ASA’s property sale postponed

REPRIEVE: TEMPORARY DEAL AFTER ATHLETE WAS PAID

Cash-strapped athletics body says money matters are improving.

Athletics South Africa (ASA) remains confident it can resolve its ongoing financial crisis, after managing to postpone the enforced sale of its Houghton property this week.

“The situation is getting better. We’re in the process of dealing with financial matters and I think we’ll see a lot of improvement over the next few months,” ASA president Aleck Skhosana said yesterday.

SA agreed to a temporary settlement with former amateur pole vaulter Jan Blignaut on Wednesday night after Blignaut’s lawyer Frikkie Jordaan met with Skhosana in Pretoria to sign a deal, delaying yesterday’s scheduled auction of Athletics House until August.

Blignaut won an uncontested R10.4 million lawsuit against ASA, which was already about R10 million in debt, in September last year.

The federation’s property was subsequently att ached after it failed to negotiate a payment plan.

Jordaan said Blignaut, a 21-year-old civil engineering student at the time, had sustained a “traumatic” brain injury, allegedly due to negligent officials, at an ASA-sanctioned meeting in Pretoria six years ago.

“We have received a relatively substantial payment, and the terms and conditions for the balance will be discussed over the next three months,” Jordaan said.

“Until then the sale in execution has been postponed, but we are not lying down. In three months if there is no acceptable proposal we will proceed.”

Last month, ASA made an initial payment to Blignaut, preventing the sale of its movable assets, and Skhosana was confident they could agree to a full payment structure before the federation’s office went under the hammer.

ASA remains without a single corporate sponsor after infighting brought it to a virtual standstill last year.