ASA boss Skhosana wins arbitration, moves for Sascoc presidency

Athletics South Africa (ASA) president Aleck Skhosana will be allowed to run for a position on the Sascoc board and a possible presidency.

That was confirmed in an ASA statement released on Monday.

Skhosana’s nomination was controversially thrown out by Sascoc ahead of what was supposed to be a March 28 election, but with that process postponed because of the coronavirus crisis, Skhosana took the matter to arbitration.

According to the statement, he has come out on the right side of the ruling and will now be able to stand when the voting does go ahead.

“In a ruling released today, the arbitrator Nazeer Cassim SC released his findings in which he ruled that Skhosana’s nomination was valid and he is eligible to contest for a position as a Board member of SASCOC for the next Olympic four-year cycle,” the ASA statement read.

“Cassim based his ruling in particular on clause 12.2 read together with clause 12.12 of SASCOC’s Constitution.

“Farrell Moses, Cecilia Molokwane and Jerry Segwaba, who had also challenged the decision of SASCOC’s Independent Nominations Committee which had ruled their nominations as ineligible, were also ruled as qualifying and eligible to stand same for the election.

“The Independent Nominations Committee was made of Xoliswa Sibeko, Advocate Jason Mitchel and Samkelo Radebe.

“For ASA, this is the second successful arbitration award against SASCOC after Skhosana had been unceremoniously expelled from the Board in 2017 and had to be re-instated after SASCOC was challenged for a hasty and unconstitutional decision in removing him.

“With the disputes relating to eligibility to contest elections to the SASCOC board now having been resolved, ASA looks forward to more stability at SASCOC. ASA trusts that Skhosana, who is currently the Acting President at SASCOC, will be allowed to demonstrate his leadership capabilities, as he has done with ASA and bring much needed unity to that organisation, especially in the face of certain members calling for a SGM to remove the current board, so that harmonious elections can be held at the earliest convenient time.

“ASA calls on all federations to support the current SASCOC board pending the elections as this ruling will now allow the SASCOC Council to decide who should lead it by popular vote.

“ASA challenged the Nominations Committee decision and subsequent related pronouncement in order to correct an obvious oversight on its part in not properly vetting Mr Skhosana and reminds SASCOC about corporate governance principles which should trigger the Olympic body to refocus on its core functions.

“We believe the Board must now be permitted to focus its attention to the daily business of SASCOC which is to support athletes in the Operational Excellence Programme.”

– Sport24

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