JOHANNESBURG – New regulations adopted by the National Lottery Committee (NLC) will restrict SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) and sporting federations from using allocated funds for international competitions.
But responding to reports that Sascoc faced a crisis due to possible funding cuts, the NLC said it was premature for the Olympic body to make such assumptions.
“It would have been prudent of Sascoc to have asked for clarity from the funder that they are clearly dependent on before taking this to the media,” the NLC said in a statement yesterday.
“If any NGO finds the current regulations too prescriptive or restrictive, they need to lobby SA lawmakers through proper channels and not through media reports aimed at garnering sympathy.”
Sascoc chief executive Tubby Reddy said on Monday that they would be restricted to the same limits as national sport federations.
Although the NLC denied it, they revealed measures that would handicap Sascoc in delivering on their mandate of preparing and delivering teams to multi-coded international games like the Olympic Games and the Commonwealth Games.
Sascoc are also responsible for promoting and developing high-performance sport, and through Operation Excellence, they provide financial and coaching support for the country’s Olympic hopefuls.
“In previous years, Sascoc were funded for, among others, team preparation for international events,” the NLC said. “National federations of sport were also funded for international events. The new regulations do not make provision for activities outside SA.
“However, preparation and participation within SA would be available within the applications submitted.”
Sascoc would not be able to use the funds they receive from the NLC for international camps or aid athletes or federations that compete overseas.
Opex athletes would effectively be unable to ask for reimbursement for costs incurred outside the borders of South Africa.
The NLC said the growing amount of applications for funding and the limited resources resulted in amendments to the Lotteries Act.
Reddy said although restricting funding for use only in South Africa was “news to him”, Sascoc would meet the NLC next week.