Swimming SA executive committee stalwarts running for new terms apparently in violation of own constitution

Swimming South Africa Chief Executive Officer Shaun Adriaanse. (Photo: Steve Haag / Gallo Images)

By Keanan Hemmonsbey

25 Aug 2024

Swimming South Africa president Alan Fritz is nominated, unopposed, to retain his position and serve a sixth term on the executive committee despite the association’s constitution only permitting three consecutive terms.

Swimming South Africa (SSA) will have its annual meeting on Sunday where it will elect an executive committee for the next four-year term.

However, several members nominated to be elected will be aiming to serve more than the three-term (12-year) limit set out by the SSA constitution.

Current SSA president Alan Fritz will once again contest the presidency, but completely unopposed. He has served as a member of the executive committee, in one capacity or another, since 2004, for a total of five consecutive terms (20 years).

An additional four years will see him double the maximum number of terms stipulated by the constitution.

Article 6.2.3 of their constitution reads: “The term of office for all Executive Members will be limited to three consecutive periods.”

Jace Naidoo, the current vice-president, has been nominated to serve an additional term in the same position. He has been on the executive committee since the unification of SSA in 1999. He was president from 2004 until 2016 and vice-president from 2016, and is aiming to serve until 2028.

In 2004, as then SSA president, Naidoo said in a parliamentary meeting that swimming had a four-year leadership cycle, and they tried to ensure that presidents served no more than two terms in office, to encourage training in leadership.

Swimming SA Alan Fritz during the Bestmed media conference in Sandton on 15 February 2011. (Photo: Duif du Toit / Gallo Images)

Instead, the same leaders are moving from one seat on the committee table to the next, contrary to the constitution of World Aquatics.

Article 18.4 of World Aquatics’ constitution specifies: “If an Executive Member (e.g. a Vice President) is elected to a new position within the Executive (e.g. as Treasurer), any previous term served within the Executive (e.g as Vice President) is counted as part of the individual’s overall term of office in the Executive.”

Also included in this is Zikie Molusi and John Ellis who are up for nomination as deputy president and treasurer, respectively, despite both having served on the committee since 2012 (three terms).

It appears that these nominations are in breach of SSA’s and World Aquatics’ constitutions.

Queries

Matt Kemp, a registered member of SSA and director at law firm Becker Kemp Solicitors & Attorneys, sent a letter to SSA disputing the eligibility of the aforementioned quartet to be allowed to be nominated to the executive committee.

The demands in Kemp’s letter include “that SSA undertakes immediately to:- (i) review the List of nominated candidates for the election of the Executive Committee at the upcoming QAGM (quadrennial annual meeting); (ii) cause any ineligible candidates to be removed therefrom; and (iii) distribute a new list of nominee candidates 2 for election at the planned QAGM.”

In response, SSA CEO Shaun Adriaanse noted that Becker Kemp Solicitors & Attorneys is not a member of SSA:

“We take note of your correspondence as attached,” he said in an email. “Kindly note that after verification we can confirm that Becker Kemp Solicitors & Attorneys are not capitated (sic) as a member of Swimming South Africa.”

But Kemp is a registered member of SSA and the complainant in the matter. He sent the letter in his personal capacity. SSA is apparently playing semantics instead of addressing the issue at hand: how these executive members are continually seeking re-election apparently in breach of their own constitution.

Daily Maverick approached Fritz for clarity about how these members could constitutionally seek re-election, but our queries were ignored.

SSA chief executive Shaun Adriaanse at the SA National Aquatic Championships in Durban on 8 April 2019. (Photo: Steve Haag / Gallo Images)

A stuttering state

SSA has had an error-ridden record with the current executive committee at the helm.

Breaststroke swimmer Lara van Niekerk swam the qualifying times for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games at nationals in 2023 – which falls under the Olympic qualifying period – but SSA made a clerical error that meant that nationals was not registered as an official Olympic qualifying event.

Van Niekerk was a medal hopeful in the 100m breaststroke, with the 21-year-old’s personal best time only just off what teammate Tatjana Smith swam to take gold in Paris.

Artistic duo Laura Strugnell and Jessica Hayes-Hill’s chances of competing at the Olympic Games were also ripped from under them after they were sent home from the swimming World Championships in Doha – an Olympic qualifying tournament – at the start of the year.

SSA did not provide a reason for their dismissal. The athletes appealed the decision and won their appeal.

This follows the decision to not send the men’s and women’s water polo teams to the Olympics for dubious reasons after setting an arbitrary qualifying standard at the World Championships which athletes in both teams claimed to be unaware of until after the fact.

SSA’s executive committee and the sporting disciplines it serves look likely to have another four-year period together, despite their own constitution not supporting it. DM

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Queries

A stuttering state