The president of the South African Football Association, Danny Jordaan, has been forced into defence mode as he seeks to protect his reputation and position.
The 72-year-old has been accused of fraud and theft of the association’s funds amounting to R1.3 million for the period 2014-2018. For all the long-standing calls for his immediate removal from the nation’s football ruling body, this latest development places the spotlight firmly on Jordaan.
The Serious Commercial Crime Investigation (Hawks) raided Safa House last Friday, executing search and seizure warrants as part of their inquest into the allegations levelled against Jordaan. It has emerged in recent days that the man behind the criminal case laid against Jordaan is former vice-president William Mooka.
Mooka was one of the association’s longest-serving members before his expulsion in 2021 and is said to have opened the case with supporting documents provided by ex-vice president Lucas Nhlapho and ex-chief executive Dennis Mumble.
The Hawks are said to have seized a laptop, external hard drives, a USB and documents during their five-hour raid.
Safa, as expected, responded in bustling fashion, as they released a statement that bashed the Hawks’ raid for conducting what they deemed an ‘unlawful’ search and seizure.
“We want to set it out from the onset that we believe the search was unlawful, malicious and not conducted in terms of the directives of a warrant given to us,” the statement read.
“We were not furnished with all the documents prescribed by law. The documents that were furnished by the Hawks during the shameful raid were incomplete and unlawful. We contend that it was done deliberately and intentionally to action this malicious action.”
Safa revealed that they think that there is a personal vendetta against Jordaan that is being assisted by coerced members of the South African Police Service (SAPS).
“As a result of this, we have instructed our attorneys to bring an urgent application to review and set aside this search and seizure. We have further instructed our attorneys to bring a formal complaint to the oversight arbitrator of the Hawks regarding the action of all involved members.”
It added: “We will further institute civil action for defamation of character against those involved in the naming of the Safa president’s name in an ongoing investigation. We contend that this is unethical and unlawful as the police never mentioned anyone’s name in matters that are under investigation.
“We believe, unfortunately, that these members of the police have been compromised and are being used in the callous abuse of state resources. Let us reiterate, there is no money missing from Safa.”
Jordaan’s direct rivals in the last Safa presidential elections, Ria Ledwaba and Solly Mahlangu, are expected to have their ears up as more developments to the allegations suggest an imminent departure from Safa.
IOL Sport