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SA INSTITUTE FOR DRUG FREE SPORT: AMENDMENT BILL IN THE PIPELINE FOR AT LEAST A YEAR
- 06 October 2023
- Sport, Arts & Culture
- SA Legal Academy
When the National Assembly’s Sport, Arts & Culture Committee met on 6 May 2021, members were told that the South African Institute for Drug Free Sport (SAIDFS) Act, 1997, as amended, ‘was outdated and no longer met the needs of the national sports regulations’. This is according to a Parliamentary Monitoring Group (PMG) report also noting that the Department of Sport, Arts & Culture had undertaken to ‘look at other ways to strengthen legislation around drug free sports’.
In March 2022, the same committee was informed that the Act would need to be amended ‘to align (it) with the World Anti-Doping Code, which came into effect on 1 January 2021’ (PMG).
On 19 April 2023, SAIDFS’ presentation to committee members included references to:
- the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA’s) May 2024 deadline for aligning the Act with its international requirements
- ‘a first warning letter’ received from WADA in November 2022, and
- consultations already under way on a draft amendment Bill.
A PMG report on the meeting tends to suggest that committee members’ concerns about missing the deadline focused on readiness for the 2024 Olympics. No mention was made of either the Rugby or Cricket World Cup tournaments just a few months away.
On 28 September 2023, WADA issued a media statement giving South Africa until 14 October 2023 to make the necessary amendments.
At the time of writing, neither the Department of Sport, Arts & Culture nor Minister Zizi Kodwa had issued a statement on the matter. However, according to BBC Sport, SAIDS intends lodging ‘an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport against the threat of sanctions’.
- World Anti-Doping Agency media statement
- committee presentation
- PMG report of April 2023 committee meeting
- BBC Sport report
Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch