SASCOC president apologises to SAFA Cape Town and vows to raise dispute with SAFA and FIFA

South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) president Hendricks has apologised to SAFA Cape Town president Bennet Bailey after admitting he had not seen a letter outlining the organisation’s concerns, and has promised to pursue the matter with SAFA and FIFA.

Hendricks made the commitment while speaking at a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee of Sport, Arts and Culture meeting with SAFA earlier this week. He said SAFA Cape Town had sent a letter to SASCOC on 15 July but that it had not reached his desk.

He apologised directly to Bailey and expressed disappointment that he only obtained the correspondence after requesting it, with the letter ultimately sent to him by Bailey and the SAFA Cape Town office rather than by his own staff.

“Before I start, let me apologise to Mr Bennet Bailey, I enquired to the staff about this that they wrote on the 15th of July to our office complaining about the issues and I told the meeting that it has not crossed my desk,” Hendricks said.

“I’m extremely disappointed with the fact that I only received it now on request and it wasn’t even my staff that sent it to me, it was Mr Bailey and his SAFA Cape Town office. So, these are things that I’ll take up with my office in terms of the correct response to matters such as this.”

Hendricks said SASCOC would now engage with SAFA over the concerns raised by its Cape Town branch and would also follow up with FIFA. He added that an investigation into SAFA could be launched if the organisation did not receive a satisfactory response within the appropriate period.

SASCOC has already taken action in other sporting codes where administrative problems have been reported, including Netball, Athletics and Karate. Hendricks said the organisation’s response would be guided by its rules, regulations and policies.

“It’s sad to see the events taking place in our national federations, netball, athletics, football and now swimming. For me as the president for the umbrella body for sport, it is not something that I want to see and not something that I appreciate or respect or take pride in. Now, what are our options?,” he added.

He said SAFA Cape Town had also approached FIFA for intervention, meaning SASCOC would first ask SAFA to explain how it intended to address the issue. If that response was not considered reasonable, SASCOC could begin a formal investigation, following the approach previously used in Athletics and Karate.

“We can as Cape Town SAFA has written to us now and to FIFA, to say please intervene because these are the processes. The first thing then will be to go to our members and say, we’ve received this issue, what are you doing about it and if we don’t have a reasonable response within a certain time frame we will then institute an investigation as we’ve done with athletics, as we’ve done with karate and so on. “So, that is the role of SASCOC, as I’ve said, this just crossed my desk, I’ve not seen it before and I do apologise to Cape Town SAFA and to the football fraternity there. I will deal with this matter within the SASCOC’s rules and regulations and policies.”

Hendricks’ comments came amid wider administrative concerns across South African sport, with SASCOC also having dealt with reported challenges in Netball, Athletics, Karate and swimming. He said the SAFA Cape Town matter had only recently come to his attention and that he would now ensure it was handled through the organisation’s established procedures.