Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 122, September 2019 | Page 35

OPINION
falls under the province of Gauteng and the local
government of Tshwane. All good and sensible, with
no funding confusion or clashes. However, ASA’s
Central Gauteng is a mess. It consists of Ekhuruleni,
Johannesburg and West Rand District Municipality
(i.e. Merafong City, Mogale City and Rand West
City Local Municipalities). Now the funding issues
start. CGA also falls under the Gauteng provincial
government, no problems there, but if CGA cannot
receive funding from the City of Joburg, unless the
money is going to be spent on the ratepayers of
Joburg, likewise when an event is held at Germiston,
the Ekhuruleni municipality cannot use its funds to
provide buses for participants from Soweto (which
is in Joburg). If one municipality allows an athletics
body to use one of its facilities for free, but 90% of the
participants come from another municipality, who is
benefitting from the free funding?
Not only are the municipalities legally bound to spend
their money on their own areas, but sooner or later the
ratepayers of one area will object to subsidising the
ratepayers of another one. And this situation plays out
across the country, where ‘provincial’ athletics bodies
overlap more than one municipal boundary. Funding
from government becomes incredibly complicated,
which in practice limits its availability.
Clinging to Old Boundaries
The Sports Indaba in 2011 took a decision to change
sports boundaries to the geo-political boundaries in
South Africa. An attempt was then made in 2013 to
revise the athletics boundaries, to fall in line with the
Constitution of the country, but this led to vociferous
opposition from some ASA affiliates, who ensured
the matter was never debated. One of the arguments
against changing the boundaries was that the
ANC has adopted a policy that they will investigate
reducing the number of provinces from nine to six.
However, this has been the case since 2007, and
nothing has yet come of it!
In any event, the number of provinces does not
affect the principle involved, and the reason that ASA
appears to be clinging to the old boundaries is a
relatively complex question, with no openly-admitted
answer. The situation is a lot more complex, and has
more to do with egos than practicalities, and the
answer lies in understanding several factors.
are seen to be trodden on. Then, when consensus is
reached – and I have yet to know a fixtures meeting
where there wasn’t consensus reached – everyone
goes home happy and the next year’s road races are
set... generally without a speech being made.
Licences are a form of taxation in South African
athletics, the enforcement of the tax being the
need to wear the licence number bib during events.
The original intent, which was to ensure that all
participants agreed to abide by the rules and thus
were licensed to take part, has been lost. In a
complex system, the national federation issues the
bib number and their provincial delegates sell them to
their affiliated clubs, who in turn supply them to their
members, and the provincial federation keeps the
proceeds. This is generally the main source of income
for most provincial federations (if not all). However,
as a distribution point, this function could be done by
anyone.
2. Championships and Teams
This pretty much leaves provincial championships and
teams. When it comes to provincial championships,
nearly all ASA ‘provinces’ use existing club road races
as their championships, and a large number of these
‘provinces’ don’t hold track & field or cross country
championships – or if they do, they are so small as
to be hardly worth holding. But as with the other
functions already discussed, any governing body
can hold a championship, so whether it is the current
‘province’ or another body is irrelevant.
Provincial teams are the biggest problem when it
comes to the current structure of athletics in South
Africa. Let’s start from the perspective of the athlete:
They want to represent their region. For many it is
the pinnacle of their athletic careers. For others,
it is the stepping stone to greater things, as you
get to go to SA Champs, and if you do well there,
you could be selected for a national team, and
thus your international career could be launched.
Representative teams are really important for athletes.
From a federation point of view, unfortunately, and it is
necessary to be blunt about it, it is all too often about
egos. Federations spend about half their budgets on
sending teams to national championships, which is
not a bad thing. The problems, however, are not with
the cost to the federation, but in the abuse of power
that comes with the whole exercise. Let’s start with
how a team is selected.
Some provinces set insanely high selection standards
in the belief that the aim is to win medals. I have
seen provincial selection standards which require
athletes to break the national record just to make
the provincial team. Of course, this discourages
half the athletes immediately and they give up.
This is sometimes followed later by athletes who
did not meet the standard being selected, which is
more discouragement to the rest. Other provinces
just select anyone who pitches up at the provincial
championships. Of course this is unfair on the athletes
from the stricter provinces, but there is possibly no
solution to that problem.
In Western Province, for track & field we set our
standards based on the top six at SA Champs over
the past five or six years. This was a fair standard,
as it filtered out the effects of altitude if the champs
were rotated, and it also ensured that the athletes
selected would mostly make the finals. Of course, it
was not top six on the overall stats list, but purely at
the national championships. That also meant that the
effect of championship racing was also taken into
account. In theory, we were on strong grounds.
I was a selector for a number of years, and then later
as president of WPA, I had to sign off on teams.
The Provincial and District map of South Africa, showing the
boundaries that some believe the sport of athletics should
also adopt, as other sporting codes have
1. The Role that Provinces Play
In simple terms, their primary role is essentially to
co-ordinate provincial fixtures and to distribute licence
numbers. If we add hosting championships, selecting
provincial teams and providing technical officials, it is
really hard to see what else they do. Now, attending
provincial federation meetings is an interesting process.
There are lots of motivational speeches by important
people. The delegates to the meetings usually nod their
heads and get irritated with anyone who disagrees with
the important people. Reports are tabled and budgets
are presented (normally at the meeting, without being
distributed before the time), and everyone goes home
with nothing really having changed.
However, attend one of the fixtures meetings – which
generally just focus on road running fixtures, as the
track & field and cross country people still do their
own thing – and you will see a very different story.
Delegates participate quite strongly, especially when
the month in which their clubs’ races fall is being
discussed, and get quite animated if their interests
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