Swimming will die if facilities keep decaying, sport’s boss warns MPs

Swimming, the country’s most successful Olympic code since readmission, will die as a sport if facilities continue decaying, Swimming South Africa (SSA) president Alan Fritz warned in parliament on Tuesday.

He told parliament’s portfolio committee on sport, arts and culture attempts to focus on open-water swimming were difficult because of the poor water quality of rivers and dams.

Fritz said it was not only pools in townships that were disappearing “brick by brick” or not being built, but many facilities in previously advantaged areas were also in poor condition.

“In the township of Eldorado Park the pool disappeared brick by brick,” said Fritz.

“The township of Soweto, very few functioning pools. The township of Mdantsane, a pool was supposed to be built; it’s never materialised.

“I can carry [on] throughout our country and it’s not only rural areas or township areas. Municipal infrastructure is disappearing day by day.

“That not only creates an inability [for] us to execute our programmes; the sport of aquatics and swimming will die in this country without facilities.”

Fritz pointed out that swimming brought 60%-70% of South Africa’s medals from multi-coded events, including regional, continental and international showpieces. It is also the most successful Olympic code: since readmission in 1992, swimmers have won 18 of South Africa’s 44 Games medals, more even than track athletics.

“If we had better funding for our federation and like-minded federations, I think our country would be a world leader in sport,” said Fritz, adding they want to prioritise open-water swimming.

But even in that sphere there are challenges.

“Our challenge is the quality of water in our dams and rivers. There are some competitions that have to be shifted to areas that are safer in terms of how our water is polluted.”

SSA came in for criticism from MPs over the legal tussles and fights it had in the past few years, particularly the R7.2m lawsuit by artistic swimmers Laura Strugnell and Jessica Hayes-Hill as well as water polo, where there federation has lodged a court application against a newly formed entity called South African Water Polo (SAWP). 

Fritz declined to say much about the artistic swimming matter as it was sub judice, but he said SSA was entitled to act against SAWP, which had individuals serving on SSA structures fighting for an independent body. 

He said SSA was being accused of stealing money from water polo but the water polo fight was commercially driven, recounting how an individual was paid R500,000 to write a coaching manual that could have been downloaded for free off the internet. Fritz called this “a massive governance failure”. 

The SSA president also stated the federation was subjected to five audits, from its own external audit to those conducted by the department of sport, arts and culture and the National Lotteries Commission, and they passed all with flying colours.