Mbalula to intervene on councils

FIKILE Mbalula, the minister of sport, is seeking a meeting with the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) to discuss a wide range of issues, including the tensions between administrators.

This comes after the Gauteng Sports Council accused Sascoc of hijacking its proposal to revive sports councils. Sascoc has refused to recognise the Gauteng council.

Mbalula will also discuss the suspension of three Athletics South Africa board members, Leonard Chuene, Kakata Maponyane and Simon Dlamini, by Sascoc.

The trio were part of the ASA top brass suspended by Sascoc in November last year based on their handling of the Caster Semenya gender tests. The meeting between Mbalula and the Sascoc top brass, led by its president Gideon Sam, will take place next week.

"Minister Mbalula will meet Sascoc and the MECs to deal with the issue of sports councils," said Mbalula's spokesperson Paena Galane.

"Sascoc is responsible for high-performance sports and the government is dealing with sports development through the National Sports Council.

"The council is a civil society body monitoring service delivery by the government in sport.

"The sports councils are therefore the service agents of government," said Galane, who added that they were fully behind the revival of the councils.

Gauteng Sports Council chairperson James Shabangu said they appreciated the intervention by Mbalula.