Devlin Brown
5 November 2009
Johannesburg — DESPITE enjoying a good relationship with the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada), punctuated by compliments and goodwill gestures, the reality is that drug testing in SA is not plain sailing, and doping starts at a young age.
"The support of Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile is considerable and significant," Wada director- general David Howman told Business Day. He said Wada viewed SA as "advancing the cause in Africa".
South African Institute for Drug Free Sport CEO Khalid Galant said SA was invited to send two doping officers to work at the Vancouver Winter Olympics next year. "The invitation is testament to the quality of our work and the expertise and professionalism of our staff."
But despite the political goodwill and positive rhetoric, it is simply not as straightforward on the ground in SA. Funding shortages scupper the institute's chances of testing at the level they desire.
"On the political level, there is a definite understanding of the regulations governing drug-free sport and the resources required to comply with these regulations, unfortunately the spiralling costs of testing and compliance with the changing international anti-doping regulations have us almost constantly engaging (begging) with the minister of sport to convince him to increase our base-level funding," said Galant.
"Some (sports) such as rugby and cycling have exhibited a real commitment with their support and resources to the institute, while others do the minimum that is required of them," he said.
"Based on the size of the Premier Soccer League (PSL) and commercial value of the tournaments, we should do even more testing than we do in rugby, who have less tournaments and teams. However, since the PSL does not give us a grant as rugby does, we are limited by our budget. One test costs up to R2700."
If difficulties in policing the professional arena were not enough, policing feeder systems is almost nonexistent. It would stand to reason that eliminating any semblance of doping would be necessary in the pursuit of a long-term dope-free sporting world.
But testing is a luxury at school level rather than a prerequisite.
When asked if regular testing happened at school level, Galant said it was not possible to answer with a "simple yes or no".
"Informed consent is important when athletes are below the 'age of minority'. The consent required makes no-notice testing a challenge," said Galant.
"The testing process is fairly invasive and if the athlete is under 18; we have to ensure that appropriate chaperones are present to give legality to the process."
However, Galant said that where students took part in registered sports events such as the Rugby Craven Week, regular testing did take place.
Leading sports scientist Prof Tim Noakes estimated that doping prevalence in schools was 10%-20%.
"There is no regular testing since there is no money, and who has jurisdiction is not clearly defined. What do you do with a schoolboy who has used a drug on the advice of his coach and provided by the local dealer? Ban him from school? Or sport? Rather find the dealer, but there seems to be not much interest in tackling the problem at its source," he said.
Galant said the institute was working towards tackling the source. "We are starting to build a network to catch distributors and manufacturers. This requires us to work with law enforcement, but as you know, resources among law enforcement are stretched pretty thin."
Deputy headmaster of St John's College in Johannesburg, Alan Thompson, whose immediate response was in stark contrast to other leading schools, said that high schools knew there was a problem.
"Just because users have not been caught does not mean it is not happening. Legally there is a problem with conducting the testing.
"Also there is no unified view on the need to institute testing and nobody wants to be the first to do so .... Schools take a tough line on other drugs, but that thinking has not really come around to performance enhancers," he said.
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