BOARD REPORT ATHLETICS SOUTH AFRICA ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING JUNE 2012

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1 BOARD REPORT ATHLETICS SOUTH AFRICA ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING JUNE 2012 Introduction Athletics South Africa has been through a traumatic period in its recent past, but we are showing signs of recovery. Administration, although still far short of optimum, is improving, the financial situation has steadied and our athletes are performing well. It has been hard work to get to this point, but we need to carry on the momentum into the future. Athletics South Africa should be taking the lead in Africa in athletics and it should also be a major player on the international scene. While small steps have been taken in that direction, we have a long way to go. Olympic success in 2012 is possible, although we cannot predict it. When 2016 and 2020 arrive, Athletics South Africa must be in a position to not wish for success, but be able to predict it. The incoming Board still has a lot of work to do, but the signs are there that we are on the path to success. Elections This Annual General Meeting is the culmination of a period of great uncertainty. Noone would have predicted, in 2008, that within the next four years the entire elected Board would be suspended, the organisation placed under administration, that there would be no formal AGM in either 2010 or 2011, and that there would be three sets of elections in the space of about 18 months. That is precisely what has happened. Fortunately, after this coming AGM, normality will have been completely restored and the organisation can get back on its feet again. Finances The current Board came in to find a large amount of inherited debt and legal claims. Some of the claims, which in particular cases, were either fictitious or grossly Page 1 of 9

2 inflated. However, they have all had to be investigated and dealt with. It is hoped that they are now with dealt with or in the process of being dealt with. The current financial statements do reflect a loss for 2011, but it must be recalled that the warning was given when the 2010 statements were presented that there was a lot of debt and it would affect future performance. While the current financial position is not strong, it is under control. In order for this to remain so, a plea must be made to the members to not look to the national federation to keep assisting financially. While there are cases which merit assistance, Athletics South Africa cannot continue to be a cash machine to bail out members when their own books don t balance. A proper plan for how we finance athletics in future, using all available resources be it government (at all levels), the National Lotteries Distribution Trust Fund, commercial partners, etc to the optimum effect will need to be worked on between the new Board and the members of Athletics South Africa. Administration For two years the organisation was hamstrung by the lack of an administrative head of the organisation. This followed upon the suspension of the General Manager of Athletics South Africa by the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee. Interim measures were put in place, including one of the Board members assisting in that role, but none were ideal. At the end of 2011 a concerted effort was made to appoint a new chief executive officer, which culminated in the appointed by the Board of Mr Frik Vermaak, effective from the start of This has begun to ease the administrative pressure on the Board and to alleviate some of the administrative problems. However, we cannot ignore the problems we face. A lot of administrative knowledge was lost with the replacement of the entire top structure of the organisation. Structures were also demolished and need to be rebuilt. Communication has been identified as a major problem in the organisation. Although it has improved, too many problems experienced can be traced back to simple lack of communication. Both the office and the new Board need to work on this. Page 2 of 9

3 While there are administrative problems at a national level, this level is experienced almost across the board in South Africa. Only a handful of provincial structures are administratively sound, with some at the opposite end of the spectrum being dysfunctional. This needs to be addressed urgently. Without open, transparent and honest administration there cannot be proper corporate governance. On the plus side, a new website has been developed and launched. At the same time, an online licence registration system is being tested and should be ready for use in the second half of Competitions One area in which there has been substantial improvement is the standard of event organisation. While there is still lots to do to improve to an international standard, the quality of events organised by Athletics South Africa has improved markedly over the past two years. This has been partly due to new focus and commitment by the staff in the office, but also do to greater responsibility being given to the host provinces. In many cases they have stepped up to the mark and put on events of a high standard. The move towards live results for track & field events being posted on the internet was a step forward. There has also been a concerted effort to include as many different provinces in the hosting of events. We are sometimes asked why we have gone to what seem to be out of the way places. The simple answer is that the entire country are members of Athletics South Africa and not just the major centres. In 2012 the following have, or will, play host to Athletics South Africa events: South Western Districts, Eastern Province, KwaZulu Natal, Central Gauteng, Guateng North, Central North West, Griqualand West, Boland and Western Province. South Africa again played host to the African Cross Country Championships, having also hosted the first edition in The event was another success. In October 2011 we invited three international Race Walking Judges to the SA Race Walking Championships in Cape Town and applied to the IAAF to have the event recognised as an Olympic qualifying event. Although no-one qualified at that event, it was the first international race walking event in South Africa and hopefully the first Page 3 of 9

