As South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) president Barry Hendricks vowed to keep engaging the sports ministry on its controversial funding cuts, the organisation announced a R6m surplus for the year ended March 2025.
Many of the national federations that comprise Sascoc are battling after the government slashed their allocations, some by as much as 60%.
Sascoc, which normally gets about R12m, was cut by 100%.
“We simply have to continue our consultative approach with all our stakeholders, including government and the ministry,” Hendricks told federation bosses at the Sascoc AGM on Saturday.
“To defund [Sascoc] by R12m … means it affects our meetings, it affects our dispute processes that we continually pay for using our legal funds on legal partners.
“Rest assured, we will be chatting further,” he said through a link-up from Singapore where he is attending the International Paralympic Committee AGM.
Sascoc’s financial statements for 2024/25, which were given a clean audit, showed revenue topping R126.5m, with more than R39m coming from the National Lotteries Commission and nearly R36m from the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Sponsor Bidvest gave R12.75m and the department of sport, arts and culture R11.7m.
The Mr Price deal netted Sascoc R2.2m in sponsorship and royalties on Olympic-branded clothing.
Expenses totalled R122m, with the single biggest cost being the 2024 Paris Olympics at R36.4m. The Paralympics costs R7.7m.
Sascoc gave R12.7m to national federations.
The next biggest cost was legal expenses at R6.5m, followed by R3.2m for advertising, R2.8m for travel and accommodation, R2.6m for the para-athletics world championships, R2.58m for commission paid, R2.55m for Olympic Solidarity, R2.3m for repairs and maintenance, R1.9m for consulting fees, R1.6m for meetings and R1m for the audit.
More than R24m is spent on employee costs and allowances, with board members getting a combined R3.1m. Hendricks received R394,000.
The top five executives earned R11.46m with the CEO on a R3.2m package.
The rest of the Sascoc staff received R9.6m.
Hendricks said they were in the process of setting up a sport foundation that is aimed at growing funding for athletes.
CEO Nozipho Jafta said Sascoc was digitising its operations so national federations would be able to submit paperwork directly into a system rather than by email.
“When you need to lodge a dispute or submit documentation for your annual submission, it’s got to be digital.”
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