Former TDU race director Mike Turtur alleges he had ‘acrimonious relationship’ with Events SA executive director Hitaf Rasheed
Former Tour Down Under race director Mike Turtur has used a court case to take a swipe at one of SA’s most high-profile tourism bureaucrats.
SA News
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Former Tour Down Under race director Mike Turtur had an “acrimonious relationship” with the event’s boss, Hitaf Rasheed, in the years leading up to his departure, according to court documents.
Turtur has detailed how he complained to former tourism minister Leon Bignell about Ms Rashid in a statement of claim that alleges he was defamed on Facebook by a former Tourism Commission board member, Francene Connor.
The Olympic gold medallist is suing Ms Connor in the District Court over a post she made in 2019 when he was negotiating with Ms Rasheed about extending a contract to manage the men’s cycling event through a company he owned, Bikesport Australia.
A closed mediation hearing earlier this month failed to resolve the legal dispute between Turtur and Ms Connor, with the matter likely to go to trial early next month.
Ms Connor rejects Mr Turtur’s claim, saying in her defence that her Facebook posts were “not capable of conveying, nor in fact conveyed” defamatory imputations.
In his revised statement of claim, Turtur said his professional relationship with Ms Rasheed, the former communications manager of the Port Adelaide Football Club, deteriorated after she became the chief executive of Events SA in 2008.
The statement of claim said Ms Rasheed became responsible for negotiating Turtur’s continued role running the men’s event of the TDU.
Turtur, who won five gold medals at the Los Angeles Olympics and three Commonwealth Games, had been the race’s director since the inaugural TDU in 1999.
He initially was employed by the Department of Recreation and Sport before leaving the public service in 2003 to form Bikesport Australia, which managed the race under contract.
In his statement of claim, Turtur alleges negotiations over the extension of the contract encountered problems because of his poor relationship with Ms Rasheed.
“Ms Hitaf Rasheed and the applicant (Turtur) had at times a difficult and acrimonious professional relationship,” it says.
“But for the applicant’s international and local standing in the sport of cycling and his capacity to fulfil the demanding role of race director, Ms Rasheed would have taken other steps to engage another person as the race director of the Tour Down Under.”
Mr Turtur alleges in his statement of claim that the relationship eventually became so strained former Tourism SA chief executive Bob Foord had to take over the contract negotiations in 2016.
“Mr Foord had to intervene in the negotiations and assume the conduct of the negotiations on behalf of the South Australian Tourism Commission in place of Ms Rasheed to salvage the damaged relationship between the applicant (Turtur) and South Australian Tourism Commission,” it says.
The statement of claim said Ms Rasheed later resumed control over the negotiations with Turtur but the relationship continued to deteriorate.
“Negotiations remained difficult due to the acrimony that existed between the applicant and Ms Rasheed, essentially over Ms Rasheed’s views as to the contract value of the service agreements,” it says.
“The dispute between the applicant and Ms Rasheed so affected the applicant that, on 9 October 2016, he made an official complaint to the then-Minister of Tourism, Mr Leon Bignell, and met with him to have recorded his concerns as to the conduct of Ms Rasheed and how it could impact on the success of the Tour Down Under going forward unless addressed.”
Turtur subsequently was given a contract extension until 2019 while Ms Rasheed looked for a replacement.
“Ms Rasheed did not, prior to embarking on this process, consult with the applicant as to whether in fact he wanted to cease the role of race director of the Tour Down Under in 2020,” says the statement of claim.
Events SA appointed another Olympic gold medallist, Stuart O’Grady, to manage the 2021 TDU men’s race before it was cancelled because of the pandemic.
Ms Rasheed declined to comment.
Originally published as Former TDU race director Mike Turtur alleges he had ‘acrimonious relationship’ with Events SA executive director Hitaf Rasheed
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