Martial Law Fight bodies square off in messy spat
Body claims invoicing and accounting errors were ‘unintentional’
● Claims of financial mismanagement and a death threat have rocked Martial Arts SA (Masa), the umbrella body for non-Olympic, non-Chinese fight styles.
In the one corner is the board, with two key members this week admitting to the Sunday Times that there had been mistakes in accounting and invoicing, and the annual financial statements had not been audited.
All the errors were unintentional, said Masa president Louise Viviers and secretarygeneral Gregory Hart who, like the rest of the directors, are volunteers. Their expertise is martial arts and not finances.
In the other corner is one of the member bodies, the United Knockdown Organisation SA (Ukosa), which houses some of the Masa critics.
Temperatures ran high at Masa’s September annual meeting as financial questions and allegations were hurled about.
About two months later a death threat was levelled at Viviers as well as her housemate, Ameldia van Zyl.
A man with a West African-sounding accent called her before noon on November 19: “Hello Louise, I’m coming for you and you’re a bitch. I know where you stay [then he reads her address].
“You’re messing with the wrong people. We’re going to kill you and your bitch Ameldia. We’re going to kill you slowly by slowly. We’re going to help you stop your s*** now. Your days, they are numbered.”
Viviers wasn’t short of suspects. On her way to report the case to the police she phoned SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) vice-president Barry Hendricks, and suggested it had emanated from within Ukosa.
Hendricks said he called Ukosa president Peter Thage, a respected figure in local karate circles, to ask if he knew anything. Thage, the only black president within Masa, took exception at being the first port of call.
Viviers has insisted she never suspected Thage himself, describing him as a gentleman.
According to Masa, allegations of fraud and other accusations were levelled at the board from within Ukosa, and the umbrella body demanded proof or a retraction.
When neither arrived within their deadline, Masa suspended Ukosa on December 2.
Ukosa approached Sascoc with a dossier that included a mountain of invoices.
Sascoc on Friday made a “strong recommendation” to Masa to revoke the suspension because no internal disciplinary procedures were followed.
“We further propose that representatives from both Masa and Ukosa arrange to meet at the Sascoc offices, at your earliest convenience, for a mediation session.”
Also on Friday, Masa sent members its audited financials for 2019 on its first step to correcting past practices. Viviers and Hart said they were unaware that their financials had not been audited until it had been pointed out at the last annual meeting.
“We assumed they were audited,” said Hart. “We have corrected that.” The auditors had also told them they needed to submit invoices rather than quotations, added Viviers.
The biggest change to the books after the audit was on the balance sheet, with depreciation reducing fixed assets from R131,000 to R6,360.
The invoices in the Ukosa dossier show
I’m done, I’m tired. It’s time for the next generation to take the beating
Louise Viviers
Masa president
that Viviers, Hart and a third director, George van Diggelen, did contract work with Masa.
Viviers started an ad hoc first-aid company hired by Masa at the Arnold Classic while Hart rented his studio to the federation to host annual meetings.
Van Diggelen, an educator, designed coaching modules for martial arts and only late into the deal was co-opted to the Masa board, said Viviers.
All three submitted the cheapest available quotes, they pointed out.
Hart said that for a body with yearly membership fees of only R90,000, and with the burden of a salaried employee, there wasn’t money to steal. “The maths doesn’t work.”
Viviers had grown Masa’s annual revenue by more than R200,000 by getting martial arts involved at the Arnold Classic and developing coaching courses for member groups.
Viviers, in a lengthy telephone conversation with the Sunday Times, justified many potentially questionable payments by Masa and admitted to some mistakes.
On a work trip to Cape Town with the Masa employee in 2017 she was accompanied by a friend and inadvertently claimed back that person’s flight from the body. “I’m happy to pay that back if they want,” said Viviers, whose house doubles as the Masa headquarters.
She was reimbursed for a R10,900 carpet because many tiles in the office had broken because of foot traffic and equipment. Retiling would have been more expensive.
Viviers’s tenure as president is set to end next year. “I’m done, I’m tired. It’s time for the next generation to take the beating.”