Comments April

Thank you very much for all your efforts concerning the restoration of
junior chess in SA. I just wanted to let you know that chess players all
around are fully supporting your so called political suicide attempt.
The chaotic manner in which junior chess in our country is run at the
moment calls for a drastic change, as it is we, the players, who are hit
hardest by this matter. I myself missed the SA closed this year due to
an 11th hour notice, leaving me somewhat disappointed in the organizing body
of the event.
Reset the board and fix it from the top for the sake of junior chess in our
country.

I read all of statements on the page, and on the web site with sadness.
The minutes from the meeting appear to be written in emotional language, and seem rather one-sided.
The SAJCA report on its year end raises a number of issues which are of concern.
I ask you to instead of arguing semantics about “no-confidence” and quorum’s and other such issues, to examine this from a chess players perspective.
From the basic mudslinging I read, I get the impression that nobody is actually interested in chess, and that this is just political rhetoric.
Try explaining to us “uninformed players“ why we should care” about all this instead of posting inflammatory statements.
Thanks for my opportunity to pay my 2c,

Thank you for the retort against Adv. Strydom's missive. I am generally disturbed by the trend that has emerged in chessa.
However, I will say this echoing what you said. They should do the honorable thing last left to do and resign. Reason:
(1) The two have now split the highest authority of chess in this country, which is the Council. This has to be the greatest flaw and guilty charge a leadership can stand accused of!
(2) The Chessa leadership has taken many decision without consulting the Council; a constitutional order. "They" claimed that it is The Government, Sascoc and some times even said its the minister! Strange that if SAJCA meets with Sascoc all hell seem to have broken loose! Why the brouhaha about that meeting between two interest bodies? I believe someone has been telling a lie. An expensive lie if one considers the mess the National Junior Chess Championship became!
(3) The Council of Chess in South Africa is entrusted with the finances of the federation, not the executive of chessa. The latter MUST obtain approval before expensing/spending Government funds. I believe this process was not followed. That is what Adv.Garllip was arguing for!
I will continue to refuse to involve myself with this "Mickey Mouse" chessa executive until a transformed chessa is in place!

I refer to your e-mail of yesterday sent to members of the Executive of Chessa and representatives of chess unions and associated bodies, as well as other interested persons.
In the e-mail you make the startling claims that "the 2 honorable Executive members, Mr Parkin (Executive Director) and Mr Ball (President) have forfeited their duties to the council" and "In my humble opinion, and in the interpretation of our constitution, the Vice President is now in charge of our Federation (Chessa)" and "I undertake to act as a co-ordinator for the Council in the meanwhile."
I find your claims startling, and have told you so this morning, in the light of our discussion on Monday, 16 April 2007 when I advised you that, in my legal view, the motion of no confidence passed after the departure of the majority of members was invalid and without any legal force for at least two, and possibly three reasons:
1. No advance notice of the no confidence motion was given and it was not included in the agenda of the meeting.
2. No quorum was present at the time of its ostensible passing.
3. At common law, the chairperson may validly adjourn a meeting of his own volition in certain circumstances and any purported business carried on after the adjournment would be invalid (I was not present at the time of these developments and cannot express, at present, a firm view whether or not the chairperson was indeed entitled to adjourn the meeting).
During our discussion of 16 April, you recognised the fact that the meeting was inquorate at the time the no confidence motion was put to the vote and debated with me the availability of the procedure in article 11.8 of the constitution which provides for subsequent adoption on a round robin basis. One does not have to be legally qualified to appreciate that prior to the article 11.8 procedure being followed and the motion being adopted on a majority of votes, there can be no valid decision. However, even if such procedure were to be followed, it would not overcome the other grounds for invalidity.
You now seek to justify your action by relying on "other legal advice" you had obtained and the fact that you were only giving your "humble opinion". This is not acceptable to me and, until otherwise persuaded, I in particular do not accept that you at any stage held a honest belief that the President and Executive Director had been validly voted out of office. As such, your statements quoted above were calculated to incite and confuse and such irrresponsible conduct is not helpful in finding a resolution in the present situation.
I re-iterate that I am acting completely independent in this matter and I am not biased to the cause of either SAJCA or the Executive of Chessa. I am solely guided by a desire to uphold the rule of law (which includes, in the present case, Chessa's constitution). I gave you the opportunity to retract your statements by 13:00 today and declared myself willing to discuss the matter further with your legal advisers. Nothing came of this, and in view of the misconceptions that may exist following your statements, I deem it necessary to urgently correct those misconceptions.
For the avoidence of any doubt, the President and Executive Director are still in office and obliged to fulfill their duties faithfully.

