Pretoria - Former Athletics South Africa (ASA) boss Leonard Chuene has been dismissed with immediate effect and suspended for seven years from holding any position in athletics.
This comes after South Africa's Olympic governing body South African Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) released a damning report which found Chuene, along with and two board members, Kakata Maponyane and Dr Simon Dlamini, guilty of dishonesty, fraud and misconduct in performing their duties at ASA.
The three men were facing a lengthy investigation led by Advocate Norman Arendse into various forms of misconduct including a forensic audit of ASA books as well the handling of Caster Semenya's gender saga.
Following Chuene, Maponyane and Dlamini's failure to appear before a disciplinary panel at Olympic House on Thursday, Advocate Arendse handed down the sanctions in their absence.
Chuene was barred from holding any position in athletics or any other code of sport under the jurisdiction of Sascoc for a period of seven years. Maponyane received the same sanction but for a period of five years and Dr Dlamini for three years.
Should Chuene wish to return to athletics any earlier he must be required to show cause why he should return within a shorter period.
According to the damning report, Chuene has failed and/or neglected to perform his duties in an effective and diligent manner, thereby causing and/or exposing ASA to financial loss and improper risks; and bringing Sascoc, ASA and the sport of athletics into disrepute.
The charges supported by the evidence adduced at the hearing refer to rampant abuse of ASA resources, an abuse of power and authority, self-aggrandisement, greed and corruption.
The evidence demonstrates that Chuene and his accomplices, individually and collectively, failed hopelessly to comply with their fiduciary duties to ASA as a section 21 company.
Instead of protecting ASA and its assets, ASA was exposed to unnecessary risk, and which over time resulted effectively in a stripping of the assets of ASA, according to the report.
Further to this, evidence shows that ASA was in the red to the tune of R7 million in 2008 from a positive bank balance of R500 000 in 2005. In this regard, Chuene is reported as having played a central role in breaking virtually every rule in the ASA rule book.
The report indicates that Chuene made decisions unilaterally without the consent of the Board or consulting the Board, gave orders and instructions to the operational staff of ASA when he should not have done so; put himself of the ASA payroll and effectively became a salaried employee without the knowledge and consent of the Board.
He obtained for himself (at ASAs expense) a range of corporate credit cards with which he generously spent ASA monies without authority to do so and without accounting for it.
Although Chuene was not employed by ASA as an employee, he received staff loans. Not only this not permitted by ASA policy and the staff manual, but the procedures in relation to loans exceeding one third of one's gross salary.
Loans were required to be settled within four months and within the same financial year, but these procedures were never followed.
At the time of the hearing, Chuene still owed ASA approximately R80 000 in respect of unpaid loans. He gave an instruction to the finance department to reflect his loans under trade debtors in order to deceive users of the ASA financial statements as to the true state of affairs.
Chuene also bought a Mercedes Benz for R1 following the authorisation of such sale by resolution of a special Executive Board Meeting in 2004. He further failed to transfer the vehicle into his name and ensured that ASA continued to maintain the vehicle and pay the insurance premiums and indeed still claims ownership of the vehicle.
In November 2009, Sascoc took a decision to suspend the entire ASA Board for various forms of misconduct including the forensic audit of ASA's books as well the handling of Caster Semenya's gender verification matter. Sascoc then appointed Raymond Mali as an administrator of ASA.
Sascoc boss, Tubby Reddy said: "it's what we have promised. All along we have maintained that we are transparent and that we have nothing to hide. We have consistently been respectful of the investigation process and we are happy that the correct process and procedures have been followed."
