At the Quadrennial General Meeting held this past weekend in Jozi, the
members that comprise of 24 nominations, also elected Lwandile Simelane and
Debbie Alexander as the 1st and 2nd Vice Presidents respectively.
Well-liked Alan Fritz from Swimming SA, who forms part of the new board,
also contested the Presidency position.
The newly elected Board members are: Qondisa Ngwenya, Kim Pople, Ilhaam
Groenewald and Welhemina Grobbelaar.
SASCOC has been riddled in acrimonious infighting that also saw some of the
sponsors pulling out due to corruption, financial mismanagement and
politicking. It is hoped the new board will steer the boat in the right
direction.
As for the elections SASCOC broke new grounds by appointing first Black
African woman elected as 1st Vice President, first time electing two women
in both Vice President positions and first time to elect five women in the
board.
In his congratulatory message Hendricks says: “You have surpassed
yourselves in the election process and your trusted support for the new
board is greatly appreciated. Your commitment and patience are valued.”
“Congratulations to the new Board of SASCOC. I look forward to working with
you.
Thank you to the Honourable Minister, Nathi Mthethwa, the International
Olympic
Committee (IOC), the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and Dr Sam
Ramsamy
for supporting the process. To the members who were nominees, you have shown
that SASCOC is still a vibrant organisation due to the diversity on the
list of candidates.
Your valuable expertise will be needed to turn this organisation around,”
he said.
Minister of sport Mthethwa said it goes without saying that the meeting
took place under the backdrop of bitter infighting and acrimony – a
situation that does not speak well about sports’ ability to effectively
manage their affairs.
“You might remember that having assumed responsibility for this portfolio,
I inherited a process where a Ministerial Inquiry had made several damning
governance-related findings relating to how this mother body of Sport was
run. It was hoped that the speedy implementation of the Inquiry
recommendations, would help nurse the organisation back to governance and
financial health.
To that end, I extended the period during which the appointed Compliance
Task Team, was to help SASCOC with such implementation. Amongst the
recommendations of the Task-Team was the bringing forward of the QGM, which
was first set down for 28 March 2020, before being postponed indefinitely
in the face of the pandemic,” said the Minister.
“However, no sooner had I extended the facilitation process then I realised
that there existed several challenges on the path of normalising SASCOC. It
had already become clear by then that the emerging contestations for Board
positions, within SASCOC, were going to get out of hand if not managed
properly.
In line with my conviction that government needs to intervene in sport as a
last resort, after the relevant sports authorities have had an opportunity
to self-correct, I decided to allow that process to take place.
Accordingly, as early as April 2020, I called upon the IOC/IPC, inviting
them to assist SASCOC with what I considered to be an imminent downward
spiral. Sadly, my request was treated as something that I had just dreamt
up, since SASCOC was considered capable of reversing their fortunes,”
remarked Mthethwa.
The Independent Elections Facilitators of Southern Africa (IEFSA) oversaw
the electoral process and 74 members of SASCOC accounted for a voting
strength of 170.
Dr Sam Ramsamy has been appointed as Facilitator to remedy situation that
beset the confederation that will oversee teams preparing for Olympics
Games next year.
Meanwhile, SA Government, SAFA and other countries have shown support to
Mamelodi Sundowns boss and billionaire Patrice Motsepe for the CAF
president candidacy post in March next year.
Should Motsepe ascend to the highest and influential post on Africa
Continent, he’ll have to severe ties with his winning club Downs’ as this
will be against rules and regulations of CAF.
