The President of Athletics South Africa (ASA), Aleck Skhosana, has described himself as a man of principle and is elated that he is eligible to contest for the position of president at South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc).
On Monday, the arbitrator, Nazeer Cassim, ruled that Skhosana can run for the elections of Sascoc after his nomination was rejected in March. It had been alleged that Sascoc didn’t receive the certificate that Skhosana was a member in good standing something that ASA argued they submitted.
Skhosana referred the matter to arbitration and he was cleared, alongside others, to run for the top seat in the South African sports body.
In an interview with Independent Media, he explained that he was not too perturbed by the development.
“I just dealt with it by following the constitution which allows the matter to be referred to the judicial committee and to the arbitration. So, we engaged with Sascoc and the Independent nominations committee up to a point that we felt that we’re not making progress and we should proceed with arbitration. Arbitrator, Nazeer Cassim was appointed by Sascoc and ourselves. We agreed upon the two parties. So, the ruling was in my favour and ASA that I was eligible alongside my colleague Jerry (Segwaba), Cecilia (Molokwane) and Farrell Moses who also benefited out that because even their matter was sent to Nazeer Cassim,” a calm Skhosana elaborated.
The Sascoc elections had been scheduled to take place on March 28 but was been postponed because of the coronavirus outbreak.
“I’m quite happy and I’m also happy for my colleagues. It will be a good contest. That’s what it is supposed to be whenever you go for elections. It is like running a 100 metre race, you don’t win it running alone. You must be contested. It must be from one to eight competitors and from eight competitors to No 1,” Skhosana who ran track runner in his prime explained.
Skhosana is currently the acting president of Sascoc. He is not new to controversy. In 2017 he was expelled from the Sascoc board and had to re-instated.
“I don’t know. Assumptions are very dangerous and I don’t want to assume. I dealt with the matter in 2017 and I won it. Again, I dealt with another and won on Monday.
“We must always follow the rules. At ASA, we live by the rules. What are the sports of rules, we are the mother of all sports. When they say, you must be on your marks, you must be on your mark. When they say go, you must go. When they say, you are disqualified, there must be a reason. That’s why we followed the appeal process,” Skhosana stated without going into details about his views on how the suspensions have impacted on him.