Sascoc future a lottery

Facing a significant reduction in funding from the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund (NLDTF), the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) could close its doors within the next 10 months.

This is according to Sascoc chief executive Tubby Reddy, who said the NLDTF had confirmed it would restrict the Olympic body to the same limits placed on national sport federations.

“They have introduced two things which can seriously affect us,” Reddy said.

“The one is that Sascoc will be seen as a federation and funding will be capped at R5 million, and the second is there will be a ‘cooling off’ period, so an organisation that receives funding this year will not get anything next year.”

Last year alone, according to the National Lotteries Commission’s (NLC) annual report, Sascoc had received R184 million, though this included a sponsorship to be utilised for delivering teams to the Rio Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, as well as the AUSC Region 5 Games. In previous years, Reddy said, Sascoc had received between R60 million and R70 million from the NLDTF.

Their new status as a “federation” would limit the organisation to R10 million in a four-year cycle.

“Leadership is negotiating at a higher level, but as it stands we can keep our doors open until the end of the next financial year, which is next March,” Reddy said.

“The team did well at the London Olympics (in 2012) and even better in Rio (last year), but we are still struggling for corporate support.”

With Sascoc relying on NLDTF funding to keep its doors open, Reddy admitted they would not be able to deliver teams to major multi-sport Games if the NLC followed through with its decision.

“There is no point in being open if we can’t deliver teams to events,” he said.

The NLC revealed in March it received applications for as much as R40 billion per year in funding. Its available budget is around R2 billion to be shared between charities, sport and arts and culture.