Pretoria - Following Chess South Africa’s suspension from the South African Sports Confederation (Sascoc) and Olympic Committee, civil rights organisation, AfriForum said it is heading to court to challenge this decision.
The organisation will turn to the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, to set aside this decision. At this stage no date has yet been set for the application.
AfriForum said Sascoc suspended Chess SA in April without any concrete reasons, which is contrary to Sascoc’s procedures, as contained in its constitution.
AfriForum said it strongly condemns this decision, as the reasons for the suspension are unfounded and unlawful.
Ronald Peters, manager of AfriForum Sport, says Sascoc’s decision is just another example of how official sports bodies in South Africa succumb to political pressure and show no backbone to promote and protect sporting codes – in this case chess.
“It is clear that the legitimate council has been worked out by politically driven agendas, while this sport and its participants are now suffering from this power struggle,” Peters said.
Hendrik du Toit, president of Chess SA, explained that Chess SA is struggling with a group that has been trying to hijack the federation since 2017.
“With little resources and the help of our legal team we averted an attempt to take over control of Chess SA in 2018. Chess SA was vindicated by a decision of a full bench of judges of the Supreme Court of Appeal in 2022,” Du Toit said.
AfriForum will approach the court on a semi urgent basis to first have the suspension by Sascoc suspended. It will ask for an order that all players who have qualified for national colours prior to March 10, and thereafter, according to Sascoc’s qualifying criteria, and who have participated in international tournaments, will not be precluded from being awarded national colours.
AfriForum will ultimately ask in another application to follow that Sascoc’s decision be reviewed and set aside.
Chess SA’s Du Toit said in an affidavit filed at court that the suspension of Chess South Africa was unlawful. He said they were informed in March that the Sascoc board had provisionally suspended them. In April they were told that it was a final suspension.
This move adversely affected the rights of Chess South Africa and chess players in the country. The chess community also did not have a chance to defend this move, he said. He also questioned whether Sascoc had the power in terms of the Sport Act, to institute a final suspension.
Du Toit said in his affidavit that there has been strife for a number of years within Chess SA, due to the “ulterior agenda of the undermining faction”. The narrative widely conveyed, he said, is that the board of Chess SA is, among others, racist.
“This is completely untrue,” Du Toit said.
He added that Sascoc has adopted a hostile attitude towards Chess SA and that it refused to engage with the chess body regarding its decision.
Sascoc, still to file its opposing papers in this application, was earlier reported as saying that Chess SA was suspended for failing to comply with certain requirements. It said that it had urged the chess body to complete assessments to ensure its credibility, which it apparently had not done.
Pretoria News