Sascoc inquiry: Chuene report proves damming
Details of the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc's) inquiry into suspended Athletics SA (ASA) president Leonard Chuene have revealed that, since taking over as president of ASA in 2005, Chuene's mismanagement had left it R7 million in debt by the end of his tenure, effectively bankrupting the organisation.
A report released by Sascoc today also reveals that Chuene's handling of the Caster Semenya gender controversy was riddled with lies and mismanagement. The three-member Sascoc committee tasked with investigating Chuene has found him guilty of violating Ms Semenya's dignity.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the release of these findings, which reinforces the position we have taken since this matter first made headlines in 2009, namely that Leonard Chuene should have been dismissed by ASA, not merely suspended, and that he should be held accountable for his actions.
The Sascoc findings confirmed that Chuene had ordered gender tests to be performed on Caster Semenya days before she was due to participate in the 2009 International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) event in Berlin that gave rise to the controversy. Chuene had received the results of those tests before the event, and went against the advice of team doctor Harold Adams that Ms Simenya be withdrawn from the race; nor did he see fit to inform her of the results. He subsequently told the IAAF that he did not have any information that cast doubts on Ms Simenya's gender, and cited political pressure from high-ranking South African government officials as the reason for his decision to keep her in the race. He did this despite knowing that the IAAF would subject Ms Simenya to their own gender verification tests.
Sascoc's disciplinary inquiry has found Chuene guilty of nine charges, including charges of misappropriating funds, tax evasion, irregular payment of performance bonuses, receiving per diems for the same event from both ASA and the IAAF, "purchasing" a Mercedes Benz for the sum of R1, and mishandling the Caster Semenya saga.
These findings are extremely damning, and the correct course of action now would be for the National Prosecuting Authority to initiate an investigation into Chuene, and consider charging him with fraud and corruption. We shall also be calling on the Auditor-General to initiate a special audit of ASA.
The DA has in the past called for the Special Investigations Unit to conduct an investigation, not only into ASA and its administration, but also into the Department of Sport, which is responsible for overseeing the management of ASA. We have also called for Chuene and the senior ANC officials implicated in the Simenya saga to appear before Parliament to explain themselves. In 2000, I handed a dossier of information on ASA's financial mismanagement to then Minister of Sport and Recreation, Ngconde Balfour, who chose to ignore it. He should assume moral responsibility for his failure to take appropriate action at the time; if he had, ASA's current woes might have been avoided.
Statement issued by Donald Lee MP, Democratic Alliance Shadow Minister of Sport and Recreation, February 17 2011
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