The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc), an organisation charged with providing solutions for the issues plaguing Cricket South Africa (CSA), showed itself to be a house equally in disarray when it appeared before the Parliamentary committee for sport on Tuesday.

Divisions among those present were visible for all to see as the organisation’s acting president, Barry Hendricks, was openly criticised by some board members at the presentation, including Netball SA president Cecilia Molokwane and another board member, Kaya Majeke.

Hendricks was suspended as acting president by the board in mid-April, for allegedly conspiring with Tennis SA president Gavin Crookes to block a rival, Ntambi Ravele, from standing against him in the organisation’s elections.

However, during a special general meeting (SGM) held in September, Hendricks’ suspension was lifted when he received 47 votes against 10 from the general assembly, which then ordered the board to scrap the disciplinary hearing it had instituted and reinstate him to his previous position.

“This board would do anything to try and institute any process to try and keep me out of the Sascoc elections. And I’ve been quite patient, over seven months, legal fees, the stress and strains with the family. And through the arbitration process I was found not guilty,” said Hendricks in Parliament.

During her presentation to Parliament, Sascoc chief operations officer  Patience Shikwambana said they had expected the SGM to be co-chaired by themselves and Sam Ramsamy, a board member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), who is working with Sascoc as facilitator of the upcoming elections within the organisation.

This did not happen, as Ramsamy allegedly ran the meeting himself, which they flagged as being unlawful. The board tried to point out that it had a guiding constitution and that through his actions Ramsamy was flouting its constitution.

“In that SGM, at the beginning, I raised a hand, and as board member, I said ‘the meeting is unconstitutional’, and the facilitator [Ramsamy] said nothing is unconstitutional, he’ll do as he pleases because he doesn’t go with the law, he doesn’t care about the law, he doesn’t care about what we say – he’s IOC and he’ll [do] what IOC told him to do,” said Molokwane.

“And I said, ‘Did the IOC tell you to flout your own constitution?’ And he said, ‘We will flout it as much as we can and do what we want.’ That should be noted, that facilitator said that, and that’s on record. If you want the record, as the portfolio committee, I believe that you have the powers to get the record and listen to the whole meeting.”

Some members of the committee expressed concern that Ramsamy was not present to defend himself against these allegations, with Hendricks saying some of the things being said about the facilitator were unfortunate.

It was then resolved that Sascoc should avail itself for another presentation this coming Tuesday, and should ensure that Ramsamy is present to answer for himself.

Another absentee from the meeting was Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture Nathi Mthethwa, and the parliamentary committee also stressed it is imperative that he is present when Sascoc returns before them on 27 October, so that he can take in the issues and even intervene if there is a need.

“The minister must be closer to the process, whether you call it intervention. It’s better that we be suspended and fix our issues than to be afraid of suspension by the international organisation [IOC] when things are not going well in our country,” said committee member Mammoga Seabi. DM