Swimming SA saga: Officials suspended, champions unpaid, and sponsors watching closely

Swimming SA saga: Officials suspended, champions unpaid, and sponsors watching closely

Author: BizNews September 18, 2026 Duration: 32:37
Swimming South Africa has two officials suspended, a high performance centre with more than R50 million unaccounted for, and an Olympic champion who says she waited over a year for prize money the federation then charged her interest on. So what does a sponsor actually do with that? Bank of America's Brad Ross, speaking to Alec Hogg in a personal capacity, laid out the playbook: freeze the funds, audit what really happened, then find a way to keep supporting the athletes without the money running through a federation under a corruption cloud. Drawing on his years running sponsorship for Coca-Cola, and on cautionary tales from West Ham United to the International Olympic Committee, Ross made the case for morality clauses South African sport still doesn't use, and for putting athletes like Tatjana Smith and Roland Schoeman on the boards that are supposed to serve them.

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