Sport the biggest loser in all the politics

Perhaps the most challenging factor in the sport of athletics is that no matter how many people line up at the start of a race, only one can emerge as the winner.

And one of the most attractive aspects of the sport, as is the case with many other codes, is the fact that there is always a winner.

But when battles emerge away from the track, unlike those that take place on it, there is rarely a victory to celebrate.

While the sport has found some stability in recent years, an old battle has re-emerged between athletics administrators, and though many of the other players have changed in a revived contest for power, the protagonists remain the same.

A few years ago, Sello Mokoena was the interim administrator of Athletics South Africa (ASA) when the federation’s former president James Evans refused to step down, despite his executive receiving a unanimous vote of no confidence from the ASA council, and Mokoena played a key role in removing the troublesome board and cleaning up the sport.

Now, as the president of KwaZulu-Natal Athletics (KZNA), Mokoena finds himself on the opposite side of a similar battle, and this time he is struggling to find much support.

The provincial body has provided multiple headaches for ASA in recent years, repeatedly bringing the sport into disrepute.

When incumbent ASA president Aleck Skhosana was head of the KZNA executive, he was accused of being irresponsible by signing blank cheques which were used by office staff to commit fraud, though Skhosana has since been cleared and the matter has seemingly been swept under the rug.

During his time at KZNA, Skhosana also became locked in a lengthy battle against Mokoena, who ultimately triumphed in the tussle for control of the provincial body.

Skhosana has since gone on to receive credit for bringing a close to the in-fighting which had brought ASA to a standstill and damaged the sport’s public image, and for his role in solving the sport’s financial crisis after the former administration led by Leonard Chuene was booted out for corruption.

Mokoena, however, has become infamous for his strict approach and has been criticised for allegedly abusing his power at KZNA, apparently following the same stubborn approach which led to the downfall of Evans that he had partly engineered.

Sports administration is a game of politics and the roles of the players are never secure. The labels “hero” and “villain” are simply tags which switch hands over time.

But when administrators push their agendas too far, the whole stack of cards can come crashing down, and kings and queens can fall from grace.

Chuene and Evans crossed the line because both felt they were bigger than the sport, and Mokoena’s recent decision to ignore a suspension of the KZNA board sanctioned by the ASA council was probably not the best move he has played thus far.

Winning battles is one thing, but to win any war, one needs allies.

More importantly, unlike the factor that attracts many fans to the sport of track and field, boardroom battles in athletics rarely result in victory.

Almost invariably, everybody loses, including the sport.