying demographics of the society in which they operate. Sport can be a great unifying force for society, so every effort is necessary to ensure we reach that goal.

But the reality is that we are where we are partly thanks to Mbalula’s own delinquency in addressing proper sporting development at the grassroots level.

As it stands, there are about 6,100 high schools in SA, serving 3.9 million pupils. Most of them do not offer organised sport at all.

In fact, nearly all SA’s rugby Springboks and cricket Proteas are produced by just three dozen or so traditional boys-only schools, public and private, either English-speaking or Afrikaans-medium schools.

Occasionally a player will defy the odds and emerge from a school where there is no sports structure or tradition — but usually, when such boys are identified, they are quickly snaffled up by the traditional schools. The same applies to athletics, netball, water polo and hockey.

In the big team sports, it is nigh impossible for a child who has not been exposed to regular, competitive fixtures and good coaching at a strong school to make the grade at provincial or national level.

Skill is one aspect, but even more important is the self-confidence that is instilled by top sporting schools. This comes from excellent coaching, efficient organisation, the pressures of traditional derby matches, and being nurtured by teacher-coaches who understand what it takes for talent to mature. You can’t create this by decree.

While nearly all those schools are historically white and advantaged, over the past 25 years many have achieved substantial racial transformation while remaining centres of excellence and fertile nurseries of talent. One has only to think of Dale College and Queen’s College in the Eastern Cape.

But the fact remains, the majority of provincial and national representatives in the four sports singled out by Mbalula are produced by about 100 high schools — that is, between 1% and 2% of the total.

This is the pool the administrators must fish in. So whose responsibility is it to expand this pool?

Is it those schools which are already producing the stars? Can administrators on their own expand the sporting codes in those schools ill-equipped to do anything? Or can the education department, which already consumes more than 20% of the national budget, find the resources?

In both cases, the answer is no.

Mbalula knows this, but he pretends that he does not. If his ministry were throwing billions at the problem, he would be right to be frustrated with administrators.

But of course, he isn’t. Mbalula may have a tiny budget, but he has rendered this even more inadequate by squandering money on extravagant awards evenings and vanity trips to SA for boxing legends.

So, instead, he looks for easy answers to a problem that requires a deeper fix.

Sport is big business, so if the administrators are prevented from hosting money-spinning events, they will struggle to find the resources needed to expand their codes (and boost transformation).

Mbalula has the right to call out administrators for tardy transformation — but the issue is complex, and by treating them as the enemy, while he is doing nothing to help, is idiotic and destructive.

This column first appeared in Financial Mail.