South Africa's basketball community

KASI tour bumpy ride

By on September 15, 2008 in News

The Ekhuruleni Basketball Association (“EBA”) has asked us to publish the attached letter that they sent to the Gauteng Basketball Association (“GBA”) regarding how the Kasi Tour was managed and run.

By publishing this letter to the public, the EBA wishes to demonstrate how proper grievance procedures can and should be followed, and also hope to show that in this way, organisational problems can be addressed, both provincially and nationally.

Information supplied by Joseph Mangadi

Click here for the document: Press release – Kasi tour complaint

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Subscribe

If you enjoyed this article, subscribe now to receive more just like it.

There Are 18 Brilliant Comments

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. Setlogelo says:

    Thank you very much for the letter.

    Although there are lessons of a procedure to lodge a complaint, there letter exposes the way Provinces tend to impose themselves on the Districts. It also expose the lack of communication between Provinces and the Districts.

    Much emphasis is placed on Provinces by BSA. I have never seen the effectiveness of this line of authority. As a scholar I never got to offer a positive argument about this arrangement other than it is a shortcut to communicate basketball to the people. Provinces will never grow the sport. It is the structures within the districts that will ensure mass participation in the game.

    The art of leadership lies in delegating authority. I make “delegating authority” stand out because this is what BSA has lacked since I got to know them.

    Basketball is a culture that is in every town that I know in my Beloved country. Moreover the people who will be more in touch with the communities are the district people. Mr Maleka, our present President, knows these dynamics better than anyone in the interim structure. The political landscape in the sport need to accommodate the districts for the sport to function efficiently.

    I had the opportunity to observe the way the Engen Club Championships were organised. The idea behind was to get as much participation as possible throughout the country. However the Federation never really produced the results. There was no enough manpower to go beyond what the people at the Provinces would attest to.

    I should point out that in business they do not work on the “potential”. The potential number 2 sport after soccer will never bring us anything unless we establish better communication channels between the BSA and the people at the root level of the organisation.

  2. baller says:

    i think the letter from EBA indicates that we still have a long way to go for our administrators to understand the importance of the structures they themselves want us to have within bball..for one, the Kasi tour was planned sometime back cos we saw posters on the net. one would have thought that the districts were consulted before the venues were announced and then work hand in hand with the organisers towards the event.

    if the tour is for promoting bball in this districts then its funny that the district associations were they exist are not consulted as they will be expected to continue growing the sport. to me the district should have nominated the area and the court to be renovated for the event ensuring that the existing teams get to benefit.. now,how do we benefit a team that is not even affiliated to the district?

    i just hope that GBA deals with the issue going forward and which i doubt they will.. please Joe, updated us on the outcome if they do come back to you..

  3. Interested says:

    It’s one side of the story. I think Joe is not being proactive but REACTIVE in this case.

    For once I’m going to go with GBA on this matter because Joe knew long ago about the KASI tour but waited until the last minute to send an sms like if he didn’t know where the offices of GBA are or who to contact.

    And speaking of organisation, since the KASI tour info was published a long time ago you have to consider that GBA are not the only stakeholders in this event and therefore various arrangements had already being made for that particular venue. Can you imagine booking a venue long in advance and then changing it because someone has issues with a particular organisation a day before the event. It’s madness!

    It seems that Joe is using his position at EBA to wage a personal battle with GBA at every opportunity. This doesn’t help your community Joe. Now that you have another court, USE IT!

    And if like you say the club that uses the court isn’t part of EBA structure WHY? And what are you doing to integrate them?

    JOE, GET YOUR HOUSE(EBA) IN ORDER AND I believe SOME ISSUES CAN BE RESOLVED WITHOUT MAKING THREATS IF BASKETBALL IS UR MAIN INTEREST or IS IT?

    At the end of the day we just want to play!

  4. Setlogelo says:

    Interested

    The fact of the matter is that the correct procedure was not followed. Even though the event was published “in the media”, it is the responsibility of GBA to follow the right protocol by involving one of their constituency.

    In this case it would be the district. They must be involved by means of writing formal letters of intention, holding meetings etc. Etc would include things like going to inspect the venue.

