Suspended ASA trio to seek legal advice

Suspended Athletics South
Africa (ASA) vice-president
Kakata Maponyane says he
and his colleagues will seek
legal advice before they
decide whether to appeal the
verdict of an inquiry panel.
"We need to get some clarity
on matters and we'll meet
with our legal
representatives before we
make a decision," Maponyane
said.
Maponyane, ASA president
Leonard Chuene and
executive member Simon
Dlamini were all found guilty
of various charges by a
disciplinary committe, the SA
Sports Confederation and
Olympic Committee (Sascoc)
said in a statement on
Monday.
Maponyane said that Sascoc
had lost track of its
investigation.
"They have shifted the
centre of this matter and
have become sidetracked,"
he said.
"My suspension was based
on the alleged
mismanagement of Caster
Semenya when we allowed
her to run at the 2009 World
Championships.
"Nothing else was mentioned
in the letter of confirmation I
received regarding my
suspension. Now I have been
found guilty of corporate
governance and
misappropriation of funds.
"What is that? I don't deal
with finances, so how can I
be charged for financial
issues?"
Maponyane, who had until
Thursday to file an appeal
along with Chuene and
Dlamini, said he had not
received any notice of the
inquiry panel's verdict.
Sascoc CEO Tubby Reddy
said the Olympic governing
body had followed due
process and would continue
to do so.
"We are comfortable with the
integrity of the process and
the investigation and we will
accept whatever action the
investigation deems
necessary when it makes its
final decision," Reddy said.
Sascoc suspended the entire
ASA board in November 2009
over its handling of the
gender debacle surrounding
Semenya, after Chuene
admitted lying about tests
conducted on the world 800m
champion in Pretoria.
All the board members
except Chuene, Maponyane
and Dlamini resigned.
Sascoc called for an internal
audit after taking control of
ASA, which reportedly
revealed financial
mismanagement.
As a result, internal
disciplinary charges of poor
corporate governance,
misappropriation of funds
and tax evasion were
brought against Chuene,
Maponyane and Dlamini.
The disciplinary hearings
against them were held
between November 8 and
December 13.
Although advised to attend,
Chuene, Maponyane and
Dlamini chose not to present
themselves to the hearings,
Sascoc said at the time.
The High Court in
Johannesburg dismissed the
trio's application for an
interdict to prevent
disciplinary procedures.
The courts also turned down
an application by them for
arbitration.
The arbitrator, former chief
justice Pius Langa, ruled that
the Sascoc constitution fully
covered the matters they
had raised and the dispute
was accordingly "not
arbitrateable".
The three had claimed that
disciplinary committee
chairman Norman Arendse
would invariably have a
relationship with Sascoc
through his previous
position as head of Cricket
SA.
Sascoc said on Monday the
internal disciplinary hearing
had found the three guilty of
a number of "serious
charges", but not guilty of
other charges.
The ASA and Sascoc boards
were given the option of
acting on the disciplinary
panel's findings or referring
them back for appropriate
action.
Sascoc said it had elected to
hand the matter back to the
inquiry.
Chuene, Dlamini and
Maponyane would have until
Thursday to appeal the
findings, after which the
panel would announce its
sanctions.
In November, they said via
their lawyers that they would
continue to fight the
disciplinary charges as they
believed Sascoc had no right
to suspend them.
They said they were
preparing an application to
review a number of Sascoc
decisions including their
suspensions and the
appointment of Sascoc board
member Ray Mali as ASA
administrator.
They charged that Sascoc
had acted unlawfully in
staging a "coup" to take
over ASA.
Sascoc handed control of ASA
to its newly elected board in
November when new ASA
chairman James Evans said it
was ready to tackle the new
year despite the three
vacancies on the board.