The sad state of SA sport

I have been watching very closely the ability of sports “managers” getting worse and worse. To my mind pops Boxing SA, Athletics SA, rugby at most times has had some question hanging over it although not in the last eight or so years, SA football and now we have what I believe to be the most embarrassing, Cricket SA. I have already written about SA Cricket, now I believe it important to talk about the very poor (to put mildly) management within SA sport and I don’t exclude government from this although under the watch of Sport Minister Fikile Mbalula and the deputy minister, Gert Oosthuizen, I believe things can improve.

This is what appeared in the Sowetan on July 1 2011 by Bongani Magasela: “Boxing South Africa is bankrupt. BSA’s executive board member Sakhiwo Sodo has revealed.” The BSA is reported to owe Sars about R8 million and that the national governing body used the boxers’ benevolent fund (money deducted from their purse monies) and sanctioning fees to pay staff salaries. It gets better, the acting chief executive, Loyiso Mtya, was on suspension with full pay, of course. At last knowledge he had returned to BSA but this time as director of operations after the national body could not find grounds to charge him. This is the position that Mtya held before he was appointed acting chief executive after the departure of Bongani Khumalo two years ago. Mbalula recently appointed Moffat Qithi as permanent chief executive.

Khumalo, as reported by Caiphus Kgosana, allegedly reported a financially healthy organisation but wiped valuable information from computers and lied to the board about the body being in good financial health. The writing was already on the wall in 2009, why in 2011 has this not been rectified? Khumalo then reportedly had the audacity to take a swipe at the department of sports and recreation, saying it had failed to offer clear guidance and support to Boxing SA. With respect Mr Khumalo this was your job to manage. Boxing SA’s annual report in 2009 showed that it was technically insolvent and that it had received a qualified audit for five consecutive years. Despite this, Khumalo was granted an increase of 45% that took his salary from R624 000 in 2007/08 to more than R1 million. Khumalo left in May 2009. It is pure and utter incompetence. Which company in this world would tolerate Khumalo’s behaviour, then two years later still be in financial difficulties, to the extent that it is now claimed to be bankrupt? I wish I could really offer up the words that come to my mind in my description of these managers … nothing as nice as above.

Enter Athletics SA. Their handling of the Caster Semenya issue was nothing short of disgraceful and in the middle was this athlete trying to represent her country. A leaked email is what it took in this mismanaged environment forcing Leonard Chuene to admit that he knew women’s 800m champion Semenya had undergone a gender test prior to the world championships, something he had always publicly denied. He then claims he kept the information secret to safeguard the 18-year-old’s privacy. Yes Mr Chuene we are all a bunch of idiots … Oosthuizen at the time said “Chuene has not only lied to us at the ministry, but to the whole country, and this is not acceptable”. “We are convinced that the perpetual denial of the knowledge of these tests have fuelled the continuous violation of Ms Semenya’s rights and dignity, by foreign and some local media.” He went further to say that the department had twice requested a report from Chuene on events before, during and after the championships in Berlin, but had received nothing in return. Here is Sport and Recreation South Africa asking for information and it cannot be given — I hold both parties equally accountable for this failure.

In the interim SA was laughed at, not only Athletics SA but sports management in the country. Ultimately I know that Sport and Recreation South Africa cannot be everywhere all the time but technically they are responsible for every facet of sport in SA. In finality to this Athletics SA issue, the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) suspended Chuene, a process ensued and he is no longer working there but the damage was already done to SA sport, athletics and Semenya’s career.

You would be forgiven for thinking there cannot be more. Enter Cricket SA and the SA Football Association (Safa) with stories you may or not be aware of. In summary Safa bungled qualification for the African Cup of Nations by not making clear for themselves what the rules of the competition were — so Bafana draws a soccer game and does not qualify. Poor management.

Cricket SA are not dealing with one financial bonus scandal but two. The main issue at play as I detailed in another article is that Cricket SA chief executive Gerald Majola allegedly received a bonus payment of R1.4 million without proper approval. To add insult to injury the payment of this money was reportedly proposed at a board meeting, which declined the proposal to then be told that it had already been paid on May 30 2011. This is for an official that has a reported monthly salary of R177 000. Now in my opinion the man who is doing what he should be doing, former Cricket South Africa president Mtutuzeli Nyoka, is no longer in that position. Makes me think, how about you?

So in a snapshot there are four sports that play a major role in different spheres of South Africa culture and life and yet are so badly managed — money is blind in most of the cases. In two of them it was simply utter incompetence and mismanagement. As for Boxing SA and Cricket SA it would seem that appointed chief executives are surrounding and have surrounded themselves with loyalists. In countries such as the US, UK or Australia the chief executives would have most probably resigned from sheer embarrassment but no doubt their boards would have fired them forthwith.

For many years now I have said that we have a desperate void of quality management in sport in this country. I was privileged to sit in meetings with mandated representatives of Sascoc, the Services Seta, Da Vinci University and Boston City Campus where we discussed this very issue. I played an integral role in formulating a very concrete plan to educate, enrich and up-skill managers, chief executives and future office bearers within all SA sport to deliver on their mandates and operate their sports professionally and effectively thereby giving all South Africans confidence in the process — it is not as hard as it may seem. What it will take is unwavering commitment to:

• Excellence

• Transparency

• Professionalism

This process never saw the light of day in my opinion mainly due to the parties jockeying for what profits there might have been. Another project foiled by good old money. It can work. It should work. It must work.

How? There needs to be some commitment from Sport and Recreation South Africa to contribute financially to the project, this would probably translate to R70 million over three years, which would include improvement of current managers/administrators to creating the next generation of accountable leaders. I then believe that corporate sponsors should pay 10 to 15% toward such a project and it must be managed by a newly established sports practitioners and administrators council that will answer to a board made up of corporate whizz kids, the president of Sascoc and a senior representative of the department of sport and recreation. This council is not there to grease anyone’s hands; there must be a chief executive or a champion who must be paid a competitive salary for sure but within two years we would be able to see tangible improvement in the quality of manageme
nt being implemented in sport.

What also is beneficial is that the council will be there to support all administrators ranging from the chief of SA Rugby to the chief executive of SA Marabaraba board games as well as the director of sport at schools like Hilton College to the sports practitioners at Laerskool Oosterkruin. All and any person coaching, managing or administering sport will be accountable.

For now as supporters and fans we sit by and watch sport association after sport association claim insolvency, pay out massive salaries and unapproved bonuses.

I for one, am tired of it.