SA Sport deals in Deception

A good column written by a South African Journalist Gary Boshoff

Gary Boshoff

South Africans are in a state of shock after the revelation of the plethora of lies which set in motion the Caster Semenya saga.
However, it is not as if deception and lies have been alien to South African sport all these years, in fact, we have in a way become accustomed to having some sort of sports controversy every now and then. The acknowledgment by the ASA president that he lied to South Africa once again shifted the focus to the importance of leadership (or lack thereof) in South African sport.
Sports leaders are elected into their positions to represent the best interests of their respective organisations and to advance the greater good of sport within the mutually accepted laws, regulations and procedures accepted by all. Honesty and integrity are imperative for leadership to succeed. It is the fundamental principle/norm applicable to every single sports administrator that makes him or her available to lead sport, particularly in South Africa.
Lack of accountability
The lack of accountability and the general underestimation of the rugby public are very evident in the actions of the South African Rugby Union. Over the last few months we have heard various statements made by SARU around the unsuccessful SARU RWC bid for 2015 and 2019, the “Justice for Bakkies” saga, the 15th Super Rugby franchise and the envisaged new format for the Currie Cup in 2011.

During the RWC bid process the SARU representatives insisted that SARU still had a very good chance to host one of these two RWC tournaments, this despite the fact that the IRB appointed RWC (Pty) Ltd sub-committee recommended (after evaluating the SARU bid) that the 2015 and 2019 tournaments go to England and Japan respectively.
For some reason SARU believed and told the South Africa public that they might still be appointed by the IRB despite this decision of RWC (Pty) Ltd. This was apparently conveyed to them by none other than the CEO of the IRB! Needless to say, the recommendations of the RWC sub-committee were subsequently upheld with an overwhelming majority, leaving SARU to be the laughing stock of the rugby world.
The Bakkies Botha “justice campaign” is another case in point. The president of SARU (and IRB Board Member) told the world in no uncertain terms that he stood by the Springboks’ protest and agreed with their protest action. First SARU questioned the “right” of the IRB to call them before a disciplinary committee because of the Springboks’ protest. At some stage there was even a strong intimation from Newlands that SARU would contest the disciplinary hearing. Nothing came of it. After the body was fined by the IRB, SARU vowed to appeal against the “unfair punishment”. It's no surprise to me that we have not seen this appeal materialise as of yet.

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