Big Mystery over Sascoc’s R390,000 air ticket to Kuwait

The body’s flight costs are under scrutiny at inquiry

● An air ticket to Kuwait for nearly R390,000 is one of several anomalies uncovered on a travel schedule for the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc).

A list of international travel costs was drawn up earlier this year at the request of the ministerial committee of inquiry into the umbrella body’s governance issues.

The committee has handed its report and recommendations to sport minister Tokozile Xasa and sources say it is expected to be made public within weeks.

The Sunday Times is in possession of the 17-page document that details travel-related expenses at Sascoc from April 2013 to March 2018, amounting to a few million rand.

Tubby Reddy, the CEO who was fired from Sascoc early this year, accounted for more than R1.2m of that, including per diems of more than R160,000. President Gideon Sam was the next busiest traveller, weighing in at more than R780,000.

Sascoc’s acting CFO Ravi Govender wrote in an e-mail in early June that: “Fincom [the financial committee] is in agreement that there are a number of anomalies on the travel schedule that needs investigation.”

These included “excessive disparity” in flight costs for the same route — like one board member’s ticket to Glasgow in 2013 totalling R65,318 while Reddy’s, booked on the same day, was R34,692.

Sascoc, which paid more than R100,000 for some tickets, allowed management and board members to fly business class abroad.

The most expensive ticket — R389,952.81 — appears to be shrouded in mystery.

The document states it was for former board member Mubarak Mohamed to travel to Kuwait to attend an International Court of Arbitration seminar in 2014 — but not only did he not go, he said he was never scheduled to go. “They never even mentioned Kuwait to me,” he said.

Also down for the same trip were Reddy and lawyer Raymond Hack, who was on Sascoc’s anti-doping committee at the time.

The document shows that R351,000 of Mohamed’s ticket was paid back to Sascoc on the same day the ticket was supposedly paid for, April 30, 2014.

The difference of R38,952.81 matched the cost of Reddy’s ticket, but he too didn’t go.

Hack, whose ticket cost R35,100, said it was an anti-doping seminar and he had submitted a report on it to Sascoc. “I went on the instruction of Sascoc ... Certainly no one else came with me.”

Per diems of R10,877.32 were listed as being paid to each of Reddy, Mohamed and Hack, but Hack said he received no allowance.

Reddy said he and Mohamed were scheduled to accompany Hack on the trip, which he insisted was for a Court of Arbitration seminar.

“All I know is the three of us were supposed to have gone. The tickets would have been refunded as per the normal process,” he said, adding the price of Mubarak’s flight seemed like “a huge misprint”.

Reddy, whose battle against his old employer will continue at the CCMA next month, said the document could be a way of trying to discredit him and others who were opposed to Sam.

Mohamed — and others at the confederation — said the figures needed to be checked against the bank accounts of Sascoc and their travel agent, Fli-Afrika.

The company was mentioned at the ministerial inquiry when fired CFO Vinesh Maharaj testified that renovations to his home had been paid for by Fli-Afrika, which had mistakenly overpaid a service provider more than tenfold by transferring R535,000.

This was used against Maharaj at his disciplinary hearing.

Sam said he couldn’t comment on the document until investigations were done.

All I know is the three of us were supposed to have gone

Tubby Reddy

Sascoc CEO