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Johannesburg - South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) president Gideon Sam has defended himself against allegations he is given a R6 000 daily allowance when traveling.
Sam took the stand on the final day of the month-long Zulman Inquiry, which has sought to investigate possible maladministration at the organisation, on Wednesday.
With suspended CEO Tubby Reddy having taken the stand last week and attacked the SASCOC board for allegedly mismanaging funds and manipulating the constitution, the attention turned to Sam on Wednesday.
Sam denied accusations that there were issues with the way the organisation was being run, but perhaps his most shocking response came when he was questioned over the daily allowances given to traveling members of the SASCOC board.
Sam is given a daily allowance of around R6 000 per day (on top of a R21 000 monthly stipend, as well as flight and accommodation costs) when representing SASCOC abroad.
But, when asked if this was excessive, Sam disagreed.
"If I look at what the rand and the dollar were back then, it was small money," Sam was quoted as saying by IOL.
In total, SASCOC spends around R2.2 million on daily expenses for traveling board members.
Sam then hit back at accusations that SASCOC was dysfunctional.
"An organisation is not dysfunctional if on March 26 it has a farewell function and sends about 300 athletes and managers to the Commonwealth Games," Sam said.
"An organisation is not dysfunctional when it can continue to pay its services and so on, an organisation is not dysfunctional if somewhere it has reserves to the tune of R18 million. An organisation is not dysfunctional when they run the programmes of coaches and associations on a daily basis."
