Parliament roasts Sascoc as administrative issues plague SA sport

Daily Maverick

24-04-2025

The parliamentary sport committee believes that the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee needs to be more proactive amid persistent administrative issues within federations.
The parliamentary committee on sport, arts and culture has called on the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) to improve how it manages the federations under its jurisdiction.
The committee was highly critical of the umbrella body of South African sport.
From the beleaguered Swimming South Africa to the South African Football Association (whose president stands charged with using the federation's funds for his own benefit), the country's sporting bodies regularly overshadow the achievements of athletes on the field through boardroom politics and maladministration.
Netball South Africa (NSA) is the latest organisation to take the floor for a dance of shame after the organisation's president Cecilia Molokwane was suspended by World Netball last week.
Sascoc president Barry Hendricks made an appearance in Parliament on Tuesday, 22 April. He appeared alongside the NSA's hierarchy, minus Molokwane. The NSA president is barred from participating in any netball duties until World Netball has concluded an investigation into her.
Sleeping on the job
Sport committee members admonished Hendricks for the constant spotlight on South African sports entities for negative reasons. As the NSA staff was put into a pressure-cooker and struggled to answer questions, heads turned to Hendricks in disappointment.
'Sascoc is sleeping on the job. Because you can hear even from the responses of the Sascoc president. He doesn't know. He's not ashamed to say he doesn't know. Yet [Sascoc] is the governing body that looks after these federations,' said committee member Eugene Mthethwa.
Mthethwa's assertions were echoed by fellow committee member Matsholo Mmolotsane.
'All our sports entities are dying under Sascoc. The president cannot come here and boast about Sascoc having 85 federations. How many of those federations are well-oiled machines? It's not even 50%. You might find that it's only 5%,' Mmolotsane said.
'Why do we have Sascoc? If the head is not functioning well, the body will collapse,' she said. 'It can't be right. It's so disappointing that every time these entities come here, they have problems. And we keep on pumping money to those entities.'
Sascoc says…
Hendricks, though, said the criticism of Sascoc was unfair. It could not interfere in the daily operations of federations, which had their own constitutions and internal processes.
He rightfully pointed out that since his election in 2020 (and re-election last year), Sascoc had navigated itself out of financially stormy waters. This was a shrewd diversion from answering the question on Sascoc's role in South African sport.
'It happens every week. Something is going on that's negative in sports. It does get depressing, especially because you've just turned your organisation around and your organisation is not really at fault, in terms of its operations,' Hendricks said.
'It becomes really embarrassing and confusing when your major sports find themselves in positions like this. It's mainly about bad leadership and bad governance,' the Sascoc president said.
When he was asked why it took World Netball to act on the allegations against Molokwane, when she has regularly been accused of maladministration in recent years, Hendricks said: 'The reason is no one sent us anything. There were no whistle-blower requests to Sascoc to take any action. It's very difficult for an organisation to get involved without any firm evidence. Obviously, somebody has sent information to World Netball.'
NSA's Molokwane speaks
Molokwane, meanwhile, has vowed to clear her name.
In an email read to Parliament to explain her absence, Molokwane said she believed she had no case to answer to.
'World Netball has yet to determine whether I have a case to answer, nor have I been formally charged with any misconduct,' Molokwane said.
'I vehemently deny having conducted myself in contravention of World Netball's disciplinary code and will vigorously defend any allegations which may subsequently be levelled against me,' the suspended NSA president said.
'I firmly believe in the importance of due process and the right to a fair hearing. All I ask is for the opportunity to present my side of the story and to defend myself against allegations that have been made by anonymous individuals,' said Molokwane.
'Whistle-blowing should serve the purpose of accountability and transparency, not to be a tool for faceless accusations that risk damaging reputations without proper scrutiny,' she said.
Molokwane is bidding for a third term as NSA president after first being elected in 2017. Her suspension has slowed the momentum of this ambition, while the floundering display of the rest of the NSA hierarchy in Parliament paints a grim picture, from a leadership perspective.
'I hope when the term of this leadership ends, we will find a new broom that will sweep cleaner. Because this one is tired,' Mmolotsane said of NSA's leaders. DM