The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee has invited members of the parliamentary committee on sport to be its guests at the Rio Olympics. Sascoc CEO Tubby Reddy broke an assurance that he would speak to us, Sunday Times asked DA’s spokesman on sport, Solly Malatsi . . . Who initiated the invitation?We were in a committee meeting and members from the ANC expressed an interest in going to Rio.They say that Sascoc initiated it?Sascoc sent an invitation to us formally.Was that after ANC members of the committee said they'd like to go to Rio?Yes, after they expressed an interest.story_article_left1Sascoc says that inviting MPs to the Games is a longstanding tradition as part of their oversight duties?Just because it's a longstanding tradition doesn't make it right.Sascoc says it is part of the MPs' oversight duties, but if they were interested in fulfilling their oversight duties would they allow Sascoc to extend such invitations to them?Exactly. But, also, what kind of oversight would MPs do at the Olympics when South Africa is not hosting the Olympics any time soon? It's not like they're going to look for best practice on hosting Olympic Games. This current group of MPs will extract no value whatsoever by going to Rio.So it's just a fat freebie?It's a fat freebie. But also Sascoc doesn't use these [invitations] innocently. They know that this kind of thing is an enticement to politicians so that they can soften them in order to prevent them from being robust when they're supposed to hold Sascoc accountable.For the way it throws money around?For how Sascoc administratively manages its own resources.mini_story_image_hright1How effectively does it manage its resources?There is a lot of exorbitance, particularly in the office of the CEO and president. Expenditure that could be avoided if Sascoc was prudent with its resources.One remembers the 2012 Youth Winter Olympics in Austria, which Reddy and four other officials flew to in business class when South Africa had only one participant?There is no sense of austerity in terms of financial spending on the executives of Sascoc, but when it comes to athletes they go for the most mundane, cheapest form of expenses. We're talking about an organisation that often has a delegation at events that is higher than the number of athletes competing.Which of course means less money for those athletes?For anyone who follows sports development in the country you get the sense that the leaders of sport in the country don't understand the magnitude of the difficulties that athletes endure, particularly with regard to access to resources and financial support. It's a bunch of individuals who are self-enriching, and who are in it for the glitz, the glamour and the nice life that comes with being a sports executive.This is precisely where the portfolio committee should be exercising oversight, isn't it? Not in Rio.Absolutely. To my own embarrassment the committee isn't robust enough on these issues largely because the ANC majority blocks any scrutiny. It's not surprising that Sascoc offers them enticements such as this junket to Rio. What we now know, because of this invitation, is that Sascoc has a clear strategy of enticement so that there cannot be any scrutiny of their financial performance. It also raises questions about the extent to which politicians are vulnerable to improper influence by bodies like Sascoc.story_article_left2Is there a lot of this kind of thing from other sport bodies?Maybe we need to shine the spotlight on members of the portfolio committee to have a look at how vulnerable they are to improper influence by sport administrators and see if it is only Sascoc who does this, or are there other federations we don't know about because those enticements have not been made public yet?What do you suspect?Look, there are a lot of politicians who like nice things that come for free. There's a huge possibility that members of the portfolio committee are inundated with enticements from sports federations and sports leaders. Not out of generosity but with the specific intention of influencing members of the committee to act in a particular way. In some instances it could be not to ask the difficult questions that they can ask.Is this why we underachieve at the Olympics?Certainly one of the reasons is that the finances that are there in sports are not being spent on athletes. There is a lot of avoidable expenditure by sports executives. Travel, five-star hotels, limitless credit cards. The majority of sports administrators are not financially thrifty when it comes to spending the resources of federations on themselves.And you say if MPs do try to question this they're blocked?I'll give you an example. During our last meeting with Sascoc, a member of the committee, surprisingly enough of the ANC, wanted to make a submission about serious allegations of conflict of interest and financial misappropriation by the CEO of Sascoc, and her colleagues in the committee blocked that and said it wasn't a formal agenda item. And there are minutes of the parliamentary committee to prove that...