Parliament condemns Mbabula’s spat with Viljoen

Cape Town - The Portfolio Committee on Sports and Recreation said that they will not condone the behaviour of Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula and Olympic javelin thrower, Sunette Viljoen.

The ongoing Twitter war between Mbalula and Viljoen transpired after an extra "bonus", which was promised to Rio Olympic medallists, was not paid.

Mbalula pledged to pay gold medal winners an additional R100 000, silver medalists R70 000 and bronze medal winners, R50 000.

An extraordinary social media war-of-words between the pair took place last week.

The Portfolio Committee on Sports and Recreation told Sport24 that they did not condone the behaviour of Mbalula and Viljoen on social media.

“This may be difficult to those on the receiving end for many reasons, but in spite of it all, this does not mean that the parties involved must engage each other in an unprofessional manner and as such, does not condone any of the two parties’ public spats," said Beauty Dlulane, the chairperson of the Portfolio Committee of Sport and Recreation. 

"Sport and those tasked with running it, can only make it successful if they can run it as professional as possible."

Viljoen confirmed on Saturday that she finally did receive the R70 000 bonus promised by Mbalula.

However, hours after the confirmation, Mbalula took to his Twitter account to respond to Viljoen in a series of tweets.

READ: Mbalula pays Viljoen, has one final dig

Mbalula said Viljoen refused the process, which was within a 30-day waiting period, saying “you didn't have to fight - you had to wait for the process to unfollow. Your impatience wanted us to bypass them for your expedience”.

Dlulane admitted that they are aware that the department is working on “improving its turnaround time for the payment of suppliers”.

“SRSA (Sport and Recreation South Africa) has not been perfect and may take longer than the prescribed 30 days, it therefore, cannot be correct to condone such, but also for those that have a problem to sometimes behave in a manner that is not assisting the process," said Dlulane.