Johannesburg – Brace yourself for a rocky few months as the SA Football Association (Safa) prepare to hold their elective conference in September. We may have just entered March, but the mudslinging, infighting and factional scheming at Safa House started months ago.
This week I read a document that alleges rampant corruption at Safa and, although president Kirsten Nematandani moved swiftly to dismiss it as baseless, it’s not something to be ignored. Dismissing it would seem the most logical thing for Safa to do because, for starters, the document’s author/s did not have the gumption to attach their name to it.
So when Nematandani says “faceless” people are hell bent on destroying Safa, we cannot fault him. But interestingly, he did not deal with the allegations made in the document. Instead, and worryingly, he announced a forensic investigation would be undertaken to establish precisely who authored the document. In short, a witch-hunt will begin.
That a mention, true or otherwise, is made in the document of Safa vice-president Danny Jordaan having authorised a R5-million package for himself seems not to be bothering the Safa leadership.
The document claims that the Safa NEC book themselves and their concubines into five-star hotels for Bafana games, where they serve no purpose, using the cash-strapped organisation’s funds. An unnamed executive is said to earn R26 000 a month in travel claims alone. “His mobile phone and hotel bills (are) the most expensive. His claims equal salaries of two employees,” the document says.
It further adds that the NEC have “spent in 15 months R123m on themselves. Safa is riddled with nepotism, factionalism and corruption of former (apartheid) homelands’ proportions”.
Amid this “looting”, the document bemoans lack of basic services at Safa regions which have to be fully equipped to successfully spearhead development programmes. “Regions have not been paid their grants for months, they don’t have offices to work from, and they have no basic equipment like computers.”
It is easy to dismiss the document. It is riddled with grammatical errors, but when you consider that several regions have also complained formally to Sascoc and government about the goings-on at Safa, then you have to fear that our football is in trouble.
Safa regions such as Bojanala, Capricorn and OR Tambo wrote letters to Sascoc complaining about flawed regional elective conferences. These regions allege pleas for intervention from Safa were ignored because some individuals are guaranteed votes come September.
Sascoc, in at least three letters, tried to meet Safa to discuss the allegations. On February 19, Sascoc CEO Tubby Reddy wrote to Nematandani requesting a meeting to discuss “allegations of match fixing and financial instability; and allegations of interference by a body known as the Football Transformation Forum”.
Nematandani responded by saying: “We regret that we are unable to honour the planned meeting as this will be in violation of our own statutes and also not in the interest of good governance.”
If Safa are unable to honour a meeting with Sascoc, then who are they accountable to? This is most bizarre because, according to Fifa, not even government can interfere.
I have a feeling the public are doomed with this Safa administration. They came into power amid promises but have bickered among themselves so much that some of them have broken rank and are writing “faceless” documents. Electioneering is in full swing with certain people eager to return to office, while others are fighting against the looming purge. Sadly, this will be the story in every election year and it is unlikely that pertinent matters like development will get even the slightest consideration.
We have no basis to conclude that all apples at Safa are rotten. But a challenge should be put to the author/s of that document to own up and stop being cowards. Otherwise history will judge them harshly, for as they claim, the rot continues under their watch. – Saturday Star
*Follow Matshe on Twitter @Nkareng