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Feature
The Clouds of Corruption
Hanging Over
South African Sport
S
outh African sport has
suffered a spate of high
profile corruption cases
which are endangering
the continued success and growth
of its federations.
Not since the highly publicised outing of
former Test Cricket captain Hanse Cronje’s
match fixing and subsequent suspicious
death has South African sport been so
troubled.
Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula hit out at
the levels of corruption in his country’s
sporting bodies at the general assembly of
the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic
Committee (Sascoc) in East London.
He is claiming that a new zero tolerance
attitude from the government was the
only way they
could
eradicate
corruption.
“These issues are
raised
because
of the negative
tendencies
and
disturbing trends
we have observed
unfolding in our
codes.
“We
have
a
responsibility to
protect our national codes,” he said.
Echoing these sentiments was Gideon
Sam, Sascoc president. He claims that
the regulating bodies of each sport are
responsible for the corruption in South
African sport.
“The ills of SA sport can be traced back to
administration,” he said.
“If the leadership is weak then
our sport is weak. My anxiety at
Sascoc is that of marketing. We
have big federations and small
federations and the problem is
that the big ones do their own
thing and then the corporate
world can cherry-pick where
they want to put their money
and the small federations get
nothing.”
“What we need to do is to
collectively market ourselves.” Sam
warned that future funding from the
National Lottery was not guaranteed.
“The amount of money to distribute
has dwindled in the last three years by
33 percent each year, [which is] not
encouraging for sport
development at all,” he
said.
“We’ve
been
instructed by Lotto to
observe carefully for
accountability from the
federations, so I must
warn people to keep
their hands out of the
cookie jar.
“You are only shooting
yourself in the foot.”
Two sports in particular
are under the corruption microscope:
athletics and football.
Athletics
In April, the chairman of South African
athletics was found guilty of financial
corruption and fired from his post. Leonard
Chuene was found guilty in 9 out of 11
charges brought against him over the
gender controversy surrounding world 800
metres champion Caster Semenya.
He suppressed evidence of testing which
revealed the athlete had high levels of
testosterone, calling into question her right
to participate in women’s competition. He
has admitted to lying about the results of
the test.
In the aftermath of the contested race,
Reverend Makhenkesi Stofile, the Sport
and Recreation head, called for Chuene’s
dismissal.
Stofile said: “They advised that this lady
should not run, because it was going to
create a psychological problem for her
to run and be queried. The report found
that Mr Chuene ignored that professional
advice and went ahead.”
“As such, they accuse him of gross
misconduct as well as bringing Athletics
SA and the sport of athletics and Sascoc
into disrepute.”
Chuene will not be permitted to hold any
post in sports administration for seven
years.
“The unaccountable
structure they’ve
installed is honed to
deliver the game to
the needs of global
capitalism – with no
checks or restraints.
Just cheques.”