Legal opinion on Swimming SA's controversial election 'is ready'

A legal opinion on the validity of Swimming South Africa’s election last year has been completed and will soon be made public.

South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) president Barry Hendricks told the parliamentary portfolio committee for sport this week that he couldn’t disclose the details of the opinion yet.

SSA’s ballot last year was criticised by some quarters because four executive members, including president Alan Fritz, were re-elected, breaching the constitution which stipulates a maximum of three terms.

The body’s CEO, Shaun Adriaanse, had said the clause limiting directors to three terms was introduced only in 2018 and therefore kicked in only then, not retrospectively.

A complaint was lodged with Sascoc which referred the matter to its judicial body, an independent legal arm.

“We were able to send in to the judicial body a request for a legal opinion,” Hendricks said while answering MPs' questions in a virtual meeting on Friday.

“That legal opinion has just arrived on our table, I think two days ago, with regards to the elections in Swimming South Africa.”

He said he could share the opinion with the committee “confidentially, until we make an announcement to Swimming South Africa in this regard, and to the person who raised the dispute”.

Hendricks and his entourage from Sascoc received a few questions about SSA as well as Athletics South Africa (ASA).

There was concern about the continued employment of ASA’s acting CEO Terrence Magogodela, who reportedly agreed to pay back money improperly acquired from the National Lotteries Commission.

Other SSA matters raised by the committee included the R7.2m civil suit by the two artistic swimmers denied the chance of trying to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics and the federation’s stop-start plan to establish a high performance centre in Franschhoek.