The credit card of the South African Institute for Drug-Free Sport (SAIDS) was used to pay for Uber Eats orders, Uber rides, a Kindle subscription, florists, a retirement gift and baby shower gifts.
Close to 100 of the transactions were labelled as personal expenses on the card statements.
The details emerged in Parliament on Tuesday, when the portfolio committee on sport, arts and culture went through statements SAIDS had handed over.
CEO Khalid Galant admitted he approved every transaction.
“All transactions on the credit card are approved by me,” he said.
DA MP Leah Potgieter said one staff member alone had 59 transactions labelled as personal in 2022, worth just over R6,200. In 2023, there were about 33 more, worth about R3,500.
Most were Uber Eats orders of between R100 and R200 each.
“You cannot tell me that 59 entries in 2022 and over 30 entries in 2023 were errors. This was intentional use of a business credit card for personal items,” Potgieter said.
“It’s either a business credit card or it’s a personal credit card.”
She said another set of personal expenses, listed under “KG”, included Starbucks, Uber Eats and a Kindle subscription.
Galant admitted that the Kindle charge was his.
“With the Kindle example, that was in error, in terms of the way I went, and it defaulted to the SAIDS credit card. That was refunded within two or three days,” he said.
He insisted staff were not allowed to use the card for personal spending, and said there had been only two errors.
“Other than those two cases, I can’t recall any other personal expenses,” he said.
Earlier, chief financial officer Onke Ngwane had described a routine process for personal spending on the card.
“If it happens that an expense is a personal expense, that is investigated, and it is recovered from the employee through their payslip,” he said.
ANC MP Matsholo Mmolotsane found baby shower gifts on the statements.
“When I saw that one baby shower, I thought it was a once-off thing but no it it’s not. I have two baby shower gifts, and the other one cost R969, ” she said.
She said the gifts were bought at Ackermans and Crazy Store.
“You cannot go through one, two, three statements without finding a restaurant. You cannot go through one, two, three statements without finding Netflorist. It looks like at SAIDS, everyone is doing as he or she wishes,” she said.
Galant said the baby shower gifts were for two staff members going on maternity leave.
“It wasn’t personal use for my own benefit. It was an appreciation, a token or celebration for the staff member,” he said.
“Do you have a policy on baby showers?” ANC MP Kgabo Kgaolathle asked.
“No, we don’t,” Galant said.
“Now that you seem to be interested in throwing baby showers, you have turned yourself into Bhuti Madlisa of baby showers,” Kgaolathle said.
Mmolotsane also raised a retirement gift bought in May 2024 for a former senior official of the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture.
Galant called it “a goodwill gesture”.
Committee chairperson Joe McGluwa said the spending was indefensible.
“What kind of criticism will we receive from the public out there, that says those who are catching out athletes for doping are now paying for baby showers?” he said.
“In a normal working environment, for heaven’s sake, get together and collect a hundred rand from every staff member at work and then buy that baby shower gift. How is it then possible that we do such a thing?, ” asked McGluwa.
Galant said the card was in his name, and that he approved and made the purchases.
“So you are the one who spends and approves at the same time. You are a referee and a player,” Kgaolathle said.
Galant later admitted he sometimes handed the card to staff.
“Sometimes I’m not able to do it, and I have to give it to someone, and I will give it to one of the staff members, and I will give them the PIN that’s required,” he said.
EFF MP Eugene Mthethwa accused him of misleading Parliament.
“I’ve told you that it is a statutory offence to lie to Parliament. You are misleading us. You have no policy whatsoever,” Mthethwa said.
“Now you’re giving PIN numbers to your employees. You are running a risk in that entity.”
No one could produce the credit card policy.
Board chairperson Raymond Hack said he did not know whether one existed.
“I cannot confirm that there is or there isn’t a policy. I have not been into the office to look through all the files,” he said.
Asked by Kgaolathle whether he was aware of a credit card policy, Hack said: “I’m not aware of that.”
Galant first said there was a policy. Later, he said he was not sure whether it was a separate document or part of the supply chain management policy.
Ngwane could not say when it was last reviewed.
“I won’t lie to you, I do not recall,” he said.
SAIDS promised to send the policy before the meeting ended. It had not done so when the session closed.
“We don’t want anyone to go and fiddle and forge a policy,” Mmolotsane said.
The card has a limit of R100,000.
Outgoing audit and risk committee chairperson Advocate Dave Mitchell admitted his committee had never seen a credit card statement.
“I can say that I have not seen a particular credit card statement as such,” he said.
He defended many of the entries labelled as personal, saying they related to the CEO’s executive assistant, who also acts as board secretary and orders food for meetings.
“A hell of a lot of these transactions that may appear to be of a personal nature are actually core to her very function,” he said.
Potgieter was not convinced.
“If you are catering for an entire board meeting from Uber Eats at R100 to R200, then I really need to find out exactly how you are planning meetings,” she said.
“If it wasn’t personal, then it should not have been presented that way.”
“The more you explain, the more you are in trouble, Advocate Mitchell,” McGluwa said.
Hack eventually conceded that some of the spending had nothing to do with SAIDS’s work.
“There are items within the credit card which have been raised by the various members which would seem not to be part of the necessity as far as anti-doping is concerned. I concede that,” he said.
“I do acknowledge that those amounts do not fall within the budget as such, ” he said.
McGluwa suggested a forensic audit of the card.
“The questions and concerns were around a credit card that seems to be mandated by one person to run that particular thing. And that is a huge problem for me,” he said.
Mmolotsane said management could not investigate itself.
“It can’t be right that the CEO is going to investigate. They are going to investigate themselves. The board must be the one who’s going to investigate that credit card transaction,” she said.
Sport Minister Gayton McKenzie dissolved the previous SAIDS board in May 2025, after a forensic report found that about R1.4 million spent on an appeal against a World Anti-Doping Agency finding was irregular. The current board was appointed in December 2025.
SAIDS has been sent questions.
