The Best of The Money Show: The cost of CEO scandals and SA's athlete funding crisis

Nqobile Ndlovu (0:02)

You're listening to the best of The Money Show.

Stephen Grootes (0:07)

Welcome to the best bits of The Money Show, a digest of some of the best insights, thoughts and interviews from our conversations on the show this week. If you'd like to hear more, please go to your podcast app or go to our website, but search for The Money Show. As always, if something sort of rings a bell, strikes a chord, makes you think a little bit, there might be someone in your life, in your community, on the street, WhatsApp group who could benefit from hearing it, please do send it along to them as well. Well, the most amazing story this week about our most awarded ever Olympic athlete deciding to swim for another country.

Tatjana Smith deciding that she's going to swim for the Netherlands. And it really does explain and show how many athletes, people who represent the country, have to pay their own way. It's astonishing. Nqobile Ndlovu is the founder of Cash N Sport Research & Advisory, had lots to say about the subject.

Nqobile Ndlovu (1:02)

Yeah, it's an unfortunate thing, Stephen, that our athletes, while representing the country and doing quite well, will quite often have to put their own bill in order to get there.

And it's the unfortunate realities of sport globally. It's not just the South African thing. There are many sporting codes globally where there is this problem where athletes, a lot of the time, have to work second jobs, etc. etc. just to be able to participate. But it's becoming a major issue. But I think part of the problem is that there's a conflation sometimes of where the responsibilities lie in terms of who's supposed to fund it. And perhaps we can get into that.

Stephen Grootes (1:42)

So, I mean, one of the things, it seems to me, on the face of it, we realize there's sort of three big team sports in South Africa, football, rugby, cricket.

But it's the other codes that seem to be, that seem to have the major difficulties where they're not professional, they're not big and professional. Do the people that run them have big budgets? I mean, Swimming South Africa is the focus here. Its finances are a mess. It seems to have mismanaged its money from what I can see.

Nqobile Ndlovu (2:09)

Yes. In terms of Swimming South Africa's budget or in terms of the...

Maybe let's talk about the allocations because maybe that will make things a little bit fair. In terms of the Department of Sports Arts and Cultures' annual allocations for Swimming South Africa, Swimming South Africa gets 3.1 million, Tennis South Africa also gets the same.

South African rugby gets 4.5 million, Athletics South Africa 4.5, Crooked South Africa about 7.6 million. Those are the annual allocations. Now, in terms of their budgets and how they allocate that money, Swimming South Africa has been in tatters to such a point that the Federation President has been suspended and his deputy has also been suspended. Not just by the Department of Sports Arts and Cultures because they can't suspend anyone, but by FINA and the South African Sports and Olympic Committee. So there are major problems that Swimming, to such a point where they have themselves said to athletes, we can't pay for you because we don't have money. Please pay your own way to go to the next World Championship.

Stephen Grootes (3:12)

And how do the officials get to these events then? I suppose that's one of the mysteries of our time.

Nqobile Ndlovu (3:18)

Well, they would be, the money would come out of the coffers somewhere because they wouldn't pay for it themselves, which is the problem, which is exactly what the genesis of the problem is. We have a major governance issue in this country where, I think it's about five major federations in this country, either have no president or the president has been suspended or the federation has been deregistered.

Stephen Grootes (3:38)

And of course, all the leaders do the honorable thing and resign, not.

So, is there a different way to do this? I accept, I don't expect government to pay for all of this, and I accept and I'm very pleased to see that the Minister, Gaten MacKenzie, can't do anything about it, and I get that and I get his problem with a little bit of sympathy for him on that. Is there a better way to manage things? I mean, Swimming South Africa, I'm sure, has other ways to raise fees. Whenever I do a cycle race, I have to pay a licensing fee to Cycling South Africa. There are all sorts of ways to raise money.