@kgmadisa
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| Picture: Athletics South Africa |
It is really sad to see Athletics South Africa
(ASA) going through a similar feat it went through during Leornard Chuene’s
reign in 2011. Its problems never seem to end.
As it stands, there is no boss at ASA, the
federation literally runs itself. This is as a result of the ongoing infighting
within the federation's management.
Six ASA board member’s including former
long-distance runner Hendrick Ramaala got the federation’s president impeached
just over a month ago, for alleged financial mismanagement.
The impeached ASA president James Evans
then obtained a court interdict to stop his impeachment from continuing any
further which has now seen six board members including Vice-president Hendrick
Ramaala getting suspended.
The federation's CEO Frik Vermaak was axed
late last year also for alleged mismanagement of funds and dishonesty which he
believes was "a well calculated" mission by Evans who has been
gunning for the top post.
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| Sascoc CEO Tubby Reddy and Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula |
What really baffles me is why South African
Sports Confederation and Olympics Committee (Sascoc) waits until a situation is
totally out of control before intervening?
They failed to intervene when Vermaak was
being axed, they failed to intervene when Ramaala and his cronies were getting
their president suspended and they failed to intervene before the court
interdict.
Here is the situation at ASA at the moment,
there is no CEO, the president was impeached last month and recently six board
members including vice-president got suspended. Who’s left?
It really seems to be getting worse, Sascoc
CEO Tubby Reddy said that Swimming South Africa (Swim SA) informed them on
their returning from the 2012 London Olympics that they have lost some of their
sponsors and might experience financial difficulties. What did Sascoc do? They
put the issue on the side to deal with it later.
Now there are World Aquatics Championships
taking place in Barcelona in July and only now they pretend to panic. There
will be a lot of athletes who will not be taking part in the World Aquatic
Championships because they have to pay for themselves and believe me it is one
hell of an expensive trip. The only athletes that will be paid for are those in
the Operation Excellence (Opex) programme.
It is really frustrating from Sascoc's side
because they are the country's sport’s governing body, the Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula shouldn't have to intervene in each and every issue, especially now that he's
dealing with Fifa's match fixing scandal. Some of these issues should be dealt
with internally and with a lot of urgency.
They realised a long time ago that there
was a power struggle in Athletics SA but they failed to make a move. The
problem has elevated now to a point where there is no one left at the
federation, well maybe the staff whom I hear haven’t received their pay for
past several months since the body’s financial account has been frozen.
There's an old say that goes
"Prevention is better than cure", let's say Sascoc comes in now for
damage control and directs that all six board members get reinstated and that they
should stop this thing of impeaching Evans.
What are the chances of all of them being
able to work together again? How long is the federation going to be without a
CEO? How are they going to ensure that everyone remains at their posts and do
not try unseating anyone? There are world track and field championships coming
in August, they haven’t started the selection process. It is really impossible
at this stage, the worms have made their through the middle of the potato, it’s
finished.
The only thing Sascoc should do in this
weekend’s AGM is to get an interim board that will take the federation forward
while they are still busy with internal investigations into all the allegations
made.
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