Bafana Bafana should start winning – and scoring many goals – after the South African Football Association (Safa) allegedly settled their debt with a local sangoma.
Sibonelo “Matatazela” Madela, a sangoma from Ulundi in KwaZulu-Natal, told www.kickoff.com that Safa had paid the R90 000 owed to him after he had helped them during the 2010 World Cup.
Madela previously claimed that Safa owed him R90 000 after only paying R10 000 of the R100 000 promised when the association sought his services.
“I told them I would provide my services for R150 000 but they said it was too much. Then we agreed upon R100 000, but they have only paid me R10 000, which means they still owe me R90 000,” Madela said at the time.
Madela threatened to hold all Bafana Bafana’s goals until the debt was paid. He vowed that the team would only win friendly matches and would fail in their bid to qualify for the 2014 World Cup. In spite of Bafana’s failure to win a game since the threat was made, Safa denied the claim.
“There was no contract entered into between this gentleman and Safa and we consider what he is doing as pure extortion,” Safa spokesman Dominic Chimhavu said when the allegations surfaced.
The parties seem to have come to some agreement, though.
"They gave me the money," Madela told KickOff.com, refusing to divulge any details.
With the debt paid and Bafana set to face Ethiopia in a World Cup qualifier in Rustenburg on Sunday (3pm), fans should be in for a treat. – IOL