    The fact of the matter is GBA ignored to delegate authority.

    The media falls under the tertiary stakeholders. Thus the primary stakeholders were not being communicated to.

    Tip: Even though the media would publish league results of Premier Soccer League, such are communicated to the clubs through official medium on the correct letterheads of the organisation.

    Learn from competition.

  5. Joe says:

    Interested

    I think you missed the part where it is stated, at the very beginning of this post, that the purpose of publishing this letter is to demostrate procedure. As EBA, we have submitted the greivance to GBA and are engaged with GBA on the content of the greivance.

    Secondly, personally I knew of the Kasi Tour from the very beginning and also know why Tokoza was chosen. However, as chair of EBA, I can only reflect the views of my constituency.

    Since you are siding with GBA on this one, are saying that your GBA were correct in not involving the districts in the planning of the event, which is taking place in the districts? Are you also saying that GBA were correct in publicising that they will be registering individuals, when this function is constitutionally mandated to the districts? Are you also arguing that GBA was correct in not responding to the SMS requesting an explanation about the event?

    Are you saying that it was correct that perfectly fine Tokoza court was chosen instead of Kwa Thema, where the hoops are almost falling to the ground or Daveyton where the court is not even recognisable, or Wattville where only the surface remains,etc? These are all courts used by teams participating in the EBA league, what message are sending to teams who belong to structures when they are being ignored, while people not belonging to stuctures get the benefit?

    Also, nowhere in the grievance do we say we wanted the venue to be changed neither was this said on the SMS to GBA. The purpose of the SMS was to invite a briefing from GBA since non was forthcoming, HOW’S THAT BEING REACTIVE?

    And yes you are COMPLETELY RUGHT as EBA we are extremely unhappy with the GBA exec and us expressing our unhapiness is a personal agenda but an organisational one. We all complain that structures are not being held accountable, as far as we are concerned, our action merely calls on GBA to account.

    Interested, why all the defensiveness?

  6. Interested says:

    Joe,

    I’m not being defensive, just stating my opinion on the matter. I JUST WANT TO PLAY!

    I see more red tape issues than basketball being played in SA, :(.

    The other thing I don’t get with you Joe is that before you resigned from GBA recently, you were their CHAMPION; always coming on this site and defending them no matter what BUT now you are singing a different TUNE… What has changed? The year certainly hasn’t changed.

    You say that EBA uses delapidated courts for their league, WHAT is EBA doing to remedy the problem? Did you expect KASI tour to fix all your courts? BE proactive FIX YOUR HOUSE instead of waiting for hand outs. Why do we have to wait for initiatives like BWB or KASI tour to come around to start complaining about problems in our districts while we sit and do nothing for the whole year. I am referring to EBA and other districts with such problems. Why wait for someone to come mark courts for you when you have 2 good hands and hopefully you can draw a square? Just buy paint!

    INSTEAD OF WANTING STUFF, HOW ABOUT DOING STUFF!

    And as you speak for your consistuency JOE, ask them WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TODAY TO IMPROVE THEIR DISTRICT!

    Setlogelo

    As you can see from Joe’s comments EBA knew about the KASI tour.

    Maybe EBA just left it until the last minute to raise their issues with the tour.

    Maybe EBA wanted to run the tour as they wanted, WHO KNOWS?

    Everyone must stop with pursuing personal agenda and just do something. I would help someone who has built a house get electricity then someone who comes and says I NEED A HOUSE&ELECTRICITY.

  7. kim says:

    Cant we just ALL get along!!!!

  8. Setlogelo says:

    The said event has been publicised through the media and everyone who visits this site can verify that they knew.

    The fact of the matter is, Did GBA consult with their constituency?

    The media is not a platform to communicate administrative issues.

    Is GBA administered by the media?

    Bluntly, is it acceptable for GBA to communicate with their constituency via the media?

    Let us not administer basketball to “just play”

    Why do you go to an extent of registering players when all you could do is to communicate with you district to provide you with that information?

    Let us all do one thing right, only one thing right, follow procedure.

    The media is not the correct platform for communicating with your constituency.

  9. Setlogelo says:

    Kim

    This is the platform for everyone to improve basketball. Let us express ourselves.

