Sascoc confirm Barry Hendricks will still face disciplinary action

Sascoc’s suspended acting president Barry Hendricks will face disciplinary action‚ the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) confirmed in a statement on Thursday.

Hendricks was last week cleared by an arbitrator on the allegation by Tennis South Africa (TSA) board member Ntambi Ravele that he and TSA president Gavin Crookes had conspired to block her nomination to the Sascoc elections.

Hendricks was suspended by his board in mid-April after an advocate hired by Sascoc found that Ravele had a case to take to arbitration.

At the same time the Sascoc board said it would look into disciplinary action against Hendricks.

The Sascoc board decided at a meeting on Wednesday “to respect the ongoing process being undertaken by the Sascoc Judicial Body in respect of … Hendricks”.

“Sascoc’s Judicial Body chairperson Advocate Willem Edeling SC advised [on Monday] that despite the arbitration proceedings having been successfully finalised in Hendricks’s favour‚ that disciplinary proceedings should be instituted against him and that he should remain on leave of absence pending the finalisation of those proceedings‚” Sascoc said in the statement.

Sascoc said the disciplinary action against Hendricks was based on the opinion delivered by the hired advocate‚ Elizabeth Baloyi-Mere‚ which appears to have been largely contradicted by the arbitrator‚ a senior counsel.

“The Sascoc board has also resolved to continue to remain independent thereof‚ but will monitor this process until it is finalised and will keep the membership informed of any significant developments as they arise.”

But at least the 29-odd federations that had demanded a vote of no confidence in the board are not convinced by the executive’s claim of independence.

All the board members are candidates in the Sascoc elections‚ which were indefinitely postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hendricks was considered the favourite to win the Sascoc presidency.

The Sascoc board dismissed the call for a vote of no confidence‚ but recently Sam Ramsamy was appointed by the International Olympic Committee to facilitate elections as soon as possible.