control
While rival organisations compete for control of athletics, Olympic medallist Hezekiel Sepeng has been threatened. Gustav Thiel and Julian Drew report
SPORTS Minister Steve Tshwete this week expressed strong concernabout the administration of athletics in South Africa following threats to the safety of Olympic silver medallist Hezekiel Sepeng before an athletics meeting at the University of Stellenbosch.
The meeting passed without incident – Sepeng won the mile – but tensions remain as opposing organisations compete for control of athletics in the Boland.
And this week a spokesman for Tshwete said a commission of inquiry, similar to the recent Pickard Commission of Inquiry into the affairs of soccer, could not be ruled out.
Trouble has been brewing in the Boland for some time, but the problems came to a head shortly before Monday’s annual Weetbix meet at the Coetzenburg Stadium, when a group called People Against Racism in Sport (Paris) threatened to disrupt the meet. Headed by Wilf Daniels, convenor of Athletics South Africa’s coaching commission and a member of the Boland athletics development committee, Paris claimed its actions were aimed at “ridding South African sport of racism”.
“Maybe my actions will hurt white South Africa, but until there is no more racism in sport in the country I think it is unfair that overseas athletes take part in local meetings,” Daniels told the Mail & Guardian.
Among the athletes scheduled to appear at Monday’s meet were British runner Sally Gunnell, the 1992 Olympic 400m hurdles champion. Gunnell withdrew from the meet – “due to a calf injury”, according to meet promoter Johan Fourie. She was the only international athlete to do so.
Daniels confirmed he had spoken to Gunnell, and insisted she had bowed to political pressure from Paris.
Controversy over the meeting was compounded when Charles Beukes, a Boland athletics administrator and Athletics South Africa (ASA) executive committee member, called Sepeng’s coach, JP van der Merwe, on Sunday and warned him that he could not guarantee Sepeng’s safety if he competed at the meet.
Daniels also called Van der Merwe and tried to convince him to stop Sepeng from competing. He then placed a phone call to Sepeng himself.
“He said, `Don’t even think about coming to Stellenbosch,'” Sepeng recalled. “I asked him why and he said, `You know the problems we are having between blacks and whites down here.’ He said Stellenbosch is a racist club and I must support him by not competing at the meeting.
“I just told him I don’t have any racial problems and he mustn’t involve me with his politics.”
Daniels told Sepeng he had the backing of ASA, but when Sepeng spoke with Banele Sindani, its secretary general, Sindani told him he should compete in the meeting.
Sindani told the M&G that Beukes’s actions were “totally unacceptable”, and that ASA was conducting an inquiry into the incident. “We must make sure nothing interferes with the performances of our athletes. ASA will certainly take the matter further, and will take the appropriate steps, if neccesary.”
The problems in Boland athletics may have less to do with competition among athletes than with competition among administrators.
The administration of athletics in Boland has been split since October 1995, when the executive of the province denied voting rights to new clubs who were forced to join from the Western Province.
Conwal du Plessis, a leading administrator in the province, instituted a court action after he was denied the right to call a general meeting of the executive to discuss the voting issue.
The Cape Supreme Court found in favour of Du Plessis and against Beukes, who was president of the province at the time. Du Plessis was subsequently elected as president on September 23 1996. Beukes was given the right to appeal this decision, but has not yet decided whether he will do so.
Beukes has maintained throughout that Athletics Boland has retained too many white administrators from apartheid days and that it has not done enough for the development of disadvantaged athletes.
The feud has prompted the National Sports Council to appoint a temporary athletics administrator for the province. The administrator, advocate Norman Arendse, is also heading a commission of inquiry into athletics in the Boland.
Arendse said that the Cape Town Olympic bid company has expressed concern about the situation in the Boland. According to Arendse, Daniels had contacted the British Olympic Committee to complain about Gunnell taking part in the Weetbix meet.
Van der Merwe, Sepeng’s coach, also deplored the action of Beukes and Daniels. “This sort of action makes me feel that athletics is moving backwards and shows that we have a long way to go before our house is clean. Although most provinces in the country are free of wrangling, the problems in the Boland need to be sorted out. A lot of fingers have been pointed and I think it is time that someone intervenes in the situation, maybe even the government,” he said.
National Sports Council chief executive Mvuso Mbebe said he felt the problems in the Boland would be sorted out without government interference, but Zipphorah Mothoa, a spokesman for Tshwete, confirmed that the minister was looking into the matter.
Meanwhile, Paris’s effect on Boland athletics proved minimal this week. The threatened protest on Monday did not materialise and the meeting went ahead as scheduled.
“I think it is time for administrators to forget about themselves and think about the athletes,” Sepeng said. “Athletics is my job. Not only to run but also to promote the sport. The administrators must sort the problems out soon.”