Michael Finch Athletics
Just when you thought that Athletics South Africa (ASA) was finally repairing the rift between administrators and athletes, it ruins all the good work.
This week many of the country’s top stars had debit orders returned on car and house payments while battling to put food on the table, after ASA failed to pay them agreed monthly retainers on time.
The retainers are part of ASA’s financial support programme, launched amid much fanfare and pomp last year in May.
Last year’s contracts ended in December 1999, and although meetings to finalise the 2000 contracts were held in November, it took the country’s national federation until January 29 to eventually produce the paperwork for signing.
That should have been the end of the story.
The athletes duly signed in the hope that they would receive their monthly income at the end of January but up until this week, ASA had still not deposited the money into their accounts.
Almost all of the country’s best athletes have been affected, including arguably South Africa’s hottest track and field property, hurdler Llewellyn Herbert.
“It’s absolutely ridiculous,” Herbert fumed. “Not only do they owe me my monthly retainer but they still haven’t paid me my appearance fees for the Absa series.
“They owe me around R20E000 in total. I have various debit orders that have been returned this month because there simply isn’t any money in my account.”
Herbert, although sponsored internationally, depends on his monthly R4E000 stipend from ASA, while living in South Africa during the European winter.
Ranked number one in the world in the 400m hurdles last year, Herbert is concentrating all his energies on winning gold at this year’s Olympic Games but, having just bought a house and a car, is now facing a financial crisis.
Many of Herbert’s counterparts, although refusing to be named, confirmed ASA had not paid the retainers. “This kind of uncertainty makes life very difficult,” one athlete said. “As far as we were concerned everything is in order. But we just seem to get no response from ASA.”
Herbert said he had attempted to contact ASA chief executive Banele Sindani on Tuesday to resolve the matter but was told that Sindani was in a meeting.
When approached by the Mail & Guardian, Sindani’s secretrary referred the matter to competitions director Chris Botes.
Botes blamed a delay in administration for the late delivery of cheques which, according to Botes, would be deposited into accounts on Wednesday.
At the time of going to press, the payments had still not been made.
“The contracts were only signed at the end of January,” Botes said, “and not all the athletes signed all the contracts. There was a whole heap of cheques which had to be sorted out.” Botes promised the payment of the monthly retainers “should be a lot smoother in future”.
The programme is funded by cellular network Vodacom, and pays a certain number of top athletes monthly amounts depending on their status in the international arena.
Ironically, ASA made history with the announcement of the programme last year. It was the first federation in the world to enter into a substantial financial support programme for athletes.
The bungling has cast a shadow over many of the superb early season performances in the Absa series, which resumes on Monday night with the fourth leg in Potchefstroom.
Although many of the country’s Olympic prospects were expected to start the season slowly in order to peak for the Sydney Games, the first three legs of the series have produced some remarkable performances.
Not least of which was that of shot- putter Burger Lambrechts. The burly Commonwealth Games champion produced a superb heave of 20,55m in the second meeting in Pretoria to miss Jan Pienaar’s 10-year-old mark by just five centimetres.
Given the early date of the meeting and the fact that many of the other athletes were simply trying to shake off the cobwebs, Lambrechts’s performance was remarkable.
Clearly the big man is ready to move up another level in 2000.
After the first three legs of the series, Herbert and fellow 400m hurdler Surita Febbraio top the Absa series standings, despite Lambrechts’s performance.
That may seem odd given that Herbert only competed, and won, in Pretoria. But given that the rankings are judged on performances in relation to international standards, Herbert’s Pretoria time of 49,14 seconds was enough to give him 1E107 points.
At the same meeting, Febbraio finally
escaped from the shadow of mediocrity to post the second-fastest 400m hurdle time ever by a South African. She, like Lambrechts, will be hoping the momentum continues until September.