By Terin Frodyma on SwimSwam
Olympic Champion breaststroker Tatjana Smith has issued a statement to Swimming South Africa demanding payment of her prize money from the 2023 World Championships.
According to a report from the Daily Maverick, Smith’s lawyer sent a letter to Swimming SA on August 25, which alleges that the organization ” retained the interest that accrued on $35,000 in prize money” that Smith earned at the 2023 World Swimming Championships.
At those championships, Smith won the 200 breaststroke in Fukuoka, and later added a silver medal to her totals. That gold would result in a $20,000 payout, while the silver would pay out an additional $15,000 (or R370,000 and R276,000 at the time)
The letter calls out Swimming SA’s operations manager, Mafata Modutoane, for keeping the interest as a “management fee: after the prize money was “unlawfully held by SSA for more than a year”.
Smith’s lawyer, Hurter Spies, mentioned that the dispute is not entirely centered on the money, but rather on maintaining principle.
“It’s more of a principle thing. Tatjana and Joel feel that athletes cannot be deprived of receiving their prize money years later, years after they’ve won the medals,” Spies said in the report from the Daily Maverick. “At least if they pay it late, they should at least then pay some form of interest as well.”
The letter sent to Swimming SA from the lawyer, on behalf of Smith and her husband, Joel, calls for the payment of the outstanding interest, which was calculated from the time the money was received from the competition itself to the date it was paid to Smith, with additional proof of where the funds were held during that time.
Also mentioned in that letter is that if the organization did not comply within 10 days of the demand, the matter at hand would escalate.
“It’s very early at this stage because there’s still time in terms of that letter of demand and we haven’t really received a response yet,” Spies said in the report from the Daily Maverick.
On May 31 of 2024, Smith’s lawyers sent a first letter of demand to Swimming SA, to which Spies said the organization never responded. With the approaching Paris Olympics, Smith and her legal team chose to hold off on further action until after the Olympics.
After the 200 breast press conference in Paris, Modutoane approached Smith’s husband and showed him proof of payment of his wife’s prize money. Her husband then noticed that the amount paid did not include the interest that may have accumulated while the funds were being held.
According to that letter, Modutoane replied, “I kept the interest as a management fee.”
“At the time our clients were not sure whether Mr Mafata Modutoane was making a joke or whether he in fact kept the interest due to our client as a self-allocated personal bonus,” the letter reads.
According to Spies, Swimming SA did not respond to the letter of demand from May of 2024. Still, they did communicate with Smith one other time about the matter, stating that her prize money was being withheld because the organization had fined her for not wearing the correct kit during the 2023 World Championships. She was fined €46,000 for not competing in the assigned arena suit.
After Smith’s legal team asked for further explanation of the fines, Swimming SA withdrew them.
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