A company profile seen by amaBhungane refers to the role of Sam\u2019s daughter, Monalisa Sam, in establishing initial contact between her father and Nation of Champions\u2019s chief executive, Madoda Khuzwayo.<\/p>\n
But the planned launch of Nation of Champions, at a sponsored TNA breakfast televised on September\u00a023, clearly infuriated national sports director general Alec Moemi.<\/p>\n
In a letter the day before the launch, Moemi complained to Tubby Reddy \u2013 a member of Sascoc\u2019s board and head of the Durban 2022 bid committee \u2013 that the national and KwaZulu-Natal governments had been sidelined.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was therefore not only shocking and embarrassing when we learnt through the media and an invitation from TNA that there was a scheduled media briefing to \u2026 launch the Durban 2022 Commonwealth Games Legacy issues,\u201d Moemi said. \u201cWhat is saddening is that neither the department nor any of the other intergovernmental stakeholders who sit on the bid committee seem to have been consulted \u2026 It is honestly incomprehensible why, just less than 15 days after returning together from Auckland, other key stakeholders would now be left out.\u201d<\/p>\n
The furious reaction of the KwaZulu-Natal sports and recreation head, Rohini Naidoo, is borne out by an email she sent to Sascoc, apparently while watching the launch on TV.<\/p>\n
\u201cClearly, as government leaders tasked with the responsibility of delivering these Games, our views have been totally disregarded,\u201d she fumed. \u201cI am requesting an urgent meeting at which Sascoc must be called to account. It is really unfortunate when a stakeholder breaks the trust.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere does this place us in [the estimation of] the public, who are watching us closely, which they should, as it is their taxes that are funding the games?\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite Moemi\u2019s call for the launch to be cancelled, it went ahead on September 23, broadcast by the SABC with Peter Ndoro\u00a0as anchor.<\/p>\n
However, it appears that the company succumbed to pressure not to use the Durban 2022 logo.<\/p>\n
“Stakeholders and strategic partnerships”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Minutes of a September 18 meeting, attended by Reddy and Khuzwayo, note that the use of the logo breaches Commonwealth Games\u2019 rules and that it \u201cwill be removed from all marketing material before the launch \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Moemi\u2019s letter also mentions that in its invitation TNA \u201cimplored the department to purchase a 10-seater table at a value of R7\u00a0920.30\u201d. The company relies on sponsorship of its breakfast events by state bodies.<\/p>\n The Nation of Champions\u2019s company profile lists TNA in a category of \u201cstakeholders and strategic partnerships\u201d, but whether its role in the legacy project goes beyond the \u201cbreakfast discussion\u201d is unclear.<\/p>\n Moemi could not be contacted, while Naidoo said she would not comment on an \u201cinternal\u201d issue.<\/p>\n Sam\u2019s assistant said he was in a meeting and referred all queries to Khuzwayo. Reddy\u2019s assistant said \u201che is not feeling well\u201d and could not respond to emailed queries until after the Mail &\u00a0<\/em>Guardian<\/em>\u2019s deadline.<\/p>\n Gupta spokesperson Gary Naidoo was sent questions but had not responded by the time of printing.<\/p>\n “A platform for youth entrepreneurship skills”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n According to the company profile, Nation of Champions aims to connect youth across South Africa and the other 70 Commonwealth states, as well as serving \u201cas a platform for youth entrepreneurship skills and development and\u00a0procurement opportunities\u201d.<\/p>\n AmaBhungane was leaked minutes of the Sascoc meeting in Auckland on September 1, highlighting Sam\u2019s role in promoting Nation of Champions.<\/p>\n \u201cA new company is to be set up urgently and the president [Sam] needed approval from those\u00a0present. [The] new company needed four directors from Sascoc,\u201d the minutes say.<\/p>\n \u201c[The] company will be seated outside Sascoc and not cost Sascoc a single cent in funds. Sascoc will monitor the functionality of the company and enjoy a 50% return\u00a0of dividends.<\/p>\n \u201cMark Alexander [chairperson of the 2020 Games bid committee] stated that the president must be one of the four [directors], as he has been managing this up to the present moment.\u201d<\/p>\n Lack of communication<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Sam also engaged an obscure company \u2013 Open Tenders, cofounded by Khuzwayo \u2013 on \u201cthe usage of social media and technology\u201d in the legacy project. Khuzwayo confirmed the idea was that Open Tenders serve as a business social networking platform, and supply services such as security and hosting during the Games.<\/p>\n Asked about Moemi\u2019s letter, he said he had no knowledge of it and did not know who Moemi was, and that Sascoc had not allocated funds to Nation of Champions.<\/p>\n Khuzwayo said Nation of Champions would be funded through advertising and sponsorship. He said if there were problems regarding Nation of Champions\u2019s launch, they had resulted from a lack of communication between the Durban local organising committee and\u00a0the department.<\/p>\n Questioned about Monalisa Sam\u2019s role, Khuzwayo said her only involvement was to suggest the Nation of Champions\u2019s team should meet her father.<\/p>\n Gideon Sam was at the centre of a controversy in 2012 when amaBhungane reported that Cape Town advocate Norman Arendse alleged he was offered an \u201copen chequebook\u201d bribe by an individual claiming to represent a bidder in a R7-billion grants tender.<\/p>\n AmaBhungane established that, in a letter, Arendse named Sam as the individual concerned.<\/p>\n Sam denied the allegation, saying he was a sports administrator who knew nothing about social grants.<\/p>\n * Got a tip-off for us about this story? Click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n A little-known company is muscling in on the 2022 Commonwealth Games legacy project \u2013 and the sports department is spitting mad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22755,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/amabhungane.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/94x94.jpg\")
<\/a>The M&G<\/em> Centre for Investigative Journalism (amaBhungane) produced this story. All views are ours. See www.amabhungane.co.za <\/a> for our stories, activities and funding sources.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"