The dead-end to Greece 2018
After running a very successful awareness campaign on the champion's qualification to play in the World Youth Chess Championships in Greece, we finally secured two potential sponsors. The first was from the National Chess Federation, Chess South Africa, Chessa.
On the 11th of September 2018, the interim treasurer of Chessa Geraldine Engelman sends an email stating that the national federation has resolved to sponsor Banele Mhango, the player with all expenses of only one of the remaining international events. The player was requested to respond in writing specifying which event he would like to attend. We replied on email and Chessa also requested the player's parents contacts so they could call and inform them of their intentions, which they did. A call was made to Banele's mother to such effect. She later called me unable to contain her excitement on behalf of her son, "he's finally going to Greece, wow!". I also thought it was final so I replied "yes of course. The boy worked hard to make it this far, he deserves it."
I immediately got on the phone and started calling the other potential sponsors I was in communication with informing them that the player's World Youth expenses were covered by the national federation. Expenses which where not much to be honest. The player's accommodation and catering, which usually costs the bulk of the expenses, was covered by the hosts federation (Greece) as he is the invited player (the national U16 Champion). The player's federation only needs to pay for his registration of R2000 and his flight which ranged between R8000- R10000 at the time. I called everyone who was in support of the campaign from the journalists who wrote the articles to the radio stations that gave us interviews. Children Matter, the organisation that sponsored The Banele Mhango Open tournament informs us their support is always available when we need it. They were the second sponsor.
The first strange thing to happen, on Thursday the 13th of September on our way to Mozambique for a Chess tournament I receive an email from the national federation asking that I inform Mpumalanga Chess and National Youth commission President Vicky Magu of their intention to support the player. I obliged with the understanding that Mr. Magu was being informed for the purpose of registering the player. This of course is something Chessa could do from within its structures. After informing him on Whats-app, Mr. Magu replied saying it was too late, player registration for WY is closed and even if it was not we were still out of time for visa applications as they require 30 working days for processing. Mr. Magu was just very dismissive of all concerns which would be shocking and somewhat strange if I had never communicated with him before on the WY subject.
I remember the previous year he advised us not to even campaign for WY in Uruguay as it was too expensive. His advice was to stick to Africa and he even played a big role in ensuring the player got to participate in the African Youth Chess Championships (AYCC) in Egypt by listing him as an invited player which meant his accommodation and catering was covered by the host federation. This greatly reduced the load and made it possible for Banele to earn his title in Egypt.
This year again Mr. Magu reminded me not to worry about WY and let the boy play the African Youth only, "let him be an African Champion, WY in unnecessarily expensive" Vicky said over the phone and he later cemented his statement with a text stating same "Let the boy play Africa Youth".
Now when his dismissive attitude is considered in light of the fact that no communication regarding WY has been made to us since 3 months ago when we were notified of the selection, it becomes suspicious. In the past three months we have not been informed who the team manager for WY would be so we know to communicate directly to the manager in making payments arrangements and so forth. With previous international events a Whats-app group was created were information on visa applications and other arrangements is shared but this time nothing of such has been created which is why it was quite shocking to discover that the WY registration was closed and that we were late for visa applications.
I forwarded Mr. Magu's communications to Chessa and Mpumalanga. Chessa replied saying they are still investigating whether what Mr. Magu was saying had any truth to it. They promised to get back to me. Days went on with me constantly pressing them for feedback but they kept stalling. Chessa, through their treasurer finally replied that they were getting tired of my persistence and that they have just learned that we have not been following proper communications protocol. According to their new discovery, they found that they need to communicate with the player through the member Province which the player is representing and not through the manager/coach. That was when communication broke. A few days later after observing proper protocol and communicating through the Mpumalanga Province representatives, I'm assuming President or very likely Secretary, Chessa sends a letter to Mpumalanga with me copied stating that they can no longer be able to sponsor the player. Dream shuttering!!!
I forwarded the letter to Children Matter who responded quick and effective requesting all the required amounts to be paid and the payment schedules. They were ready to take care of everything. I now started communicating with Chessa interim President Mr. Joe Mahomole asking him if we could proceed with payments to get the player registered. He talked to Mr. Magu who told him it was still possible to register but a late registration penalty fee of €80 was charged. A sudden twist of events. Mr. Mahomole wrote the organisers asking if they could waiver the penalty fee as the delay was a fault of Chessa but the organisers said it was not possible. Children Matter did not mind, we were just waiting for the go-ahead from Chessa so we could register and hurry up and buy the ticket. They took whole days to reply to emails and whats-app texts and phone calls were not going through. When Mr. Mahomole finally got back to me we discovered it was too late for the visa applications which actually took 10-15 working days to process, not 30 working days as Mr. Magu had initially told us. With only about 11 working days remaining, we tried to find out if it was possible to arrange an emergency/ express visa but were informed that Schengen states do not offer emergency visas except in a case of death. All our hopes faded. The World Youth Chess Championships slipped through our fingers once again.
Looking at the list of players travelling to the WY I often find myself wondering if there is a chance that all this is part of a greater plan to keep certain "kinds" of players from attending prestigious events such as the WY where they will gain exposure to a certain level of Chess thus cementing their place as the future of SA Chess. It feels and mostly appears that some people within the structures are agents working to keep some of our kids down and oppressed no matter how hard we work in trying to break these barriers; no matter how much these kids excel in their performances there still exist some very committed gate keepers on the way up who make a living blocking junior players of a certain hue from going overseas.
But then I could be wrong, the actual issue could be on the fact that travelling to overseas tournaments with unaccompanied kids make it difficult for the managers to find time to enjoy themselves at the expense of the National Federation. Going to Greece for a holiday is not a luxury anyone can afford and if it comes about you would not want to waste that opportunity running after some junior Champion who could not afford to have an accompanying adult come with them.
This is all shear speculation I know, but what are we left to do but speculate when such things keep happening in our midst and no one is held accountable?
Who is to hold Chessa accountable for going back on their word? A whole national federation making a promise, a commitment to a whole national champion and then suddenly retracting as if it means nothing?
Who is to hold the President of Youth Commission Mr. Vicky Magu accountable for misinforming us that the registration is closed and that there was nothing that could be done since visa applications were also closed when it wasn't so? When you are representing the official structure from where information is disseminated, how are you or the structure ever to be trusted again after that?
The whole Chess South Africa interim structure has blundered in this regard and deserves to answer for what they did. But who are they to answer to.
The list of South African Players representing at the World Youth in Greece is attached.
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