Graeme Joffe
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Sport: Greed & Betrayal By Graeme Joffe Cover design: Lila McLaurin Konecny Copyright 2019 @Graeme Joffe ISBN: 9781091964990 All rights reserved Second Edition The author has asserted his moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved. No parts of this publication may be reproduced, copied, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form and by any means without the prior written consent of the copyright holder, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other then that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. 2 I take my hat off to Graeme Joffe, the lone South African sports journalist in the wilderness with courage to expose corruption and cronyism as a South African version of David Walsh. He might not get many invites to the cocktail parties, but this guy deserves the support - and tip offs - of decent minded people who want change for the better. If there was a Pulitzer Prize for courageous sports journalism in SA, Joffe would be the only candidate. What many of his don't touch rivals don't realise, is that he is the only go to man from sources wanting to blow open stories. It's only a matter of time before he drops a bombshell. The system in South African sport is all about sports administrators co-opting journos and then rewarding them with cocktail party invites and dropping the odd little scoop story. It's an easy life if that is the mediocrity that you aspire to. If however, you want to speak truth to power, it is another story altogether. I don't like to comment excessively on SA living 7000km over the pond, but can tell you the Stockholm syndrome is a malignant tumour that needs to be chemotherapied fast. South Africa has produced world class achievements across the spectrum, sport included, and deserves nothing less than the highest standards of excellence in its support structure. - (Dale Granger, former SA rugby journalist) 3 Email from Craig Wapnick (former World Squash top 50 ranked player) 22 July 2015 Dear Joffers I have been pondering the state of our sporting nation. As an ex sports person I am angry. I want to fight like you are fighting. When you told me not to get involved as I have a family I thought you were overreacting a bit. Now I know you were serious. So, I have decided I am going to let you fight the corruption within administration and the extravagant spending on themselves while I will concentrate on drawing attention to the actual success of SA Sport in the hope of showing people just how bad our leadership is. We are sporting nobodies in the world. Australians are sports mad with 80% of funding going to athletes we are the opposite we are actually an embarrassment for all our wealth and facilities. Our football is the biggest mess of all. So it’s not like this an elitist sport issue. This is across the board. A few individuals carry our flag in selected sports but for the most part we are nowhere in almost all Olympic sports and others. We live in the greatest climate for sport in the world and we have one top twenty tennis player who trains and lives in the US, I can go on and on about mediocrity. Where does it come from? Where is the inspiration? The funding? The excitement? People in charge are not true sports people. They have no idea what it takes. They want the glory but they don't really care. So, let's judge the minister of sport (and SASCOC) on results like any CEO would be judged. They should be fired on performance. The SA sports awards for what? To reward who? As a sporting nation we don't deserve to pat ourselves on the back. This lavish banquet is like me winning my local club champs and holding a banquet to reward myself. I would run SA sport and drive a beetle like the president of Uruguay before taking for myself ahead athletes. Why because I want young people to compete and to win internationally where it really counts. When we were allowed back into international sport we had a chance to play against the best. We have abused that privilege. I would make sure my team earn their BMW's and their perk if any - they would all do this for passion reasons first. I would never go to the Commonwealth Games ahead of any deserving athlete. I am going to write a job description for the person and people running sport and you will see that they are not qualified because of one thing and thing only - athletes must come first at all times. Anyone who qualifies for Olympics deserves to go whether medal contenders or not. I would never fly business class to games I should not be at and be able to look at myself in the mirror. I would be nobody until our athletes perform. 