Despite being provided with unequivocal proof that the President of Athletics Free State (AFS) is a rapist who is still serving a suspended sentence, Athletics South Africa (ASA) are content to let him run free amongst vulnerable women and children under his ‘care and custodianship’. Court documents confirming the rape conviction were originally presented to ASA in July 2024. After legal pressure, ASA finally met with the AFS Board eight months later on 21 February but have delayed making any decision or taking any action against the rapist until 15 March. However, they did issue a ‘gag order’ against whistleblowers within the AFS athletics structures from ‘talking to the media’. The complete lack of action from the ASA Board is normalising rape culture in South Africa.
Rhetoric around Gender Based Violence (GBV) is everywhere. You can’t escape it. From billboards to t-shirts, from hashtags to celebrities on social media and of course politicians looking concerned and saying all the right things in front of television cameras. Sadly, it is even harder for women and vulnerable persons to escape the actual rapists and sexual predators – especially when they are men in positions of power.
The rapists are no longer lurking in the shadows, they are sitting comfortably in the boardrooms and greedily massaging in the changerooms. Talk is cheap and the politicians and officials entrusted with protecting our women and children are easily bought when the rapist is rich and powerful.
You would think that there would be some respite when a rapist is caught, prosecuted and sentenced. Unfortunately, many rapists still escape jail time. Such was the case with Steven Swarts who was found guilty when he “inserted his fingers into her genitals” during a “deep tissue massage”. The ‘her’ was a talented 21-year-old track and field athlete that Swarts was “coaching”.
Despite a guilty verdict, Swarts managed to escape jail time with the Bloemfontein Court sentencing him, “In terms of section 276 (1) (b) of act 51 of 1977 as amended, the accused is sentenced to 5 years imprisonment, which imprisonment is suspended for a period of 5 years on condition that the accused is not during the time of suspension convicted of contravention of section 3 of the Criminal Law Amendment act 32 of 2007 (sexual offences and related matters).”
After being charged with rape, Swarts confidently said that he “gives all his athletes the same deep-tissue massage” and that “the groin area is also massaged because this is where the thyroid gland drains.” Furthermore, he reportedly, “warned the young woman that the massage would feel ‘odd’ and was shocked when he found out about the allegations.” Swarts also told the Rapport newspaper that he’s been “coaching children for free for 20 years”.
The whole sordid saga is detailed within this article: Convicted Rapist Runs Athletics Free State (ASA backs rapist; Athletes suspended for raising concerns)
So we have a situation when a convicted rapist of a vulnerable young woman under his care is able to hide the fact and get himself elected as President of AFS. Surely when court papers surface proving his conviction, action will be swift and immediate? Not on ASA’s watch.
Instead of taking action or even doing a cursory investigation*, ASA decided to the ignore the issue (presumably in the hope that it would magically go away) and when concerned athletes within AFS persisted with raising the issue that a rapist is running Free State Athletics, ASA supported disciplining and suspending the athletes. You have that right – the people trying to remove the rapist are the ones who are disciplined whilst the rapist is unconditionally supported by those in authority positions.
* It has also subsequently come to light that SASCOC were notified of the issue via formal channels and also chose the ‘head in the sand’ approach.
It always helps to be well off and well connected. Swarts is a prominent figure in athletics as he is the stepfather and current coach of Olympic Gold Medallist and 400m World Record holder Wayde van Niekerk. His Instagram account is full of photos from various exotic locations and prestigious international sporting events like the British Open golf tournament, F1 grand prix, Paris Olympics and a variety of Rugby Sevens tournaments*.
* This raises a big question about how Swarts, as a convicted rapist, was able to obtain visas for the United Kingdom, a variety of mainland European countries and the United Arab Emirates without lying on his visa application.
The Tuesday after ASA met with AFS they released the statement below. The letter makes a fawning and sycophantic start, “Let me take this opportunity to thank the President of Athletics Free State and his board for hosting us on Friday(21/02/2025).”
The second paragraph says they’ve “deliberated” and “agreed on an interim plan”. The plan is to do nothing “until all parties meet again on the 15 March 2025.” They announced the removal of the suspension of another AFS Board member (Road Running Chair David Koloane) who was apparently suspended without cause or due process being followed in an unrelated matter.
