Controversial Athletics Free State (AFS) President Steven Swarts is suspended pending a disciplinary investigation, said Athletics SA (ASA) on Saturday.
Swarts, the stepfather and coach of World 400M World Record-Holder Wayde van Niekerk, was found guilty of sexual violence in 2020 and was sentenced to five years in prison for five years.
In 2018, Swarts had placed fingers in the victim, a female athlete he at that time, while giving her a massage.
But despite the conviction, he was chosen at the end of 2023 as president of the provincial organ and when some club officers called for a voice of no confidence in him, they were suspended by the AFS Council.
Swarts’ wife Odessa, the mother of Van Niekerk, is part of the board.
“The ASA board unanimously decided during its meeting on Thursday … Swarts … with immediate effect, awaiting the convening of a disciplinary investigation into his behavior that ASA has discredited,” said the National Federation in a statement on Saturday morning.
ASA said that the AFS membership “seemed to have been misled about the seriousness of the violation and the outcome”.
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