New athletics chief promises to end ‘war’ at ruling body
NEW Athletics South Africa president Aleck Skhosana promised yesterday that his board would put athletes first.
Bidding to end years of poor administration and infighting, ASA delegates voted Skhosana into the hot seat yesterday. Harold Adams will be his vicepresident.
They found no room for former ASA president James Evans, who received the lowest number of votes among the four presidential candidates.
Skhosana received 31 votes, incumbent KwaZulu-Natal Athletics president Sello Mokoena got eight, Steve Mkasi seven and Evans just three, according to a source at the meeting.
In total, 10 people were elected to the board that will take over from the ad hoc committee put in place by the world governing body for athletics, the IAAF, after ASA all but collapsed.
Only two of them have not served on previous ASA executives. Skhosana, Adams and Motlatsi Keikabile were on the board during Leonard Chuene’s era, during which ASA’s decline began.
The federation reported an annual deficit of nearly R1million for 2007, despite boasting a turnover of more than R40million.
After losing sponsors, its current turnover is thought to be not much more than the annual broadcast rights fee with the SABC, believed to be worth less than R10-million. Its debts are about R5-million.
Skhosana, a former hurdling, javelin and shot put schools champion who once ran in the same relay team as Olympic medallist Frankie Fredericks, said he would appeal to the government, the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee and the lottery for financial help.
“To get sponsors, it is critical that you must be peaceful,” he said, vowing that the election of the new board had brought to an end the “war at ASA”.
Under Evans’s presidency, boardroom battles paralysed the federation. At least five members of his old board were re-elected.
Skhosana, a former teacher who majored in accounting and business economics, spoke about the need to implement policies and structures aimed at making athletics strong again.
“Athletics is about athletes, coaches, technical officials, competition. All they want to know is that there is a calendar and when they are competing.”
He added that in training athletes, ASA should look abroad for help and collaborate with the Jamaicans and Americans for sprints, and the Germans and Finns for throws events.
Skhosana was voted out as KwaZulu-Natal Athletics pres- ident in 2012 after a financial fraud scandal was uncovered, but he dismissed claims that he was still under investigation.
“We [the executive] did everything we could do,” he said, explaining that they had organised a forensic probe, which eventually named some staff members.
He said it was not the first time such rumours against him had surfaced.
The new ASA board comprises Aleck Skhosana (president), Harold Adams (vice-president), Jakes Jacobs (cross-country commission chairman), James Moloi (road running), Pieter Lourens (track and field), Dorah Mngwevu (athletes), Motlatsi Keikabile, Shireen Noble, Ntathu Gwadiso, Esther Malema (all additional members) and Jazz Mneyengeza (nominated by schools athletics).