The first hand grenade attacking the integrity of the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) election process and its new board has been lobbed‚ although it seems to have been defused.

A letter from University Sport SA (USSA)‚ dated October 28 and sent to TimesLIVE on Sunday‚ questions the appearance of Ilhaam Groenewald as a USSA member on the list of nominees for the board.

Groenewald was one of the eight members elected to the Sascoc board on Saturday.

The letter to election facilitator Sam Ramsamy‚ signed by USSA CEO Louis Nel‚ pointed out the body had chosen to nominate its president‚ Nomsa Mahlangu.

“USSA wishes to place on record that … Groenewald was nominated by the SA Gymnastics Federation without the approval of USSA‚ ie … Groenewald’s nomination was never endorsed by the NEC and/or council of USSA.

“We made it clear to the SAGF that the national executive committee and council of USSA only endorsed the nomination of … Mahlangu.”

The letter also quoted the Sascoc constitution saying nominees had to be endorsed by the relevant national federations.

Some sports officials have argued that candidates can be nominated by any federation as long as they have letters of good standing from their home federations.

Ramsamy confirmed he had received the letter and said he had forwarded it to the Sascoc’s nominations committee‚ which had dealt with it.

“Louis Nel acknowledged it‚” he said on Sunday. “He didn’t pursue the matter further. He could have still gone to the appeals committee.”

Nel didn’t want to get drawn into the matter deeply‚ but confirmed to TimesLIVE it was no longer a problem.

“The matter is now resolved‚” he said.

The issue was also discussed briefly during the election‚ with delegates being told that only one of the two could be elected‚ but the two were eligible to stand.

In the vote for the five ordinary board members‚ Groenewald came in fourth with 65 votes‚ behind Alan Fritz (106)‚ Qondisa Ngwenya (87)‚ Kim Pople (66) and one ahead of Moekie Grobbelaar (59).

Next were Wendy Gila of roller sport (47)‚ Mashilo Matsetela (softball‚ 38)‚ Louise Lombard (fencing‚ 36) and then Mahlangu (34).​