Africa-Press – South-Africa. The South African government on Tuesday appealed the World Anti-Doping Agency’s decision to bar the country’s sports teams from flying the national flag or singing their anthems at international events.
South Africa’s sporting federations have faced the prospect of losing their national standing with WADA. This would prove to be a significant hindrance to South Africa’s current participation in the Rugby World Cup in France and Cricket World Cup in India.
Minister of Sports, Arts, and Culture Zizi Kodwa addressed media in Cape Town on Tuesday, where he stated that the bill was approved and will now be “tabled to Parliament”.
The South African Institute for Drug-Free Sport (Saids) has filed a notice to challenge WADA’s non-compliance declaration, to which WADA has 48 hours to respond.
“I am confident that WADA will recognise these efforts as a commitment to pass the amended legislation and suspend the non-compliance declaration,” Kodwa said at a press briefing in Parliament on Tuesday.
The filing of the appeal will “stave off the consequences of the non-compliance”, meaning that flying the South African flag at current ongoing events like the Cricket and Rugby World Cup will not be affected “until CAS rules on this challenge”.
“The appeal, which we will lodge today, is notice of intent to dispute,” said Saids chief executive officer Khalid Galant.
“To consider the matters that have already been done in terms of cabinet approval and for WADA to consider rescinding the non-compliance declaration. If they do not accept that, we would file it and go forward to the Court of Arbitration (CAS).”
The new WADA code came into effect in 2021, and South Africa and Bermuda are the only countries yet to update their regulations. WADA notified South Africa in October 2022 that they were non-compliant.
Kodwa stressed an investigation will be made once the issue has been resolved.
“The only appropriate thing for me is to investigate what happened,” said Kodwa.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate to make speculations … the timelines, which has been an issue between to and fros, from the communications between ourselves and Saids and WADA, have been short.
“We work in a particular way, things don’t happen overnight; it was huge implications.
“It’s not a blame game, the issue about who is responsible will need to come a bit later. What I’m looking for now is to ensure that South Africa remains compliant as the leader of anti-doping in South Africa.”
Kodwa insists the South African government is doing everything it can to resolve the problem.
“There are many events that are coming and happening at the moment, which has created a bit of anxiety and hysteria… we want to find a permanent solution,” said Kodwa.
“South Africa’s commitment to anti-doping is unquestionable, let’s make sure we amend the provisions [so] that we are compliant.
“It’s not about buying time. Of course we have to do certain things in certain allowed time frames in our law-making process.
Can the situation be fixed?
If South Africa loses the appeal, a letter will be filed to the CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport), and the consequences would be that South Africa is barred from singing the national anthem and flying the South African flag at sporting events.
“WADA is obligated based on their code to file the appeal to the Court of Arbitration, which will be ruled on the matter,” said Galant.
“We may not even go to the process if WADA accepts the dispute today. It would be premature to speculate on the success on the appeal. It’s an independent process.”
However, there is some glimmer of hope. South Africa’s current situation is not the only instance where there has been non-compliance from a country.
“Some countries that have been non-compliant include France, Spain and Argentina, and it was all pertaining to legislation currently,” said Galant.
“We will be discussing how public authorities can better respond and adapt to the changing of the code in respective legislation.
“I’m not sure about countries in terms of appeal, but specifically Spain and Argentina and France have been able to amend the situation before the consequences of non-compliance were enforced.”
South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) president Barry Hendricks says that they are worried over what this means for smaller federations but remains confident that the matter can be resolved.
“There’s a focus on the top four sports and Sascoc has 74 members and all of them are highly concerned,” said Hendricks.
“The process that we are following is to assist all of those federations to travel to the events, sing the anthem, wear the colours so we’ll be doing all of these things while the process is taking place.”
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