Johannesburg – At the start of the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) general meeting on Saturday, Gideon Sam, the president, told the delegates that South African sport was at war with itself.
By the end of the meeting, Athletics South Africa (ASA) had been put into administration once again, the former head of Powerboating South Africa (PSA) escorted from Olympic House by the police and there were unconfirmed reports the public protector was investigating Sascoc for “maladministration and corruption”. Add to this the little matter of Safa chief executive Dennis Mumble’s attempt at a vote of “no confidence” in Sascoc chief executive Tubby Reddy and there was some surprise at the amount of smiling and back-slapping when the meeting broke for lunch late on Saturday afternoon. War with a grin.
Khaya Mjo, the suspended secretary general of PSA, one of five South African federations under administration, arrived in a large, black Mercedes Benz with a chauffeur and a bodyguard, but was told to leave the meeting as he had no standing with PSA or Sascoc. He did so amicably enough when encouraged to do so by the two police officers called to eject him for trespassing at Olympic House. On Saturday Eye Witness News reported Mjo as saying he had had “a three-hour meeting with the Public Protector because we have exhausted all angles to address maladministration in sports”. Mjo claimed Thuli Madonsela, the public protector, had “at least eight investigators” looking into claims of “maladministration and corruption against Sascoc”.
“It’s in the media, but we haven’t received any notification of (the public protector),” said Sam on Saturday. “We play open cards. Here’s our constitution guiding us. Here’s our financials. Here’s our business plan, and here are our plans going forward to 2016. If the public protector should investigate us, we will welcome that because we are an open book.”
The books of Athletics SA will be opened by yet another new boss this week when advocate Zola Majavu takes over as administrator after Sascoc suspended the entire elected board. This week, ASA president James Evans suspended six of his executive after they had contravened a court order preventing them from removing him as president. Evans, who has been accused of running ASA as a one-man show, was impeached in March, but the arbitration into that is yet to happen. He obtained a court order last week, which confirmed his presidency, but vice-president Hendrick Ramaala said the letters of suspension meant nothing. It was only a matter of time before ASA were put under administration yet again.
“By going to the High Court, members of ASA infringed upon the constitution of Sascoc, which they have signed and agreed to,” said Reddy, who rattled off a series of articles and clauses they had broken. Sam put it in more simple terms, it was a waste of money and time, and could impact negatively on the athletes.
“It’s not in our interests for us and our members to be running to the courts all the time,” said Sam. “I know saying ‘sport is at war’ may be strong words, but sometimes you need to put it across in strong terms to get the seriousness of it across. It’s not normal to have to so many issues in our federations. We still have problems with Powerboating, which is still in court. We want to get on with the issues of how we are going to perform in report.”
The Safa representatives at Saturday’s meeting did not bring up the “no confidence” motion proposed by Mumble. Instead there were smiles and handshakes from Safa president Kirsten Nematandani. Sam said Sascoc would follow the lead of sports minister Fikile Mbalula and his judicial inquiry into the allegations of match-fixing that have rocked the sport. – Sunday Independent