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Cape Town - The Department of Sports and Recreation on Thursday reached a consensus with Athletics South Africa (ASA) which has allowed the national federation to host the CAA Senior T&F Championships scheduled for Durban on 22-26 June 2016.
This followed the pronouncement of Minister of Sport and Recreation Fikile Mbalula on Monday, in which he announced the revoking of the privilege of ASA to host and bid for major and mega international tournaments in the Republic of South Africa.
This, the Minister said, was as a consequence of ASA not meeting their own set transformation targets.
The Minister’s announced the ban at the handover ceremony of the third Eminent Persons Group (EPG) report for 2014/2015.
ASA confirmed on Friday that at a meeting held on Thursday in Tshwane led by president, Aleck Skhosana and the Director General of the Department of Sports and Recreation, Alec Moemi, that an agreement had been reached.
"We thank the Minister, the DG and the Department for the sensitivity they have exercised around this matter," Skhosana sais via a statement.
"We appreciate, in particular that after our discussions between the two parties, the Minister’s office threw their weight behind our hosting of the African Championships which they noted should proceed undisturbed as it had already been in preparation long before the announcement of the Minister on Monday.
"On our side, we have acknowledged to the Minister through the DG, the areas where we have had shortfalls in the accounting process and a special team in our office has been set up to address these said areas.
"Thereafter, ASA will re-submit what’s outstanding within the shortest possible time, as we are confident and pride ourselves as one of the best compliant sports federations in South Africa when it comes to transformation.
"We have identified the relevant glitch or two that have led to ASA being counted among the sports bodies that the Minister referred to. We will ensure that this mishap is not repeated."
ASA, Skhosana said, has been one of the pioneers of the Transformation Charter and they remained in the forefront in ensuring that this goal remains in the national federation’s day-to-day focus of the sport.
