The board of the South African Sports Confederation, Olympic and Paralympic Committee (SASCOC) has suspended its president, Barry Hendricks, with immediate effect, ending months of quiet internal process with the removal of the most senior office-bearer in South African sport.
The decision was taken at a special board meeting held on 7 and 8 September, according to a circular sent to SASCOC’s membership and seen by Africa Daily. A public press statement followed on 9 September.
Both documents give the same account.
Anonymous complaints were submitted to the board alleging breaches of SASCOC’s safeguarding policy and its Codes Handbook.
The board appointed retired Judge Basheer Waglay to investigate. In his report, Waglay recommended that there was prima facie evidence to warrant referring the complaints to the SASCOC Judicial Body for further action.
“The suspension does not constitute a finding of wrongdoing,” the circular to members states.
“It is intended to protect the integrity and independence of the process and to enable the matters to be considered thoroughly and impartially by the SASCOC Judicial Body,” it continues.
First Vice-President Lwandile Simelane will perform the functions of the president during the suspension, in terms of the SASCOC Constitution, to ensure what the board calls “continuity of leadership and organisational stability”.
The circular is signed off by the full board, including Hendricks himself, Simelane, Kim Pople, Ilhaam Groenewald, George Stainton, Wendy Gila, Khotso Mokoena, Linda Zwane, Thami Mchunu, Mapule Mokoena, Prof Steve Cornelius, Sam Ramsamy, Yaseen Lombard, Anant Singh, Dr Debra Alexander and CEO Nozipho Jafta.
What the complaints are said to contain
SASCOC has not disclosed which of the complaints produced the prima facie finding, and neither document identifies the substance of the allegations beyond the reference to the safeguarding policy and the Codes Handbook.
The investigation itself has been public since July, when the Sunday Times reported that four allegations against Hendricks had been made in two anonymous emails circulated to sports officials.
According to that reporting, the first email, sent in mid-May and signed by “a very concerned national federation president”, raised alleged electioneering by Hendricks ahead of an 18 April by-election for the board seat left vacant by the death of Welhemina “Moekie” Grobbelaar.
The seat was won by Yaseen Lombard of the Gauteng Sports Confederation.
The complainant, who said they feared reprisals against their federation, alleged that Hendricks had contacted members before the ballot to push a preferred candidate, and again afterwards to ask how they had voted.
The second email is reported to have carried three further allegations, a proposed R10 million refurbishment of the SASCOC auditorium funded through the Gauteng Gambling Board, on which Hendricks sat at the time, a safeguarding concern arising at a multi-sport competition outside South Africa and claims about his conduct at official engagements at home and abroad.
Africa Daily has not independently verified the contents of the anonymous emails.
Hendricks declined to comment when the investigation was first reported, saying he would follow the internal process and speak publicly once it was concluded.
At the time, CEO Nozipho Jafta said the allegations arose from anonymous and untraceable emails and remained untested, and that everyone was entitled to the presumption of innocence.
This is the second time Hendricks has been removed from office by his own board.
In early 2020, while serving as acting president, he was provisionally suspended over an electioneering complaint after he offered a view on the suitability of a prospective board candidate, Muditambi “Ntambi” Ravele, when asked for his opinion by Tennis South Africa president Gavin Crookes.
The matter did not prevent him from standing later that year. He was elected president in November 2020, at the head of a board that was widely credited with steadying an organisation then in open crisis.
He was returned unopposed at the quadrennial general meeting in November 2024 for a second four-year term running to 2028. During his first term SASCOC concluded a R66 million four-year sponsorship with Bidvest, the largest single revenue contribution in the organisation’s history.
Simelane, who now assumes the president’s functions, was first elected first vice-president in 2020 and retained in 2024.
A former vice-president of the South African Hockey Association, she was Team South Africa’s Chef de Mission at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
The suspension lands in a sector already short of stable leadership.
The presidents of the country’s two largest Olympic codes are both currently sidelined.
Swimming South Africa president Alan Fritz, himself a SASCOC board member elected in 2020, was suspended last month by World Aquatics’ integrity unit over potential violations including abuse of power and the provision of false information and documents.
Athletics South Africa president James Moloi has been suspended since last year over alleged misuse of a federation credit card, with a disciplinary inquiry held earlier this month.
The Karate South Africa executive remains suspended by the World Karate Federation, and World Netball has been examining conduct issues involving former Netball South Africa president Cecilia Molokwane.
South Africa is now two years out from the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the cycle for which the current board was elected.
The board says the matter is “now sub judice” and that no further comment will be made until the internal processes are complete.
That characterisation is likely to be contested. SASCOC’s judicial body is an internal disciplinary structure rather than a court, and the confederation is a body exercising public-interest functions with substantial public and sponsor funding behind it.
Neither document sets a timeline for the judicial body to convene, states whether Hendricks has been given the Waglay report, or explains how a suspension can be resolved before it effectively decides the balance of the 2028 term.
Africa Daily has seen the internal circular to SASCOC membership dated 6 September 2026 and the SASCOC press statement dated 9 September 2026.