GCIS MINISTERIAL MEDIA BRIEFING
Minister of of Sport and Recreation
12 September 2001

Documents Handed Out:
Minister’s Media Briefing September 12, 2001 [See Appendix below]

Questions by media and replies by Minister, Mr Ngconde Balfour

(Q) Is there any evidence on the one million rand alleged to have been misused by Athletics South Africa (ASA)?
(A) The Chief Financial Controller in my office and KPMG (auditors of ASA) have found no evidence of this alleged misuse of funds. The only amount found to have been missing is money that was given three years ago to a certain Mr. Brown from Japan. ASA must open litigation against this man as an individual. The problems encumbering ASA are very internal problems. ASA has been advised to appoint their media liaison officer. ASA has no proper relations with its provinces, which leads to these internal squabbles. The CEO and President tend to be very aggressive against any one acting against the organisation.

(Q) What is your take Ali Bacher reluctance to bring the World Cup games to Chatsworth, Zwide, Langa, Alice and Galishawe.
(A) This should not be treated as Ali Bacher's matter but as an United Cricket Board (UCB) issue. The UCB has agreed that these places be used as centres for warm-up games. We have learnt that warm up games do not attract seriousness on the part of players and media groups do not attend those games. We are taking up this matter with UCB and will be meeting with UCB soon. The UCB has said that for these centres to host games of a World Cup calibre, an amount of one million US dollars would be required to upgrade each of them. The total amount would be five million US dollars

(Q) Is Government willing to put this money into these areas if the UCB does not have this money?
(A) Government does not have the money. We will try to fundraise this money if an agreement can be entered to that proper games will be brought to these places. This venture is an investment in that it would put these places on map and as such might attract investors. It also assists in developing these fields as the infrastructure put in place would remain after the World Cup and as such they would constantly be used for other international and national games.

(Q) The Ngoepe Commission probing the Ellis Park disaster is independent. When can we see the inquest starting so as to see perpetrators brought to book?
(A) We will have to wait for the Commission to finish so as not to have parallel investigations going on. When the Commission was instituted, it was agreed that no prosecutions would follow. This was to enable witnesses to come forward freely to testify without fear of testifying in courts and to have maximum co-operation from the witnesses so that the Commission can get deep into the matter and make proper recommendations to avoid this happening again. ‘Perpetrators’ is not a suitable word to use, no one can perpetrate a disaster because this was not a planned programme.

(Q) Amongst the resolutions at the special forum, Racism in Sport, at the Racism Conference, it resolved that governments must organise forums where the issues of racism in sport are talked about. How far is the government in doing this?
(A) We have started to organise these forums. For instance, we will be meeting soon with SANEF, meeting with the South African Sport Journalist Association (SASJA), so as to continue talking in order to have the same understanding of sport. There is now a standing annual sport convention in a quest to implement this resolution.

(Q) Does Henry Viljoen take the issue of representivity seriously. Is he the right person to talk to on this matter?
(A) He takes it very seriously, we finally understand each other a lot. We have moved away from talking about representivity only to the executives of federations. We are meeting with the selectors, coaches, and players themselves. We are meeting with everyone who is involved in the running of sport, so that when we talk about representivity, we can be understood. We are doing this so we will not be seen as imposing policies. When we are sure that we are understood, we will hammer anyone who does not tow the line.

(Q) What is the time frame for this representivity programme to be completed?
(A) We have given federations a choice to give us their performance agreements that include the representivity strategies. Then at a certain stage we will evaluate these performance agreements. If a federation has not stuck to its representivity strategy, we will be very harsh on it. These performance agreements will be evaluated at the annual sport convention where all matter pertaining to sport will be evaluated.