Mokganyetsi denies ASA disruption
October 03 2009 at 04:20PM
Athletics South Africa (ASA) board member Hendrick Mokganyetsi denied on Saturday that the federation had purposely disrupted an athletes’ meeting in Pretoria after he led a walkout.
Former sprinter Geraldine Pillay, who organised the meeting to discuss the poor state of the sport in the country, said she suspected ASA of purposely causing disruption after a group of “drunk” individuals forced them to call off the meeting.
“We could not resolve anything because the meeting was disrupted by a group of individuals who arrived drunk,” said Pillay, a double Commonwealth Games bronze medallist.
"But we had enough response from the athletes to know that we should take this forward. We will definitely do this again.
‘I have been told that ASA mobilised these people to disrupt the meeting’
"Unfortunately certain individuals don’t seem to care enough about the sport and misinterpreted what the meeting was about.
“I have been told that ASA mobilised these people to disrupt the meeting.”
But Mokganyetsi said he had led the walkout because Pillay had not stuck to the agenda. He also denied that anyone in attendance had been drinking alcohol.
“Nobody caused a disruption,” said Mokganyetsi, joint South African record holder in the men’s 400 metres.
"There were questions posed and there were no answers. Nobody was drunk. Can she (Pillay) prove that?
‘Nobody was drunk’
"I’m very disappointed about the way this was handled. We expected them to deal with the issues we were ivited there to discuss.
"Yesterday on the radio, and on TV, she invited athletes to attend the meeting to discuss Leonard Chuene and the Caster Semenya situation, but none of that was on the agenda.
“All they discussed was the ANC constitution and the ASA consititution. We spent two hours there and there seemed to be no purpose, so we left.”
But Pillay said the meeting had not been held to discuss ASA president Chuene or his handling of the gender controversy surrounding world 800m champion Semenya.
“This meeting was not about whether Leonard should stay or go, and it wasn’t about Caster,” Pillay said.
"This was supposed to be an open platform for athletes to voice their concerns about what is happening in the sport.
"Nedbank said it withdrew its sponsorship of road running this week because of mismanagement at events organised by ASA, and we can’t afford that.
“We are going to appoint an athletes’ commission in the interim to give us a voice, but we will definitely hold this meeting again soon.”
Mokganyetsi, however, said he would not attend another meeting organised by Pillay.
The former sprinter, who is the head of the ASA athletes’ commission -w hich also consists of Arnaud Malherbe, Ruben Ramolefi, Mbulaeni Mulaudzi and Tebogo Masehla - said the commission would meet soon to discuss Chuene’s handling of the Semenya debacle. - Sapa