Cycling SA in crisis & needs leadership

Over the last few weeks there have been some serious issues which have been highlighted regarding Cycling South Africa, most notably after its own internal Finance Review Committee arrived at some deeply disturbing conclusions.

The website OnYourBike.bike has stories detailing facts from a report issued by the Cycling South Africa (CSA)-appointed Finance Review Committee (FRC), which indicate:

1) there may have been “unlawful acts or omissions” which led to the auditors reporting the organisation to the Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors, as required by law;

2) within CSA there is a “lack of sound financial management”;

3) CSA organised “events and projects with no funding to support them”;

4) “Poor management of service providers” by CSA; and

5) there was “Ineffective management of staff” at CSA.

According to the report, the above led to the organisation being in debt to the tune of R4m, an issue that has been developing for the past few years.

OnYourBike.bike has three stories detailing the problems highlighted by the report.

The first focused on the auditors flagging certain issues as "unlawful". The second focused on the review committee’s report on mismanagement. And the final story detailed issues with rider insurances – CSA collected money for insurance but was unable to pay this across to the service provider for a variety of reasons, and also never informed race organisers that Day Licences did not include insurance cover any more, thereby allowing races to effectively collect money for insurance when there was no cover.

There are serious implications for cycling in this country and I have been told (but not yet confirmed) that a bankrupt CSA may have serious long-term consequences, including the fact all SA-registered riders and teams could possibly be prevented from competing overseas, and no race in SA may host overseas riders.

“So what?” you ask. Well, think South African-registered Team Dimension Data; think Absa Cape Epic and its international entrants; think Greg Minnaar; think South African teams competing overseas at World Championships; and think World Cup in Cape Town next year. I need to highlight that, as of now, this has not been confirmed and if it is the case, there is a process before we reach that scenario.

But the big question is: What is being done about the big problem: CSA’s finances?

And this is where I am really worried. So far it seems CSA is operating in a business-as-normal manner and my perception is a concerning lack of will to solve the issues.

The insurance problems have largely been solved, and cost-cutting measures have been instituted, but more needs to be done. A recommendation to retrench the two paid executive positions (General Manager Mike Bradley and Secretary General Greg van Heerden) ended in a exco meeting to retrench Bradley. That was rejected by a 13-2 majority.

Is the general manager of CSA the problem? I think that it is naïve to blame one person and there needs to be a collective responsibility from CSA President William Newman, Bradley and Van Heerden.

Surely it is up to these three people to actively drive the organization forward? With a salary bill of R1.1 million collectively between Bradley and Van Heerden, they are being paid pretty well not to run the organisation into the ground.

I do not know Van Heerden personally, but I have known Bradley since I started riding and have no doubt he has a passion for cycling. And I am convinced he wants to and believes he can get cycling out of the mess. Newman seems keen to do the right thing.

However, it concerns me hugely that the three men charged with leading the day-to-day affairs of CSA have all been in charge for the past five years, during which time the organisation has gone from being solidly in the black, to facing bankruptcy.

Surely it is not logical to allow them to continue.

Yes, there are other mitigating factors, and Bradley highlighted a lot of these in a two-hour meeting I had with him this week.

But at that meeting I was left more worried about CSA than when I arrived. Bradley highlights the myriad problems that are faced by CSA (and they have all contributed to the financial issues), but I cannot get away from the fact that it was up to Newman, Bradley and Van Heerden to handle and solve these, and as far as I can tell they have failed dismally.

I do feel sorry for Bradley. He has taken over running the finances in the absence of a financial trustee, but again it is up the leadership to ensure the right people for the job are in place. He would not be in the position of having to account for financial problems if they had not allowed the organisation to run for almost three years without a financial trustee.

It is time for change.