IOC puts foot down on Sascoc election

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has told the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) to toe the line or deal with the consequences.

The Olympic body has given Sascoc strict guidelines to follow ahead of its elections on November 7 at a venue still be confirmed.

Sascoc CEO Ravi Govender and IOC board member and Sascoc election facilitator Dr Sam Ramsamy will work together to make sure that the elections happen. Ramsamy said the elections would go ahead as planned to prevent Sascoc from being placed under administration by the IOC in December.

The federations affiliated to Sascoc couldn’t reach an agreement about acting president Barry Hendricks's suspension. But the IOC has intervened and instructed Ramsamy to install in a new board by next month.

“The IOC’s word is final. The elections are going ahead. They gave us the guidelines to continue and Sascoc interim CEO [Govender] is helping me to put everything together,” said Ramsamy.

The 82-year-old said the IOC was tired of Sascoc’s endless fights that have left athletes struggling while the spotlight is on administrators. “They sent us a letter and told us that enough is enough. The IOC also wants the interim CEO position sorted as soon as possible. By the end of next month, we must have a permanent CEO,” Ramsamy said.

Sascoc will reveal the final names of the presidential candidates next week. Ramsamy made it clear that with or without Hendricks, the elections would go ahead . “We are waiting for the auditors to get back to us with the final names of the candidates and to check if everything is above board.”