Sport and Recreation Minister Ngconde Balfour has lashed out at Sam Ramsamy, accusing him of running the South African Olympic movement "for his own selfish interests"and of being a divisive influence in South African sport.
Ramsamy has been widely blamed for South Africa's poor medal haul in Sydney.
At a press conference on Monday, where he announced a summit meeting to sort out problems in South African sport, Balfour also accused Ramsamy of taking "his buddies and their wives" to Sydney at the expense of deserving athletes.
In a further swipe at him, Balfour told TV news on Monday night that Ramsamy should "have his head read" for insisting that Nocsa (the National Olympic Committee of South Africa) was accountable to the International Olympic Committee, which he described as a "corruption-racked organisation".
The summit - in Sandton on Monday - will assess the performance of teams over the past four years and appoint a task team to develop a "high performance plan" for sport.
Although aimed not only at Olympic sports, the meeting will have the effect of wresting preparations for the 2004 Athens Games from Ramsamy's grip.
Nocsa has announced its own plan to prepare for Athens and has asked for more government funding, but Balfour said one body alone could not have control over preparations for major events.
Although Nocsa has been invited to the summit, it will be just one of several bodies asked to help draw up the plan. The government also hopes to get experts from Australia and Cuba - countries which performed well in Sydney.
"I want to warn those elements who choose to remain outside of the loop in South African sport - elements including Ramsamy - your divisive actions will not be allowed.
"You will not be allowed to do damage to sport simply to serve your own selfish interests."
Earlier, Ramsamy was reported as having said the summit would serve no meaningful purpose, as Nocsa's Athens 2004 initiative to boost the country's performance was already under way.
Balfour said sport and athletes were a national asset, not the property of the International Olympic Committee, of which Nocsa is an affiliate.
Ramsamy, he said, took his orders from the IOC, "a body racked by corruption", with no accountability to the South African public.
"We will not allow individuals to run away with that national asset," he said.
Balfour repeated his criticism of Ramsamy's decision to exclude the men's hockey team from the Sydney Olympics. He said he had asked Ramsamy to reconsider, but the Nocsa chief had refused.
"It makes it worse if he has to take buddies and their wives to Sydney and leave the hockey team at home... Nocsa derives its money from the private sector, but all that money is for the athletes, not to take friends and their wives to the Olympics."
Asked whether he was accusing Ramsamy of irregular use of Nocsa funds, Balfour said: "I did not say that."
Monday's summit would focus not only on the Olympics, but on sport in general, Balfour said. It would "kick-start" a movement towards excellence.
"No one section of the sports movement can do this. It is only through co-operation and the recognition of the roles played by all stakeholders, that we can succeed in taking our sport to unprecedented heights."
Ramsamy was unavailable for comment on Monday night, but Nocsa spokesperson Dan Moyo said Balfour's allegations were untrue.
Ramsamy did not act unilaterally in dealing with the
affairs of the (South African Olympic) movement, Moyo said, adding that the committee's executive was the body that took important decisions.
He said that if Balfour felt there was irregularities within Nocsa he was welcome to investigate.
"Everything was done properly and transparently."
