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Athletes run short of funding

GLYNNIS UNDERHILL | CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA - Oct 30 2009 06:00

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Athletics South Africa has been accused of misleading Parliament's sports committee when it claimed that the South African Sports Confederation and Olympics Committee (Sascoc) was withholding funds required by South Africa's athletes to prepare for the 2012 London Olympics.

Sascoc chief executive Tubby Reddy told the Mail & Guardian these claims were "a complete fabrication".

At the parliamentary committee meeting last week, ASA board member Simon Dlamini asked for advice on what his association should do, given that Sascoc was withholding funding it needed to prepare its athletes for the Olympics.

"Athletics South Africa can continue with its fabrications," snapped Reddy. "Everybody is getting used to it. It's almost a defence mechanism."

Reddy said Sascoc's Operation Excellence programme engaged national federations to identify athletes with a world ranking. Fourteen athletes, including Caster Semenya, had been earmarked for funding.

"We started the programme, which requires athletes, their coaches and Athletics South Africa to engage with us," said Reddy. "But then we received a letter from ASA saying they didn't want us to engage with their athletes and its officials started not pitching up at meetings."

Under the programme, athletes can receive up to R500 000 a year to prepare them for 2012. But Reddy said that only three athletes had so far been given money because of the hitches experienced with ASA, a Sascoc member.

Semenya, who won gold at the International Association of Athletics Federations World Championships in Berlin in August, has yet to receive funding.
Reddy said Sascoc had decided to push ahead with Operation Excellence -- with or without ASA's support.

He said national federations had to apply for funding from the national lottery. Sascoc had been told that ASA had applied for funding for only one year, whereas most federations had applied for support for four years. This would lead to funding problems for ASA.

CONTINUES BELOW

Sascoc president Gideon Sam said it was up to ASA to look for its own funding. "We don't withhold funding. We're not a dispersing agency and we battle to get funds ourselves."

Sam also said that Sascoc was invited to attend the meeting of the parliamentary committee but could not because the date was suddenly brought forward from October 27 to October 20.

Sascoc has set up a commission of inquiry to look into whether the ASA brought South Africa into disrepute by its handling of the Semenya gender controversy. Written submissions have been obtained from most interested parties.

The commission has not completed its report, but Reddy said Sascoc had the power to enforce its recommendation, even if it called for the removal of ASA's board.

At the meeting of the parliamentary committee, chair Butana Komphela said Sascoc would be called to explain the funding issue and why it had set up a commission to probe the Semenya matter.

"Sascoc is running a campaign against … Athletics South Africa," Komphela said.

The Mail & Guardian recently revealed that ASA's doctor, Harold Adams, had accused the association's president, Leonard Chuene, of seeking the help of "high-level politicians" in politicising and muddying the waters in the Semenya saga.

Komphela is understood to be one of the politicians concerned. He has declined to comment on the issue.

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Athletes run short of funding

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