Probe follows claim against SA netball head
Netball SA (NSA) is probing an allegation that president Cecilia Molokwane is not a paid-up member of the federation and therefore should not be in office.
“We are in the process of internal investigations,” the federation’s CEO Blanche de la Guerre told the Sunday Times.
The claim has been treated with caution in some circles. One federation official said: “It is 2021 and it is the year of elections. It is déjà vu of 2017.”
The allegation was contained in a letter by NSA’s director of coaching, Anneline Lewies, who was responding to an email by Molokwane who had made accusations against her.
“As per correspondence received from your district, Capricorn, on [November 23] you are not a registered member of NSA and therefore you cannot be the ‘President’ of
NSA,” wrote Lewies.
The Capricorn district letter Lewies referred to stated: “This is to confirm that … Molokwane has been omitted on the Capricorn District data base forms. Due to her position as [NSA] president we thought that by virtue of being a president she is automatically a member in good standing.
“Kindly note that she is the founder and the owner of the Rising Stars netball club, she has affiliated her club to the District which [is] also in good standing.”
Molokwane didn’t respond to the Sunday Times’ attempts to get comments and Lewies referred the paper to her lawyer who also didn’t reply.
Lewies made mention in the letter of allegations that had been made against her in 2020 by Molokwane, which she claimed to have refuted. The spat also spilt into yesterday’s controversial AGM of the fledgling SA Sports Coaching Association (SASCA).
Molokwane recently instructed all coaches “to withdraw all interactions with SASCA”. Lewies was among 13 people nominated to serve on the new board.
SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) president Barry Hendricks said he had written to SASCA chair Farrell Moses indicating there were flaws and requested they postpone the election and redo the nomination process.
Moses said SASCA was satisfied it had answered questions that had been raised about governance issues. He also dismissed the honesty of a claim that coaches had to pay R400 to participate in the AGM, which had been delayed from last year. That was one of the issues cited by Molokwane.
The SASCA AGM and election went ahead at the Sascoc offices yesterday.
You are not a registered member of NSA and cannot be the ‘President’ of NSA