4 of many. The event did pay dividends, with a team sent to the IAAF Race Walking Cup in Saransk, Russia in May 2012, where Marc Mundell qualified for the Olympic Games. Two SA Road Races were also recognised as Olympic qualifiers the SA Championships and the Cape Town Marathon, which has AIMS status. The following races were also granted international status by being awarded IAU Label Status: Two Oceans (Gold), City to City (Bronze), Om die Dam (Bronze). Two new track & field events were held this year, with great success: The Inter Club meeting, where the top 8 clubs took part (the hope is to extend this competition in future years) and the SA Open Championships (with SA Senior Championships being limited to South Africans only, this event was an opportunity for non-south Africans to compete, and there response for the first year was promising, with several countries taking part). In 2012, for the first time, the SA Junior and Youth Championships were combined with the SA Schools Championships. This was in line with the school sport policy of the Minister of Sport. The meeting, although it had its challenges, was a success. Performances The general standard of performances by South African athletes has improved across the board. The depth of performances at all levels has improved on pervious years. So far this year the following senior records have been set: Women s Triple Jump (broken twice by different athletes); Men s 100m record (equalled); Men s 3000m (indoors). This has lead to large and strong teams being selected for the African Senior Championships in Benin later in June and the World Junior Championships in July. Despite fairly strict standards being set for the Olympic Games, 13 athletes have already qualified. At both championships, for the first time, men s and women s 4 x 100m and 4 x 400m relay teams will represent South Africa. (And at the Olympic Games there will be a full compliment of men and women in the marathon.) Page 4 of 9

5 At the World Indoor Championships in March, the team did not win any medals, but did return with a South African record and Lehann Fourie made the final in the 60m hurdles. The performance at the African Cross Country Championships was disappointing, after the strong showing at the World Championships in The Cross Country Commission has worked on proposals for how this can be rectified and improved in future. The Youth and Junior teams both dominated the opposition at the Southern Region Championships in April and May. The Youth team won 36 medals and the Juniors won 41. Coaches The lack of effective and co-ordinated coaching structures has been limiting development at both a grassroots and an elite level. Athletics South Africa is working with SASCOC to be included in the national coaching framework. As such a number of names have been forwarded to SASCOC to act as Coaching, Technical Official and Administration developers. At the same time, we are building a database of all coaches in South Africa. All members are asked to encourage their coaches to complete the forms recently sent out and to return them to the office. This includes all provincial, club and schools coaches at all levels. We are also working on a new syllabus for coaching courses, which will allow us with the IAAF system. It is hoped to have this up and running in the second half of Technical Officials The standard of officiating at some events has been a cause for concern. While we have top class officials who have passed the IAAF courses, we do not have quality in depth. This needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency. A committee is already looking at training, etc. It is hoped they will be able to report soon so that work can be done of training more officials and improving the standard across the board. Page 5 of 9

6 Associate Members SASAPD We have worked together with SASAPD this year to include disabled events at Athletics South Africa competitions. The results have been spectacular, with several South African, African and World Records set. A number of qualifying performances for the Paralympics Games were set at these meetings. This relationship must be developed in future and Athletics South Africa must provide more assistance to SASAPD in the hosting of events. SAMA The relationship with SAMA has been good. Since such a high percentage of athletes registered with Athletics South Africa are masters athletes, this relationship must be developed further. The masters circuit can and will be bigger in South Africa if we develop this already strong relationship. USSA The relationship with USSA is strong, but needs to be developed event further. Leaving aside the professional road running clubs, nearly all the top clubs in South Africa are the student clubs. They already play a huge role in the sport, but there are further resources which can be tapped into, such as their academic knowledge and facilities. These are currently being under utilised. SASA A relatively rocky relationship was improved this year, which lead to the combination of the SA Junior and Youth Championships with the SA Schools Champs. The relationship can be improved further. In keeping with the plans of the Department of Sport and Recreation, school sport is key to the future success of sport in the country. We need to ensure that all children are given access to schools athletics in South Africa. Page 6 of 9

