DA seeks Komphela probe
Publish date: 22 July 2008
Issue Number: 2115
Diary: Legalbrief Today
Category: Corruption
The DA has called on Parliament's Speaker Baleka Mbete to investigate what it calls 'unacceptable conduct' on the part of Sports Committee chairperson Butana Komphela. 'His racist remarks have not only brought embarrassment to sports in SA, but they have also denigrated the integrity of Parliament,' DA sports spokesperson Donald Lee said yesterday, according to a report on the Mail & Guardian Online site.
The DA has written to Mbete after a South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) decision to boycott the portfolio committee on account of Komphela's behaviour. He is alleged to have said that Sascoc was 'full of whites and Indians who don't understand transformation and lack vision'. 'Sascoc's decision reflects on the whole the sports community's displeasure with the racially divisive leadership of Butana Komphela. 'Since assuming the chairmanship of the committee, he has been more concerned with engaging in the character assassination of sports leaders for quotas rather than promoting the development of sports,' Lee said.
Full Mail & Guardian Online report
However, Cricket SA has distanced itself from the Sascoc boycott. According to a report in Beeld, Norman Arendse, of Cricket SA, said the federation would not be bound by Sascoc's decision. Another affiliated union of Sascoc, the SA Rugby Union, will decide today whether it will support the boycott. Other senior sports administrators backed Sascoc's decision, saying Komphela's racist remarks and conduct makes any co-operation with the portfolio committee impossible.
Full Beeld report
