SA joins anti-doping campaign
Karen Pretorius
11 November 2003
South Africa has added its weight to efforts to combat doping in sport by signing the International Anti-Doping Arrangement, making the country the 10th in the world to join the IADA.
South Africa joins Australia, Finland, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Britain, Canada, Denmark and the Netherlands in the inter-governmental forum, set up in 1995 to foster international co-operation against doping and to promote high standards in anti-doping programmes.
Sport and Recreation Minister Ngconde Balfour and Swedish ambassador to South Africa Helena Nilsson - representing her Swedish Sports Minister Mona Sahlin - signed the agreement in Cape Town on Monday.
Sweden had invited South Africa to join the forum, based on a report of an assessment team that visited the country earlier this year.
In the letter to Balfour, Sahlin said the decision was unanimous, adding: "The participating countries are confident that South Africa will contribute
in a valuable way to the co-operation within IADA, and that the partnership will be mutually beneficial."
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Balfour said South Africa's participation in IADA would further enhance its status as a world leader in anti-doping practices in sport.
Ngconde said athletes found guilty of doping would not be treated with "kid gloves", adding that South Africa was leading the anti-doping campaign on the continent.
According to the Free State-based South African Institute for Drug Free Sport, 2 300 doping tests were conducted in South Africa last year, and of these between two and five percent had tested positive.
Balfour said the country felt honoured by the invitation to join IADA, and added that he was signing the agreement on behalf of those athletes not using drugs.
"We don't want cheats in sport, we want people who win because they have the ability and talent," he said.
South Africa is also part of the World Anti-Doping
Agency (WADA) and the Inter Governmental Consultative Group on Doping in Sport.
With a World Anti-Doping Code adopted by international sports movements and governments in March, IADA is working closely with WADA to ensure its effective implementation prior to the staging of the Athens Olympic Games in 2004.
The code seeks to standardise and harmonise all anti-doping efforts across all sports codes in all countries.
This is expected to result in eliminating anomalies in testing procedures and sanctions. The code will also close the loopholes that previously allowed athletes and coaches to escape censure due to conflicting anti-doping standards and procedures in different countries and international sports bodies.
Source: BuaNews
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