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The SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) has requested a deadline extension before they could respond to the damning Sports Minister’s report on irregularities in the national multi-coded sporting governing body.
Sascoc president Gideon Sam was handed the final report almost two weeks ago and was initially given 14 days to provide Sport Minister Tokozile Xasa with a collective response.
When contacted, Sam referred City Press to his vice-president Barry Hendricks.
Hendricks said the board had taken a resolution, on a round-robin basis, to request a further extension to seek the opinion of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the Commonwealth Games Federation (CWGF) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).
The minister’s initial deadline was on October 10, according to Hendricks.
“We have the full report and we are studying it. The board will meet on Wednesday to make the decision,” he told City Press.
“We wrote to the other stakeholders - the IOC, the Commonwealth Federation and IPC to ask for their opinion on the minister’s report.”
Hendricks, however, was reluctant to share the contents of the report, which City Press understands that the findings are scathing to the Sascoc board.
The eagerly-antipicated report was compiled by the Zulman Commision of Inquiry, which was established by former Sport Minister Thulas Nxesi to investigate allegations of maladministration and corporate governance matters at Sascoc.
Some of the insiders from the national sports federations who have seen the report said the focul point of the document is on Sam and his axed chief executive Tubby Reddy, who are accused of splitting Sascoc into two.
The Olympic governing body was in Parliament at the beginning of last month where they briefed the sport portfolio committee on the status of their finances.
Sascoc was represented by Sam and Ravi Govender, a member of the Sascoc finance committee, who is standing on for the axed chief financial officer Vinesh Maharaj.
Sascoc told parliament that their revenue has not moved significantly from the previous year.
“Funding from the National Lotteries Commission (NLC) makes up the majority of the funding that Sascoc receives. The NLC now considers Sascoc a federation and as such the funding from the NLC has dropped from R100 million to just R10 million,” the minutes of the briefing on September 4 noted.
Sascoc insisted that they had put “in strict austerity measures to cope with the big loss in revenue but they maintain that they are in dire need of more funding”.
The organisation said they were also implementing a turnaround strategy in order to stabilise their finances and improve their public image.
Sascoc also told parliament that the dismissal in January of Reddy, as well as of those of Maharaj and senior manager Jean Kelly, was under investigation and “Sascoc is awaiting the conclusion of the investigation in order to recover some of the funds lost through corruption”, the minutes noted.
The portfolio committee also heard that:
• 56% of Sascoc’s expenditure was related to high performance;
• 18% for Team SA delivery at major sporting events, 9% for administration, while salaries and board fees made up 7%;
• Board member allowances have been cut and, depending on cash flow, were sometimes deferred.
