Conduct of elected officials.

Johan van Breda (foreground left) discusses the pairings with Esmari Swart (foreground right).

Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA) is fully committed to good governance and transparency.

With MSSA being a democratically run organisation, officials are nominated by member clubs. Sometimes officials are the best that one can hope for in terms of knowledge base, and sometimes the newly elected officials require a little assistance.

However, all officials need a guide by which to conduct themselves in carrying out MSSA’s affairs.

MSSA, being a member of SASCOC prescribes to the pledge as determined by SASCOC for officials and has made it a requirement for all officials to agree to before assuming their duties and responsibilities.

There is nothing worse than when an official makes use of MSSA’s knowledge base for his/her own personal benefit, or for the benefit of a different organisation. Such acts may indeed be considered to be criminal and may be in violation of several Acts of Parliament. In fact, MSSA takes a very dim view of such types of activity and always takes relevant action in such cases once it has enough evidence to lay criminal charges.

Fortunately, MSSA is blessed with many officials who have a high level of ethics and duty. This is largely due to the member clubs having total control over the nominating process, and due to the fact that every member club has the right, if not duty, to vote for the officials who are to lead MSSA.

Nominations for MSSA’s positions must be submitted by 1 November 2018.

The pledge for all MSSA’s officials is as follows:

• Do my best to ensure that all athletes are given an equal opportunity to participate, regardless of gender, ability or ethnic background.
• Discourage any sport program from becoming primarily an entertainment for the spectators.
• Ensure that all programmes, equipment and facilities are safe and appropriate to the athletes ages and abilities.
• Make sure that the age and maturity levels of the children are considered in program development, rule enforcement and scheduling.
• Remember that participation is done for the athletes own sake and ensure that winning is kept in perspective.
• Ensure that the code of ethics is distributed, understood and agreed upon by, coaches, athletes, and officials.
• Ensure that coaches and officials are capable of promoting fair play as well as the development of good technical skills, and encourage them to become certified.
• Promote and develop the game by sharing knowledge and experience.
• Administer all issues relating to the sport in the best interest of the sport and not for my personal gain.
• Educate and ensure that high standards of risk management are maintained.
• Educate athletes to respect other cultures and beliefs.
• Keep athletes and officials updated on protocol of other countries where they may compete.
• Keep relevant information confidential.
• Not to misuse my position or information for my own benefit.
• Conform to my federation’s code of conduct.
• Show common courtesy towards participants/players, other administrators, coaches, spectators, technical officials, press and sponsors.
• No administrator shall at any time give, make, issue, authorize or endorse any public statement which will have or design to have, an effect prejudicial or detrimental to the best interest of the National Federations or sport in general.

Also read:

• The position of MSSA's Players' Representative is up for election at the 2018 SA National Championships.
• Time to get your nominations in - deadline 1 November 2018