I have briefly spoken to several members of the Executive and it has been agreed that the following statement will be made:
The Official Minutes of the Council meeting will shortly be issued, as well as a further statement from the Executive.
The "Minutes" that have been sent to you by Mr January - or certainly the portion that were made before the Meeeting was closed - contain a number of untruths. It should be noted that when the meeting was closed and the Executive plus the representatives from Boland, Eastern Province, Ekurhuleni, NACOC(USSASA), SACAA, SASCA, SASSU, SAWCA, South Gauteng and Western Province collectively left the meeting, only representatives (as far as we can recall) from SAJCA, Gauteng West and Sedibeng were still present.
To summarise, the Council Meeting had been closed, the overwhelming majority of the representatives had left - leaving the meeting inquorate - and "decisions" subsequently made were made by around 3 representatives.

This email has been sent to the Chessa Executive as well as the Council members:
Attached please find the minutes of the latter part of the council meeting, from where I was voted in as chair.
I send this out to you, urgently, because it’s very important and it has a direct bearing as to the way forward in our federation.
As far as I am concerned, the matter is very clear. The behaviour of certain of the Chessa Executive members during the meeting leading up to the time when they staged a walkout is unbecoming. Mr Ball’s attempt to close the meeting when he very well knew that the motion of no confidence was tabled is unacceptable and it has failed. This means that as per the minutes attached, he should not be allowed to get away with “cover ups”. The vote of no confidence means that the 2 honorable Executive members, Mr Parkin (Executive Director) and Mr Ball (President) have forfeited their duties to the council.
In my humble opinion, and in the interpretation of our constitution, the Vice President is now in charge of our Federation (Chessa). The council will still have to appoint an acting Executive Director.
Furthermore I propose that disciplinary action be taken against Mr Ball (President) for his unbecoming behaviour at the council meeting and an explanation be sought from those who left the meeting as to why they did so. The only explanation I have, which is acceptable, was from the Vice President who said she had to catch a lift with Mr Ball who had left.
Any form of opinion can be forwarded to me and I undertake to act as a co-ordinator for the Council in the meanwhile.

Dear SAJCA,

It seems to me that that the two people in question still do not get the picture.
The CHESSA constitution does not mention anything about notice periods and certainly does not
regulate any meeting protocol.
I don’t see how Mr. Ball can refuse to allow a vote of no confidence when it is directed at himself.
The motion was proposed and seconded and should have gone to the vote. The meeting was never closed and the
procedure that was followed was the correct one. Mr. Ball & Mr. Parkin now need to do the honourable thing and resign
their posts. It is clear that the majority do not have confidence in their ability to manage their affairs of CHESSA.
As for Mr Thuenissen’s remarks, I need to put the record straight.
    1. It appears that Mr. Thuenissen knows less about constitutional matters and protocol than we do.
    2. SAJCA does not owe GW R70 000.00 so it would be prudent to get the facts correct before quoting them.
    3. GW is supporting SAJCA and has from day one because it is the right thing to do and for the good of Junior Chess and that is the some total of it. We had no hidden agenda’s and have made our position clear from day one.
I also find it disturbing that Mr. Thuenissen is so concerned that his committee’s mail box’s might be filled with the truth that he would rather they not see what they all have the right to see. It is this cloak & dagger stuff and lack of transparency in chess that has to be done away with. All paid up CHESSA members, concerned parents and committee members have the right to know the truth and to express their opinions without idle threats.
As for Mr. Bouah’s response it is going to change nothing. He is welcome to carry on with the organisation of the CHESSA AGM
as this needs to be done anyway. After all he is still a duly elected member of the CHESSA Exco. Should he choose to withdraw from this
task he is at will to do so. GW has no issues with Mr. Bouah and fully except his right to support whom ever he chooses. This is not about personal likes or dislikes this is about what is good for Chess.