4 The business of sport is not money, the business of sport is competing to win the rest will come. If I was a sponsor of SASCOC or other I would put in a performance clause and I would insist that 80% of all sponsorship money goes to athletes with a serious audit. So, Joffers, perhaps in a few years-time, you will run SA Sport with me on your side (no quotas, 100% transparency pure passion mixed with sensible business acumen and 100% performance based) - we will make sure our athletes, from the top to development come first and then maybe some will start coming first. Keep up the fight. Any sports journalist who goes along for the ride is not a sports journalist they are fair weather reporters. It is their choice as many don't want to miss free lunch in the box. But then again you get reporters who love a free lunch and you get journalists who truly honor free speech. You are not a reporter my mate, you are a proper sports journalist. Cheers Wappo 5 Chapters 1: First whistle-blow 2: Olympic spin 3: Unhealthy State of SA sport 4: London 2012 5: Oscar Pistorius 6: The fix is in … 7: Press Ombudsman 8: SASCOC sues for R21 million 9: By George: More legal threats 10: Commonwealth Games 11: Reporting without fear or favour 12: Dirt of the Day 13: Wanted! 14: The Missing Police File 15: Private Eye 16: “They’re coming to get you” 17: WhatsApp 18: SA Sports Awards 19: Meeting with the FBI 20: “Tata My Chance” 21: Conflicted media 22: No Sochi, No Rio 23: The political mix 24: Township TV: Making a difference 25: Breaking my silence 26: Forensic linguistics 27: Defamation insurance 28: Joining the dots (Part 1) 29: Joining the dots (Part 2) 30: New beginnings 6 Abbreviations International: CGF - Commonwealth Games Federation FIFA - Fédération Internationale de Football Association FIH - International Hockey Federation FINA - International Swimming Federation IAAF - International Association of Athletics Federations ICC - International Cricket Council IOC- International Olympic Committee WADA - World Anti-Doping Agency South Africa: ANC - African National Congress ASA - Athletics South Africa BSA - Basketball South Africa CSA - Cycling South Africa CSA - Cricket South Africa DA - Democratic Alliance DStv - Digital Satellite Television GLRU - Golden Lions Rugby Union HSM - Highbury Safika Media KSA - Karate South Africa MTN - Mobile telecommunication company NLC - National Lotteries Commission NLDA - National Lottery Distribution Agency NLDTF - National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund NOCSA - National Olympic Committee of South Africa NSA - Netball South Africa OPEX - Operation Excellence Programme PAIA - Promotion of Access to Information Act PSA - Powerboat South Africa PSL - Premier Soccer League SABC - South African Broadcasting Corporation SAEF - South African Equestrian Federation SAFA - South African Football Association SAGF - South African Gymnastics Federation SAHA - South African Hockey Association SAIDS - South African Institute for Drug-free Sport SAPS - South African Police Service SARS - South African Revenue Service SARU - South African Rugby Union SASCOC - South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee SATTB - South African Table Tennis Board SRSA - Sport and Recreation South Africa VSA - Volleyball South Africa * The South African Rand (ZAR) trading at R14.85 to the US dollar ($) - (March 2019) * Numerous sources are anonymous on request 7 Introduction ‘Everyone deserves a fair chance’ Sport has been my life. “Graeme Joffe was born with a cricket bat in one hand and a ball in the other.” The quote was from my very first interview as a sports mad 10 year old in the North Eastern Tribune, a knock and drop newspaper for our residential area, growing up in Highlands North, Johannesburg. I wanted to bat like South African cricket legend, Graeme Pollock and bowl like the great, Clive Rice. It’s good to dream but I became a jack of all trades, master of none. At Fairways Primary School, I played cricket, soccer, squash and tennis. We were extremely fortunate to have the former SA cricketer and Wits soccer player, Jimmy Cook as a coach and mentor. Fairways is a five minute walk to the iconic Wanderers cricket stadium in Johannesburg and it was always a race to see who could get there first after the school bell. Watching cricket during those “Mean Machine” days were unforgettable. Hard to forget the likes of Cook, Fotheringham, Kallicharan, Pollock, Rice, McKenzie, Page, Kourie, Jennings, McMillan, Radford and Hanley. Jimmy was not only a very special coach but also a firm believer in giving everyone a fair chance.