SA sport stars are the losers

Gideon Sam, president of the South African Sport and Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC), recently announced South Africa’s vision of 12 gold medals at the Olympic Games in 2012. But there is something wrong when the fastest man in the country arrives at the national championships with borrowed kit in a shopping bag.

There is something wrong with the talent identification at Athletics SA when the fastest man in the country, Simon Magakwe, arrives at the national championships carrying borrowed kit in a plastic shopping bag, warned Lemke.

There is something wrong with the governing body when one of the most important Olympic codes is unable to attract world-class athletes to compete in this country, added Lemke.

Even in tough economic times, there are sponsors out there who are willing to spend the cash. But, they need a return on their investment, and to them, athletics does not provide that. While swimming gets a splash on television, you hardly ever see an athletics show.

“The slide in the sport is no coincidence; administrators have been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons; schools and club structures are in decay; and facilities are rotting,” he added on the SASCOC website.

Soccer and boxing

Let us switch ‘channels’ to two other sporting codes: soccer and boxing. Boxing South Africa, which is technically insolvent and has received a qualified audit for five years in a row, has granted its chief executive a 45% salary increase, according to the "Cape Argus".

Bongani Khumalo’s salary was raised from R824 000 in 2008 to more than R1 million in the past financial year.

That is despite the fact that the auditor-general has cast aspersions on the organisation’s financial affairs, warning that its debts far exceed its assets. Boxing SA has previously been slammed by Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile and Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Sport and Recreation for its inept handling of its financial affairs and constant infighting among its executives. South African soccer boasts the richest league in Africa and one of the 10 richest leagues in the world. One top South African bank invests R400 million in a knock-out competition annually, yet for all its commercial riches, SA soccer is in turmoil, and in free fall.

A glorious example was vividly portrayed recently when the infighting between Danny Jordaan, chief executive of the local organising committee of the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup, and Irvin Khoza, the Iron Duke, forced both of them to pull out of the South African Football Association elections, putting a compromise candidate, Kirsten Nematandani, in the hot seat.

When South Africa won the African Cup of Nations in 1996 under Clive Barker, Bafana Bafana was ranked number 16 in the world, and was Africa’s undisputed king of soccer. In 2009, Bafana Bafana is ranked number 73 in the world, and not among Africa’s 10 elite nations.  
The vision of South Africa reaching the second round of the Soccer World Cup in 2010 is a pipe dream, and is as far-fetched as perceiving Julius Malema in the post as national minister of Finance.

Lack of accountability

Why the decline in several of South Africa’s top sporting codes? One of the reasons for the decline is that there seems to be a complete lack of accountability by the sporting codes to their shareholders, which explains why so many different chief executives could remain at the helm of their sporting codes for so long. South African rugby is currently ranked number one in the world and the Boks have won five out of its six Tri-Nations test in 2009. The Boks are the Tri-Nations champions, have defeated the British & Irish Lions, and have smashed the All Blacks in three successive tests – the first Bok team to do this since 1949.

The South Africans are also in possession of the treasured Webb Ellis Trophy as the world champions.

Yet, while there is very often blood on the walls of South African rugby council meetings, things on the playing fields are looking increasingly healthy. Why?  Because the shareholders of SA rugby have consistently asked probing questions and have replaced weak or incompetent presidents or coaches. In short: they have not tolerated mediocrity.
Since 1992, South Africa has had seven presidents, from Danie Craven to Oregan Hoskins. In all, 10 coaches have presided over the national rugby team. That is why they talk about the SA coach as the man in the hottest seat in South African sport. But ‘hot’ presupposes that the man sitting is perennially uncomfortable, that he should continue performing for fear of being replaced.

Not pleasant, but it keeps the Springbok coach honest, which is more than what one can say about certain athletics administrators. Lastly, Sam Ramsamy oversaw the National Olympic Committee for years, an umbrella body that presided over the well-being of all South African sporting codes.

Since the change of the name of that body to SASCOC, South African sport has somehow lost is Olympic ethos and its culture of excellence.

Mediocrity and a lack of integrity have become factors that have negatively affected South African sports, and which have tainted the country's international sporting image immeasurably.

With South Africa less than nine months away from the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup, the sporting ministry as well as SASCOC will seriously have to relook the lack of accountability of different sporting codes, as well as how little clout SASCOC has in taking embattled sporting presidents to task about their misdemeanours.