    I am certain that everyone gets along very well. It is for the good of the game.

  10. kim says:

    greeting ballers
    I feel this topic is very HEATED and it borders on personal attacks of which I think many fans wont be able to contribute regarding the matter as this matter seems to have alot of information that is unknown to us.What I do agree upon is that if EBA has a problem with the way GBA has done something then it has the right to complain to GBA instead of running to BSA or publishing their thoughts on the website and think issues will be resolved.

    In my opinion both parties have contributed negatively in the whole situation(EBA and GBA).There are points that ‘interested’ raises that I feel this thing could have been resolved way before the actual event actually took place.This can only bring bad publicity to our sport.I however agree with the core principles that Joe is raising.Before BSA can release a press statement,its constituency(USSA,WBA,provinces etc)should have been part of the process leading up to that decision for example.This ensures informed decisions are made

    Let the issue be resolved and lets ensure the ballers get to play.I feel in us expressing ourselves we should not ultimately create this forum to be a boxing ring for individuals to be put up as punching bags,I rather we share ideas in a constructive manner that we can then start implementing in our districts,clubs and wherever we may be in this lovely country of ours.Lets use this tool to revive the spirit of basketball.we may disagree on issues but I feel we are no longer respecting each other during this particular engagement on this topic.

    LOVE,PEACE and HAPPINESS.

  11. Setlogelo says:

    Dear All

    I is important to note that the problem which arose is prevalent in the Provinces that I know. Provinces seem to be a law unto themselves by throwing what they may down the throats of the districts. The action as indicated by an example above has a lot to do with the bottom line results. These results are crucial in the development of the sport as indicated in the low statistics as reported elsewhere. The statistics has indicated that approximately 133.3 people attended the tour at one venue. Most probably, there were individuals who repeated their attendance at another venue. The number is equivalent to those who converge weekly at the GBA league matches.

    If the district had the delegated authority regarding the event, we would be talking higher numbers.

    I have noted with interest on how the topics tend to become personal. It is clear the the communique between Provinces and Districts contributes a lot into personal agendas. We all know that statutes govern humans. But it seems people are ignorant towards the procedure to follow as written in the laws that govern human communication. Once again the written rules on consultation are important for us to achieve bottom line results.

    I refrained to take sides in the matter. I am not a judge to ascribe guilt to the two parties. Again allow me to indicate that basketball lacks one thing, only one thing which has been a cancer since I have known the sport. That is recognition and respect of the constituencies.

    Again, BSA has placed too much emphasis on the Provinces. This is not good for growth as statistics mentioned above indicates.

  12. Joe says:

    Setlogelo

    I agree with you, more than BSA provinces are the critical areas which we need to be concentrating. If we accept mediocrity at provinces, there is no way in H**L that BSA will funciton properly.

    The reason I feel this way is that BSA consists of provinces and if these have no idea how to run effectively, then we cannot expect that by some miracle they will drive BSA in the right direction.

    Again, to me the merits of our complain is not why we sent this to be published, however it is the purpose of the complaint that we shared our complain in this forum. This should be contextualised on the background of the discussions that have been conducted in this forum.

    I also agree with because most of us jump to look at how we can fix the bigger picture, forgetting that constitutionally BSA and Provinces are build on Districts. It is in Districts that real development should be taking place, as it is always quoted “a journey of a thousand mile begins with one step”. Districts are the foundation of our basketball in SA, yet we always ignore them when people talk about “solutions”.

    As much as I do not want to refer to Thabo Sefolosa’s case, if one follows his career, it is evident that he came through a district system. This is the case with most European sport which our sport structure is based on.

    INTERESTED

    Please understand the publication of the letter for what it is meant, a demonstration of lack of consultation from GBA and a grievance procedure to be followed. In the real world it is accepted that mistakes will be made, hence it is normal to have a grievance procedure.

    To emphasise this, as EBA we first raised our concern with GBA before the event, then submitted our greviance to GBA after the event since it was not addressed, all this before we jumped to publicising our complain. This is standard grievance procedure recognised universally. And this is the purpse of publishing the complain.

    Whether the complain has merit or not, this is been discussed between ourselves and GBA.