Regards
Brian Aitchison
Chairman Gauteng West

I have now gone to great pains to explain to the sajca exco that I am the official contact person for Gauteng North. As can be seen from the above address bar it is quite clear that you have difficulty in understanding clear English. All official correspondence must be directed to me and not to members of the committee as it is clogging their email.
As can be seen from the way you acted it is very clear that you have no understanding of meeting protocol and also no idea of the workings of constitutions and so forth. If the way you acted at this meeting be combined with the circus that you called an AGM in December is anything to go by, then I’m sure that any further meetings of sajca will be missed by me and some other regions.
As far as motions go, it is common practise to table the motion 30 days prior to a meeting as was seen in the case of Mr Garlipp.
What you fail to mention in your mail is the fact that you waited with this motion till most of the unions had already left. You further failed to mention how many unions voted, maybe because of brevity, but I rather suppose it is a matter of been economical with the truth, there was definitely not a quorum present when you were supposedly voted in as chair.
It is indeed a sad and sorry day for chess when a Mickey Mouse organization like the one you are heading can bring so much of disorder and disruptions to a CHESSA meeting.
Under no circumstances can your actions be condoned and as far as Gauteng North is concerned this is just another way of the sajca exco to try and deflect attention away from public scrutiny of the fact that CHESSA council has taken away their rights to host the CHESSA nationals. There is still the matter of sajca apparently owing GJ 70 odd thousand rand for the tournament that was hosted in JHB and the fact that the players who played in the Junior Closed last year are still waiting for their subsisies. Some off these players have already received this year’s subsidies???????
If I look at the blind support you receive from GJ I can only ask myself whether they are scared that if they don’t support you they might lose the money you owe them.

Everybody knows that chess is in a terrible state at this moment. We, as concerned parents and members of chessa, have to take a positive stand to rectify the origin of all the problems in chessa.
We also need to draw up a complete list of all the reasons, with facts, why the motion of no confidence were lodged against the two executive members in question.
This is of utmost importance so that the rest of the chess community can understand what is really going on and that it is not merely a witchhunt.
I support all your comments 100%.

Regards
Chris de Jager

PS. Not one of the drastic decisions taken by the "Chessa Executive" regarding the format change of the junior championships, reduction of players to the world youth chess championships, the omission of miss Wiid from the U20 team to the Africa Junior Chess championships, non-ratification of the SAJCA selection criteria, etc were put before the national council for ratification, or mentioned in either the presidents or the executive directors reports.

I agree 100% with you. Sometimes it is not easy to make a decision but I must say that Mark took a very brave step that was absolutely necessary at the time and long overdue.
Let us work together towards the improvement of our chess especially our junior chess for the sake of all the junior players in the country.
If this is what Mark calls political suicide then we might as well close chess down in this country.
Bravo Mark, Bridgette, the SAJCA committee, Gauteng West for your support all along as well as Michael Burke and all the unions, associations and executive members that supported us.

From one of those who have no voice, it is great to see those that have exercising that right!

There is much to much to say at this point in time. I may have committed political suicide, but alas it is not about me. It is about the right move for chess and our players. I do thank you all for your support and I pray that we can find a solution and a way forward that is going to benefit chess.

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APRIL

APRIL / MAY / JUNE

SAJCA INVOKES CLAUSE 11.8 OF THE CHESSA CONSTITUTION
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COMMENTS PAGE

APRIL

APRIL / MAY / JUNE

SAJCA INVOKES CLAUSE 11.8 OF THE CHESSA CONSTITUTION DETAILS

SAJCA INVOKES CLAUSE 11.8 OF THE CHESSA CONSTITUTION
DETAILS