Julian Drew
THE National Sports Council (NSC) said this week it will investigate allegations of fraud against Athletics South Africa (ASA) which arose during the “rigged contract” scandal exposed by the Mail & Guardian three weeks ago.
The allegations concern a fax sent on October 2 by ASA to Tommy Tesnar, the coach of Olympic 800m runner Marius van Heerden, which arrived mysteriously with an April 22 date imprinted on it.
“We as the NSC will ask ASA for an explanation,” NSC chief executive officer Mvuso Mbebe told the M&G. “It is a serious allegation which amounts to fraudulent behaviour and we must conduct a thorough investigation before we can issue a statement.”
After the story broke, ASA claimed that a contract prepared for the signature of Olympic silver medallist Hezekiel Sepeng was merely a “discussion document”, and that “proof” of this was the fact that the document was not signed. The contract included clauses stating that Sepeng should not attempt to break the South African record except at three meetings sponsored by Engen.
ASA’s story proved to be mendacious after an identical contract was given to the M&G which had been signed by ASA chief executive officer Bernard Rose, Van Heerden and two witnesses. The fax was sent after Rose twice asked Tesnar to destroy the contract signed by Van Heerden in Cape Town on April 20. It contained a clean version of the original contract without the contentious clauses.
“I can’t understand how it happened. Our transmission sheet shows that the fax was sent on October 2 and I can’t answer for what came out on the other side,” claimed Rose when asked about the April 22 imprint. He also denied having asked Tesnar to destroy the contract.