The process to transform athletics in South Africa is far from over, but Athletics South Africa is a transformed federation.
That was the view of ASA president Aleck Skhosana on Friday after the national body announced that they have received backing from the Department of Sport and Recreation to host the African Senior Track and Field Championships in June.
The event is set to take place in Durban from June 22-26, but there were doubts about whether it would go ahead after ASA were named as one of the four sporting bodies who had not achieved transformation targets that they had agreed to previously.
On Monday, Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula revoked the rights of ASA, SA Rugby, Cricket South Africa and Netball South Africa to bid for any major events as a result.
Skhosana and the rest of the ASA board were surprised by the outcome as they had been compliant when the previous evaluation was conducted in 2014.
Upon doing their own investigation, they found that an administrative bungle led to certain information being left out in the report handed to the Department of Sport and Recreation, which is what the Eminent Persons Group based their recommendations on to Mbalula.
With the African Championships on the horizon, ASA sought a meeting with the department to explain the situation, and were granted one with the Director-General Alec Moemi on Thursday in Tshwane.
“When I looked at the entire thing, there was some critical information that was supposed to have been completed, and it was not completed – some of the spaces were left open,” Skhosana told Independent Media on Friday.
“But in other places, we were scoring 100 percent, 90 percent, 80 percent. But a few areas (were left out), and no matter how few, they are critical and they count. That’s what happened.
“I can’t mention the areas, but there were very few areas. But it was a matter of saying when it comes to statistics, if you don’t complete it and don’t put down every bit of information, it counts at the end.
“If all the data had been completed in the way we did it in 2014, we would not have experienced any of these problems. If you compare this year to 2014, we got good points in 2014 and this time, because of the few areas (that were left out), we ended up in this (situation).
“But remember, as board members, we don’t do this on a day-to-day basis, as we’ve got staff who write these things up and receive information from the provinces and whoever. When there is something (wrong), as the ASA board, we crack the whip – irrespective of who is involved in that (not filling in all the information).
“We are saying that ASA will never be in this situation again. Everybody knows what we represent – if you look at all our teams, from the juniors to Under-23s, seniors, road running – it is one of the sports that bring people together.”
Skhosana said that a “group of experts” had been brought in to ensure that the correct information is submitted to the department.
But while he was delighted that the African Championships would be going ahead in Durban – and 400m world champion Wayde van Niekerk told Independent Media recently that he will participate in the event – Skhosana said that there is still a long road ahead to ensure that athletics continues to grow and transform.
“What the Minister has done, it’s good – it is going to strengthen our hand and our work out there when we talk to our members. Transformation is a need and transformation is a reality, and if we don’t do it, we will be leaving out the majority of the people of this country. And who knows, out of the people that we are leaving out, we may be leaving out the Olympic champion,” Skhosana said.
“But as we stand right now, through our transformation and development initiatives that we have been applying for years, we have someone like Gift Leotlela, who became the Commonwealth Youth Games (100m) champion, running 10.20 seconds. Can you believe that?
“We have other athletes, 18-year-olds, who are doing well at a senior level. There are many of them coming through and it is because of transformation, it is happening on the ground. But we need to strengthen it and systematise it, and record what we are doing, and make everyone part of athletics.
“Athletics South Africa is a transformed federation and continues to transform. We can’t say that we have completed transformation as it is an ongoing process. For example, in the senior women (category), we still have to do a lot.
“So, it is a problem in this country in many codes of sport, where in youth and junior levels, they are coming through, black and white. But as soon as you go to the senior level, they drop off after the junior age-groups.
“So we have to come up with a strategy as to how do you make sure that you keep them and that they develop and continue to go to the world championships and the Olympics up until they reach 30 years of age and above.”
@IndyCapeSport - Independent Media