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The past week saw a remarkable turnaround by the South African Olympic body, Sascoc, on Leonard Chuene, the embattled president of Athletics South Africa (ASA). Questions will be raised about the efficiency of Sascoc, and why it has allowed the image of South African sport to be tainted for literally months before embarking on this strong line of action.
The body decided eventually to suspend Chuene, his deputy Kakata Maponyane, general manager Molatelo Malehopo, and events manager Phiwe Mlangeni-Tsholetsane, with immediate effect. The suspension will remain effective pending the outcome of a disciplinary investigation and further action.
Chuene admitted weeks ago that he had lied about the sex verification tests conducted on the 800-metre women’s champion Caster Semenya at the World Championships in Berlin.
Yet he was allowed to continue in his position. His presidency was endorsed by the ASA executive before Sascoc finally acted decisively.
Prior to their suspension, Chuene and the board had issued a statement publicly and unconditionally apologising for its handling of the Semenya sex testing debacle. This followed the establishment of an ANC task team that called on the ASA to apologise. (Source: "Cape Times", Friday, 8 November 2009)
It was not the only twist and turn during a week of high drama at the ASA offices.
Mlangeni-Tsholetsane stands accuse of awarding a lucrative contract to her own company. The allegations, made public by "Mail & Guardian", comes at a time when ASA’s coffers are running dry and the association is struggling to meet debt obligations.
Early last week, the electricity supply to ASA’s offices was cut off, due to overdue bills. The "Mail & Guardian" reveraled that as of last week, the bank balance stood at
R2 000.
An investigation revealed that Mlangeni-Tsholetsane is the director of Sequel Experience, a company that has been operating since 2007 and does business with the athletics federation.
Sequel Experience sends bulk cellphone messages to a database of about 15 000 athetes, updating them on coming events.
According to "Mail & Guardian", Mlangeni-Tsholetsane’s company had been paid close to R600 000 for services rendered in the 2009 season. ASA insiders say that for the Soweto marathon alone, her company benefited to the tune of R100 000.
Meanwhile, an ASA official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, revealed that the association owed more than R1.5 million, including prize money for athletes.
The "Mail & Guardian" also revealed that the High Performance Centre at the University of Pretoria demanded payment of R497 020, including invoices dating back to 2007.
Race Numbers, a company that manufactures race licence numbers, is owed about R360 000, while Western Province Athletics is owed R60 000.
It came to the attention of "Mail & Guardian" that immediately after the newspaper questioned ASA general manager Malehopo about his knowledge of the company, he “suspended” Mlangeni-Tsholetsane.
In an effort to undermine the newspaper story, ASA leaked the story to a news agency before "Mail & Guardian" went to print.
“They want to make the story weak because it impacts negatively on them. They are senior managers and claim to not know what is happening within the federation. People should dig deep into ASA – and there is more to come,” said a senior official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
All these staggering revelations beg one enormous question: why has the ministry of Sport and Recreation remained largely tight-lipped about this?
Apart from a request by the Deputy Minister of Sport and Recreation Gert Oosthuizen, that Chuene be stripped of his post, the ministry never demanded a public investigation into the affairs and management of ASA.
Yet, remarkably, in the past week the ministry made a last-ditch effort to prevent the Springbok prop Tendai Mtawarira from touring with the Springboks on South Africa’s year-end trip to Europe and Ireland.
In what appears to be extraordinary political interference in rugby, the Sport ministry attempted to block the participation of burly prop Mtawarira in the Boks' five-match trip – which will see them play Tests against France, Italy and Ireland, revealed the rugby365 website.
In a statement issued on Saturday, the South African Rugby Union (SARU) confirmed that the government had attempted to stop the player from travelling with his teammates, but that "productive discussions" between SARU and the Sports Ministry had resolved the issue.
According to the statement, SARU was alerted to clauses in the National Sport & Recreation Amendment Act 2007, which needed to be completed before the Zimbabwean-born Mtawarira's place in the end-of-year tour squad could be confirmed.
"We are delighted with the news, after discovering this problem during the week," SARU President Oregan Hoskins said in a statement.
"The government has been very helpful in expediting the completion of the necessary protocols and we're all relieved that Mtawarira will be available for selection for the Springboks against France in Toulouse on Friday [13 November]."
The protocol revolved around clause 6(3) of the National Sport and Recreation Amendment Act of 2007, which requires an explanation to the Minister of Sport for the selection of non-South African nationals.
The ministry, more than 18 months after Mtawarira's debut, suddenly enquired how a Zimbabwean could be playing for South Africa. Neither did it say why it took so long, 18 months, to object to Mtawarira's inclusion in the Bok team.
Hoskins and Andy Marinos, the acting managing director of SA Rugby, had been in negotiations with the Office of the Ministry for the past week.
The 24-year-old Mtawarira was schooled at the famous Peterhouse outside Harare.
Remarkably, The Beast played in 13 tests before the Ministry of Sport and Recreation finally acted. He debuted for South Africa on 21 June 2008 against Wales.
Some would say that the Sport ministry is scratching where it is not itching, instead of dealing with ASA's and Chuene’s sloppy and disastrous management of the Semenya affair, which has done South African sport immeasurable harm and has raised the ire of the international athletics establishment.
The Office of the Sport ministry was unavailable for comment, with media liaison officer Lerato Mogorosi refusing to take calls from the media.
The government's complaint against Mtawarira relates to national (and recreation) federations employing foreign sports people.
The relevant legislation states that national federations must:
(a) before recruiting a foreign sport person to participate in sport in the Republic, satisfy themselves that there are no other persons in the Republic suitable to participate in such a sport;
(b) ensure that such a recruited sports person complies with all the relevant criteria pertaining to entry into the Republic as contemplated in the Immigration Act, 2002 (Act No 13 of 2002);
(c) advise the Minister in writing of the full names and countries of origin of all such persons recruited for such purposes and confirm that there are no other suitable persons in the Republic as contemplated in paragraph (a); and
(d) ensure that the recruitment conforms to the guidelines issued by the Minister in terms of section 13A.
But why was the Sport ministry so irked about the matter? Was it not a question of being so power hungry that it reacted dogmatically after not having been consulted earlier?
Yet, in the case of ASA and Semenya, it took more than three months of a comedy of errors, lies and mismanagement before Sascoc finally took the matter out of the government’s hands and prevented any further egg on the face of South African sport.
South African rugby fans would be indebted to SARU for acting decisively and rescuing Mtawarira for the tests against France, Italy and Ireland.
The South African week-day team was humiliated by the Leicester Tigers and the latter won 22-17 on Saturday.
The Bok front row of Gurthro Steenkamp, Chiliboy Ralepelle and Jannie du Plessis suffered at the hands of the Tigers and displayed only one gear all evening – reverse.
Fortunately, the Bok team was bolstered by the SOS calls that were answered by Wian du Preez, Adriaan Strauss and CJ van der Linde after injuries sustained by Steenkamp, Du Plessis and Ralepele.
But if the Beast had been forced out by the Sport ministry, the Boks might have been in a spot of bother again.
What we see is total arrogance, non accountability and moral decay.
It is extreemly worrying to see how the ruling party is taking control of virtually every facet of our society ala Zimbabwe, and making just as much mess through complete incompetence and corruption. Dont forget "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely".