Johannesburg – Rarely has a document dismissed as worthless, baseless and faceless sent an organisation into panic mode like the recent dossier alleging maladministration at the SA Football Association (Safa).
This document, it now emerges, is the main reason why Safa insisted on a commission of inquiry focusing solely on the match-fixing allegations that dogged Bafana Bafana’s pre-World Cup 2010 friendlies.
Eventually, Safa emerged victorious because allegations contained in the document, as per the agreement between Safa and Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula, cannot be ventilated at the proceedings of the judicial commission. But if this document is so baseless, why would Safa go to great lengths to ensure its contents are not aired?
As pointed out a few weeks ago, I have read the document and concluded that while its allegations are explosive, it’s unhelpful because its author/s opted for anonymity.
But in recent weeks Safa have shown that they are not too comfortable with this document. It was the main reason why Safa could not agree with the government on the type of commission to investigate the match-fixing allegations, prompting someone from Safa House (whose identity was interestingly not disclosed) to write to Fifa, accusing the government of interference.
As a result of a deadlock between Safa and the government, Mbalula and Kirsten Nematandani met in Zurich last week, where they finally found common ground. Even though Safa released a statement this week disputing that the agreement struck at Fifa’s headquarters favours them, their national executive committee meeting last weekend must have resembled some sort of a celebratory function.
They would have felt triumphant because according to Fifa themselves, the report which concluded some of Bafana’s pre-World Cup matches were fixed is inadequate. I have read this report, too, and it was a huge surprise to me to see Nematandani, for instance, suspended in December.
Some of us have indicated that Safa president Nematandani and four other officials – Dennis Mumble, Ace Kika, Adeel Carelse and Barney Kujane – are implicated in the Fifa report, but as the Safa NEC decided, there was never a basis to suspend them when the report contains no fewer than 17 names.
In the case of Nematandani, the allegation is that there’s a letter dated April 29, 2010, which states he “met Wilson Perumal in Johannesburg to discuss a referees exchange programme”. Correctly, Nematandani has demanded to know where in Johannesburg he met Perumal, the chief match-fixer, something which the Fifa investigators failed to answer – at least not in their report. Fifa’s investigators confirmed they could not check Nematandani’s e-mail server for more info.
It is for this reason that I fear the commission of inquiry could be reduced to just another talkshop, unless fresh evidence is led to prove some Safa officials knowingly fixed matches. I suspect they will argue they were caught unawares by a syndicate whose motives they didn’t know. After all, they did cease relations with them in the final World Cup warm-up match against Denmark, replacing a referee provided by the syndicate at the final hour.
Contrast all this with allegations in the “faceless” document: R123m spent on the Safa executive; R9m from the Fifa legacy trust fund used to purchase luxury vehicles (which has been proven to be true); an entire executive spending nights at hotels for Bafana matches, accompanied by concubines; an organisation in the red but using its funds to run election campaigns; cellphone bills and other claims amounting to thousands of rand.
Safa clearly realise these “baseless” allegations are too damaging to be aired in a commission of inquiry. But they seem so troubled that they went to great lengths to block them and, on Friday, it emerged they want Sascoc chief executive Tubby Reddy removed from his post for apparently entertaining the dossier. If Safa were truly transparent and had nothing to hide, they would not be scared of a “faceless” document.
*Follow Matshe on Twitter @Nkareng