7 Governance Issues Amongst the many findings of the SASCOC investigation into Athletics South Africa was that in several aspects there had not been proper compliance with the Companies Act and with other requirements of good corporate governance. It must be remembered that Athletics South Africa is a non-profit company. A number of steps have been taken to improve that situation. Board committees were formed, but in some situations could not be filled because of a lack of available people. It is a concern that a number of the committees were not functional, but due to the time period for which they were to function, it was not possible to give proper training on the requirements of the job. This is something which the new Board will have to give urgent attention to, as it is essential that all the Board committees, as well as the other Athletics South Africa standing committees, are at full strength and operational. The non-functioning of certain committees can lead to a breach of the Companies Act. The failure to comply with the requirements of SRSA cost the organisation funding during This was largely due to the lack of documentation and proper structures in the organisation and the office. The only committee appointed during 2011 was the finance committee. Initially this consisted of Arnaud Malherbe and Motlatsi Keikabile. Other members were to be added from outside of the Board. Following on the suspension of Arnaud Malherbe, Motlatsi Keikabile was the sole member of the committee. At a meeting of the Board in February 2012 the following committees were appointed: Audit and Risk: Chairperson to be co-opted; Members to be co-opted; by invite: president, CEO, external - and internal auditor. Disciplinary: Chairperson: Hendrick Ramaala; Members: Motlatsi Keikabile and James Mokoka (This committee needs to set up the disciplinary structures and makes sure that competent people are appointed to it. The actual committee will only be constituted when a disciplinary issue arises. A Board Member to be the coordinator. An Appeal Committee will be a direct outflow of the Disciplinary Committee, and will be part of the structures this committee proposes.) Page 7 of 9

8 Finance: Chairperson: Hendrick Ramaala; Members: Motlatsi Keikabile and James Evans Remuneration: Chairperson: James Moloi; Members: Geraldine Pillay and 3 rd person to be co-opted Social and Ethics: Chairperson: Shireen Noble. 2 nd and 3 rd person to be co-opted Bids Committee: Chairperson: James Mokoka; Members: Aleck Skhosana and Mike Ralethe A company secretary, Lucas Viljoen, has been appointed. The company secretary is not a full time position and the person s job is to ensure that there is compliance with the Companies Act and various other pieces of legislation. One of the issues which hampered the Board s progress was that the names of the directors before the 2008 elections were still reflected on the Companies register as being directors. Because many had been suspended, resigned or voted out, it was difficult to get the necessary documentation to get the change of directors registered. This was not attended to while the company was under administration, but it has now been resolved. The Way Forward A number of issues have still not been completed and there new challenges on the horizon. * The constitution needs to be re-written. The current constitution was originally written for a different era and it does not comply with the IAAF constitution, nor with many laws which have been passed in South Africa since it was first adopted. This is urgent. An attempt to deal with it in late 2011 was prevented by opposition from one province and an associate member, and a motion to amend the constitution was subsequently withdrawn. Nothing has happened since then. However, this state of affairs cannot continue or the organisation will be in breach of the law. * The timing of the Annual General Meeting (and resultant elections every four years) needs to be addressed. To have the AGM immediately before the international season and before the CAA and IAAF Congresses creates problems with continuity and with presenting names to attend those meetings. Page 8 of 9

9 It is also disruptive to the Olympic preparation cycle to have elections immediately before rather than after the Games. Although there has been little in the way of a long term plan for 2012 because of what has happened, there needs to be a proper plan in place for 2016, which the Board needs to account for at the end of its term. * Proper administration and compliance with legislation is lacking across the board, from club to national level. People need to be trained and made aware of their obligations. Sports Administration, due to the several legal requirements, is no longer a hobby. Failure to comply with the law will lead to reduced funding and, possibly, civil or criminal liability. * Coaching and support structures need to be set up and sustained. This is essential for the future development of the sport. And with sustainable development comes true transformation. Linked to this, there must be a concerted effort to establish closer links with the academic institutions. * The most important and urgent challenge is to implement the Sports Indaba resolution on demarcations. All federations have to align with the boundaries determined by the Demarcations Board. This cannot be delayed any longer and must be dealt with before the end of Conclusion While there is a lot to be done, the new Board will have a platform from which to develop the sport in the next four years. Athletics must not aspire during that time to be in the so-called top three sports in South Africa, it must aspire to be number 1. Page 9 of 9