To
Portfolio Committee on Sport, Arts and Culture
From
Anonymous
Subject
Black Lives Matter in Chess South Africa - Intervention against Racism and Discrimination in South African Sport
Date
16 July 2020 8:13 p.m.
I am writing this letter on behalf of a very much divided Chess South Africa. Your urgent attention is sought to intervene in chess. Many letters have been written before to SASCOC and the Ministry of Sports without any response. Another letter was written to Minister Mthethwa on 28 June 2020 to highlight the dire plight of chess players.
Your urgent intervention in chess is required because there are serious challenges which are not receiving any attention from any quarter, SASCOC or Ministry/Department of Sports, despite repeated screaming for help.
It is quite evident that the Portfolio Committee, through or with Minister Mthethwa must intervene in chess as urgently as possible.
SASCOC failed to provide leadership in this regard, despite the fact that the need for their interventions were indicated to them from various quarters including the proposing of alternative solutions to diffuse the volatile situation.
There are unending court battles which deprive the players and administrators the opportunity to play and develop in chess. These fights divide players, stifle development and deprive deserving players and administrators the opportunities to excel in showcasing their talents here and abroad;

There are serious elements or tendencies of racial undertones in all these fights. The current warring two sides claiming to be the legitimate leadership of Chess South Africa are divided along colour and racial lines. If this is not addressed early enough it will explode into unnecessary racial conflicts. One side of the fighting camps have attempted many times to bring peace and stability in chess, but have always been met with arrogance, disrespect and legal vengeance by the other group. Instead of using available internal dispute resolution mechanisms as provided for in national sporting legislation, they always resorted to the courts of law where huge sums of money in the form of legal costs were incurred. These monies could have been better used to develop chess, drive transformation and to support players and administrators from poor backgrounds.
There are also huge concerns about suspected corruption and impropriety in handling the finances and the tournaments of Chess South Africa since audited financials are not forthcoming. A perfect example is the South African Junior Chess Championship (SAJCC) which is a junior tournament with a huge income. This supposedly non-profit public benefit activity for all chess players in the Country, have been privatised where public officials who serve on various chess structures as office bearers, are also directors on the private company who personally benefit from an activity which was meant to be a public benefit activity to foster social cohesion in the chess community of South Africa. Instead, in this tournament junior players are charged exorbitant fees (not less than R5000-00 per player for the tournament) with the result that the majority, if not all, players from poor family backgrounds are excluded from participating. The biggest problem with this tournament is that it is NOT just a tournament, but a South African selection tournament used to identify players who will represent the Country in international chess championships. This, therefore, means that players from poor family backgrounds are systematically excluded from representing their country. This is not only unfair, but also grossly discriminatory and divisive.
Currently, there are high court cases brought against individuals who are volunteering on behalf of the Department of Sport in chess as a sporting code, but despite the fact that these individuals are protected by the Constitution of Chess South Africa, the group seeking to benefit financially from Chess South Africa (being directors of the private company who privatised a public benefit chess tournament) still seek legal costs amounting to thousands of rands against these volunteers in their personal capacity. This tendency is seriously undermining government’s intention to use volunteers to, through sport activity, foster social cohesion in South African communities. Who will, in future, volunteer to head up any sporting position if one runs the risk of being slapped with legal costs when one acted to prevent the poorest of the poor players from being excluded to participate in the sport they hold so dear?
Already more than R 800 000-00 have been spent on court processes which could have been used to develop chess by funding the less fortunate players and administrators.
Not only are certain individuals completely blocking transformation in chess, but even chess players who speak out against the excluding behaviour and who do not “toe the line,” are constantly being threatened with being banned and denied their much deserved rating points to improve their professional standings. Case in point was the denial of these much sort after rating points of more than 400 players who participated in a chess tournament which was not endorsed by the unprincipled individuals at aim to turn Chess South Africa into a dictatorship and away from its humble democratic beginnings with a new constitution in 2012. Some players have even abandoned a very promising chess career after being banned for two years from participating in chess tournaments. This threatening behaviour towards players, who should be at the centre of all policies and actions of the administrators of the sporting code, is not a once of event in Chess South Africa. In October 2019 these unprincipled, misguided individuals withdrew the entire Team SA (in chess) who were to compete in the 2019 African Youth Chess Championship to be held in Namibia without involving the National Council of the Federation. The team was withdrawn such ridiculous reasons not even worth mentioning here. This almost resulted in an international incident between South Africa and Namibia, the hosting country of the 2019 African Youth Chess Championship. The African Chess Confederation and the International Chess body (FIDE) had to intervene whilst SASCOC never lifted a finger to assist in avoiding the international chaos. The Namibia Chess Federation had to issue a public statement to defend themselves against the baseless accusations from opportunistic office bearers claiming to be at the helm of the South African National Chess Federation. What an international sporting embarrassment and the “powers that be” did not lift a finger! The “volunteers” who were slapped with legal costs for “volunteering” assisted the African Chess Confederation to still send Team SA (though a much smaller contingent due to various threats levelled against chess players who “dared” to participate in the African championship in Namibia) and this Team SA was very successful, bringing many medals to the Republic, but needless to say SASCOC never reported on these medals as a proud moment for Team South Africa. Yes, if one does not play rugby, soccer or cricket your sporting code is viewed to be less important in a country with a Constitution which says all are equal. The reason why there have been no intervention in Chess South Africa is the fact that chess is seen as a lesser sport compared to the other sports already mentioned, surely making one feel a lessor South African because your sport is not regarded in the same way as your fellow South African who punches a dropkick through some distant poles.
This is against the background that chess have the ability to very adequately respond to the dire skills gap of the South African workforce with regards to things such as mathematics, engineering and all other sciences fields. This is against the background where it has been scientifically proven that chess enhances memory, spatial and numerical skills, mathematical, language and reading skills and it also increases problem solving capabilities and strengthens logical thinking; consequently, the ability to improve, in the long term, the academic quality of more and more Grade 12s at the end of their schooling career. With the dire skills gap in the South African workforce and all the challenges going with it, can the “powers that be” in South African sport really afford to not intervene in a sport that has the proven potential to turn around the picture of a poorly skilled South Africa in the years to come if ALL players (and not only a selected few from affluent families) were allowed to unreservedly participate in a sport with all the added benefits indicated? Hence your intervention is sought as the Portfolio Committee very urgently.