By Larry Lombaard
Athletics South Africa (ASA) will no longer seek the services of controversial East German Dr Ekkart Arbeit as their chief coaching consultant.
Banele Sindani, CEO of ASA, said on Wednesday that Arbeit was reluctant to accept the post because of "adverse publicity" in South Africa concerning his appointment.
"He wasn't keen to come to South Africa any more because of the press reports that cast him in a bad light," said Sindani.
"For this reason, the ASA Council has decided to abandon our endeavour to secure Dr Arbeit's services as an expert coaching consultant, and to look elsewhere for a replacement."
Sindani said in April that ASA would continue to support Arbeit's appointment, despite allegations of a shady past involving athletics doping and spying for the former East German secret police.
One report alleged that Dr Arbeit - who was lined up to be chief consultant to ASA's elite coaching committee for the 2002
Commonwealth and 2004 Olympic Games - was one of the chief architects of the former East Germany's "massive doping programme".
The newspaper also alleged that Dr Arbeit was fired as coaching director by Athletics Australia in 1997 because of evidence that he was a spy for the former East German secret police.
Sindani said at the time that ASA would go ahead with Dr Arbeit's appointment, whether the allegations were true or not, because South Africans were a forgiving people.
ASA also had no evidence of the alleged state-sponsored doping programme and Arbeit had never been proven guilty in a court of law.
Sindani said that it was also decided at ASA's Council meeting at the weekend to make overtures to old members of the athletics fraternity from the era of former "establishment" president Danie Malan, Henry Windell and Fanie van Zijl to return to the fold.
"It was decided that the athletics family should be strengthened by recalling all the people who were involved in athletics in the past, in all areas of the sport, to come back and play a positive role in building the sport," said Sindani.
"They have a contribution to make to grow our sport," he said. "It was agreed that structures should be put in place to facilitate this process."
The Council also acknowledged the fact that ASA's domicilium rle had become unwieldy and needed to be reformed, in the best interest of the athlete.
"In initiating the process to reform the rule, Council resolved to amend it to allow national athletes to belong to any club of their choice anywhere in South Africa, even if the club is not in the province in which the athlete is domicile," said Sindani.
"For starters, a 'national athlete' is defined as an athlete who has represented South Africa at the IAAF Senior World Championships and the Olympics."
They also endorsed the concept of a National Sports Sponsorship Convention, and resolved that ASA should lobby strongly to ensure that such a Convention materializes.
Council resolved that because of practical logistical problems, the financial year-end of ASA should be changed from June to December.
Three women adminsitrators, Laraine Lane, Gogo Manqoyi, and Motlatsi Keikabile, were co-opted onto the Executive Board of ASA, Christo Stander was co-opted onto ASAis Track and Field Commission, and Klasie Geldenhuys was co-opted onto ASAis Cross Country Commission. - Sapa