Two of the AFS9 (a group of nine athletes who reported Swarts) were bullied into withdrawing their issues with having a rapist president. The remaining seven have had their suspensions temporarily lifted, but only until 15 March. The statement reads, “Secondly, the board agreed that the suspensions of all chairpersons and members of clubs , should be lifted until 15 March 2025.”
If follows with a gagging order, “Thirdly, The Board of Athletics South Africa has noted the negative publicity on the suspension of these clubs and therefore requests that clubs and officials should refrain from issuing statements to the media with the intention to disrupt the operation of athletics in the Free State and should note the situation will be reviewed at our next meeting.”
Basically what this is saying is that ASA are more worried about the negative publicity than that of a rapist running loose in the changing rooms. Their statements are also factually incorrect and shows how little understanding ASA has of this matter, despite almost the entire Board travelling to Bloemfontein. The individual athletes, not the clubs, were suspended by AFS and they are not the chairpersons but were designated spokespeople for their clubs.
READ MORE: https://www.citizen.co.za/sport/asa-investigating-eligibility-sex-offender-steven-swarts/ (The ASA President James Moloi makes several additional factually incorrect statements in this article, the most glaring is that he states that four, rather than two, of the AFS9 withdrew their complaints.
The letter is signed by Terrence Magogodela, the Acting CEO of ASA. Magogodela is a convicted fraudster and, whilst Acting ASA CEO, used ASA letterheads to facilitate the fraud of lottery funds supposed to build athletics facilities in the Northern Cape. Instead he channelled the money into his home in Gauteng and was caught by the Special Investigation Unit (SIU).
Apparently ‘honour amongst thieves’ extends to rapists. Clearly, Magogodela and Swarts are happy to share recipes on the same WhatsApp group.
The ASA Board finally met with the AFS Board on 21 February in what now appears to be ‘how do we cover this up’ session. They declined to meet with any of the whistleblowers to get their side or the story, review the copious amounts of evidence against Swarts or even understand the context of the issues. On 22 February, the ASA Board (with Swarts and the AFS Board in attendance) met with all the AFS athletics clubs, interrogated the whistleblowers and essentially told them, ‘If you voted a rapist in as President, then it’s your fault’.
If only there were some laws protecting the sport of athletics from rapists and sexual predators.
The good news is that there are. The bad news is that in a gigantic dereliction of duty, ASA has failed to implement them.
Based on several high profile cases of sexual abuse against female athletes and children, World Athletics (WA) implemented a worldwide safeguarding program. The safeguarding policy and procedures had to be in place by the end of 2023. Every single accredited athletics official and coach in South Africa has undergone extensive safeguarding training. It is incredibly depressing that the ASA Board, the ‘elite’ of South African athletics officialdom, has so spectacularly failed this simple practical safeguarding test.
The WA Integrity Unit encourages you to report complaints ‘no matter how small’ here: https://webform.clue.co.uk/AIU-REPORT-01
In addition, WA constitutional clause 65.4(c) which deals with eligibility of athletics officials is crystal clear that an existing official will be ineligible if, “the person has been convicted by a Relevant Authority of any offence punishable by a term of imprisonment of two (2) or more years (whether or not a term of imprisonment is imposed) unless that person has obtained a pardon or has served the sentence imposed on them.”
One again this is clear cut. There is no room for doubt. There is no room to manoeuvre. This should be case closed. There should be no escape for a rapist like Swarts. Yet sadly both the AFS and ASA Board members have found some grey area or mitigating circumstance known only to them to allow a convicted rapist to continue in his position. The boards of both ASA and AFS are complicit in aiding and abetting a known rapist to continue operating ‘business as usual’.
I cannot believe that in the year 2025, I am writing a second article about a rapist escaping accountability. Wasn’t the #MeToo movement the catalyst that was supposed to quell the rampant roaming hands, unwelcome organs and uncontrollable hormones of powerful men? Steven Swarts is proof that whatever impact the #MeToo movement had, its effect is long gone.
In 2025, convicted rapists are allowed to roam free. In 2025, those entrusted with safeguarding our vulnerable athletes choose to side with the rapists. In 2025, those in positions of power still prefer to protect the rapists rather than to apply the rules that they wrote. How can this happen? Why is it so hard to do the right thing?
There is no elephant in the ASA boardroom. It’s more glaringly obvious than that to any rational human being: There is a rapist in the room. He’s got big ugly tusks, he’s stomping his feet angrily and he’s throwing his weight around. Who is going to stop this rapist from crushing the dreams and destroying the lives of talented South African athletes?
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