    HOWEVER, IF INTERESTED FEELS VERY STRONGLY ABOUT THE PUBLISHING OF THE COMPLAIN, THEN AS EBA WE WILL NOT SHARE SUCH INFORMATION WITH THE PUBLIC, BUT WILL KEEP IT ON THE INSIDE, HOPEFULLY, NO ONE WILL COMPLAIN THAT WE ARE NOT TRANSPARENT.

  13. Interested says:

    Joe,

    Who is defensive now? Anyway I REALLY don’t want to attack you personally so look at it from my side. I APPRECIATE the fact that you published this letter because bball needs to KNOW. But in the same sentence we should be allowed to express our opinion on the matter because at the end of the day OUR LOVE 4 BASKETBALL is what we all share.

    You represent EBA and its constituancy so my comments are mostly directed at the organisation and other “districts”.

    You and Setlogelo are saying that we should start by fixing districts before the provinces and BSA right? We agree there and my question to you both gentlemen is a simple one WHEN ARE YOUR AGM BEING HELD this year? and how many positions are there? A time and place would be nice.

    My point here is that most districts are run like this (example): “interested” gets elected Chairman of “THE MOON Bball Ass”(TMBA), then you have X in the treasury, Y in development, etc… After the elections, which most of the time are fixed before hand, the only person you hear from/about is the President/chairman. All the other portfolios go back to their other jobs and rarely fulfill their duties. Then when you start asking for financial records and proof of development projects X and Y are nowhere to be found. I’m sure most of us have experienced this problem at district level.

    Coming back to KASI tour, I think in an ideal world; GBA or the organisers wuldn’t have to deal with Joseph for this matter. There should be a development officer that would liaise between the 2 organisations. But I feel that the chairman of basketball organisation (in the case of the example “interested”) tries/is forced to wear too many different hats (one minute Chairman, then PRO then treasurer then development then…) which creates problems and possibly conflict of interest. So my question is whether “interested” serves TMBA or is it the other way around.

    Finally Joe, as readers we appreciate your contributions but we don’t always have to agree.

  14. Joe says:

    Interested

    Ask any club owner/coach form Ekurhuleni if they have been invited to our meetings, I am sure that the answer will be YES. Then ask them if they have attended any of the meetings, I am again sure that the answer will be NO.

    I have argued time and again that as DIstricts we call meetings, we organise games and the turn up is NEVER good. Not because people did not know but rather that people DO NOT CARE ABOUT DISTRICTS CAUSE THEY ARE NOT IMPORTANT ENOUGH.

    This is the real reason I resigned from GBA, cause it was evident to me that Districts were being pushed to the side cause they require a lot of work and do not offer much PUBLICITY for some GBA exec members. To demostrate this view, follow the money and you will see how much was spent on Districts.

    Both in this forum and other gatherings I have on numerous occassions thrown tantrums because everyone seems to be more concerned about PROVINCIAL AND BSA matters. We all jump to offer solutions on how BSA can be fixed yet say nothing about fixing the core of BSA, the DISTRICTS.

    I have also mentioned many times, that Danmore has run the JBA almost by himself, I run EBA almost by myself, I am sure that other Districts chairs experience the same situation. Unlike your contention, we are forced to do everything because ballers ARE NOT INTERESTED IN ASSISTING IN DISTRICTS, cause district work is not GLAMOROUS.

    Lastly, I do not want people to agree with me, however, it is a waste of my efforts if people do not seek to understand issues but react either from a preconceived perspective or are just plain lazy to engage critically with issues, without personalizing the debate.

  15. K says:

    “Again allow me to indicate that basketball lacks one thing, only one thing which has been a cancer since I have known the sport. That is recognition and respect of the constituencies. ” Setlogelo on September 18th, 2008 8:58 am

    I find this very indicative of the attitude that we have to the way we organise ourselves and our paradigms of success. We seek recognition before we have proven our value. We want to benefit long before the strategy has been declared successful.

    The Western Cape Basketball Association has a very effective and dynamic relationship with its districts in which both parties gain respect out of depth and understanding of what drives the other party. Things are far from perfect but at least there has been a consistency of participation in the association’s league and activities. WCBA does not wish to control nor own the creative capital of its members and so there is hardly unnecessary interruption of constructive and very legal basketball activity in the province. I find it disturbing that relations between a district and a provincial federation are so sour that they need to resort to using the media to communicate/bargain. I am all for transparency, and when someone asks for information it should be freely provided without hidden agenda, but that does not mean we should air our dirty laundry.

    the world is achanging and it is widely illustrated that the key to successful organisation is inspirational leadership. who wants to be part of something that does not inspire nor uplift?

    what are the values of EBA? do they match the values of GBA? do they match the values of their membership?……..

  16. Joe says:

    Again the point of us, EBA, publishing the complaint is missed.

    K

    We published the letter cause of the ongoing debate in this website about how does one raise issues with the stuctures. From the debates, most notably Sport Governance, it was obvious that ballers are not aware of the procedure of how and to whom to raise concerns.

    As EBA we have complained to GBA about other issues, and these were not published in the media. Thus the purpose of the letter is not to neccessarily to address GBA in public, but to demostrate how ballers can raise their greivance.

    Also, the dynamics in GP are very different from WC. I know for a fact that there is hardly any bball in Gugulethu and Langa and I know that clubs mostly deal with WCBA. Maybe K, you can enlighten us about the structure of bball in the WC, cause I personally doubt if there are indeed active district associations in the WC. Careful about your answer cause I started my bball career in the WC, I was there last month, and come there every December.

    Also, please give us some tips on inspirational leadership as it seems we can learn from your shining example.

  17. Setlogelo says:

    K

    It seems like you want to score points where there is no competition by indicating an exemplary leadership in your Province. Although Joe pointed that the dynamics are different from each Provinces, I beg to differ. Situations there are virtually the same. During my time in Gugulethu (where I started a basketball team), I searched tirelessly for members of the district leadership in the area. I was also in Paarl where the results were also negative. Mitchels Plain was one area as well as Muizenberg and Fishhoek.

    Thus when I indicated elsewhere about the Provinces that I know, Western Cape was on the list.

    It is unfortunate that wherever I go, I always want to communicate with the people at the ground, the place where basketball is happening.

    Note that the league does not form a district association. Nor regional association. In itself, the league is an activity of the said executives to promote the sport.

    The leadership dynamics are not better in other organisations than basketball. Those successful are composed by good leadership as well as passionate followership. Many times, as I have observed, leaders tend to push away their executive committee by making unilateral decisions. Not only that, but they ignore to follow procedures which will motivate their colleagues. On the other hand we have people who want to serve and expect to gain in monetary terms.

    The only way for people such as Interested to get full value for their executives is to get a mandate from their constituencies. The responsibilities must then be divided accordingly among the executive members. Other than helping with the marketing, the Chairperson must do regular follow ups regarding the progress.

    By the way, Interested, the list is common in circumstances such as elections. No sentiments. Leaders surround themselves with people who will do the job.

  18. Joe says:

    K

    Unfortunately, your understanding of structures is incorrect and thus you have failed to address my question adequately.

    Structurally, the Western Cape Province consists of 21 Local municipalities, meaning, according to the BSA constitution, the WCBA has to consist of 21 District associations. My question is does the WCBA have even 10 active district associations? If you do not, how can you even claim that there is leadership in the WCBA as the development of bball in all of the WC Province is the key role of the WCBA?

    From the above, you can easily arrive to my conclusion that each province is dynamic, and therefore its politics will also be dynamic. My experience of the WC bball is that the WCBA is a misnomer as a provincial structure, as 99%of the members and the exec come from one district/municipality ie The City of Cape Town, as demonstrated by the areas you have quoted. What has the WCBA done to ensure that this is addressed? Only when this is achieved can K give us tips on successful leadership.

    This is part of the dynamics that I am referring to, as the above scenario is totally opposite Gauteng where the members and exec of GBA consist of 80% of the GP province. Where there are identifiable district associations: EBA, JBA. TBA. SBA, which are aligned to the Gauteng political boundaries.

    Therefore, from my perspective, the WCBA constituency is constitutionaly false and cannot be compared with GBA, unless K can prove that my information about the WCBA is incorrect.

Top