A member of the under-20 squad who failed to make the final 18 departing for Kenya on Sunday for the African Youth Championship in Ethiopia in two weeks is in possession of a passport which the department of home affairs in Pretoria claims could be illegal.
Sibusiso Innocent Mzizi is one of the players whose age has been in doubt, and although hailed as a sensational 17-year old when he turned professional with Ajax Cape Town last year, there are now more questions than answers regarding his birth date.
Mzizi claims he was born in December 1983, and his identity number is 831225507086, but a spokesperson for the department of home affairs claims no such person exists on its records in the Pretoria office's computers.
Rene Klaasen at home affairs urged Mzizi to "return that passport as quickly as possible and apply for a proper one, because the one he is holding does not appear on our records.
"His fingerprints also do not appear, and I'm afraid he will not be allowed to leave the country. Computers will either reject his passport at the airport, or, if he manages to go through, he is likely to be arrested when he returns."
Mzizi is alleged to have dropped out of matric in 1997. Presumably he started school 12 years earlier in 1985. Based on the 8312 on his ID book, indicating that he was born in December 1983, he started in Grade 1 when he was aged around 2!
Meanwhile, a daily newspaper alleged on Friday that SuperSport United's Seunkie Motlhajoa falsified his age in order to be admitted at the Essellen Park School of Excellence but was uncovered by the principal, Steve Pila, and expelled.
According to Pila Motlhajoa confessed to the school that he was actually born in 1981 and not 1983 as his documents indicated.
The captain, Benedict Vilakazi, and Thobela Bikwane are some of the other players mentioned in the report, with Vilakazi alleged to be the father of a five-year-old girl. But he disputed this, claiming that his daughter turned two this week.
The doubts about the correct ages of the members of the under-20 squad comes at a time when the Asian Football Confederation is to discipline players from three member countries that used over-age players in September's under-16 championships.
The AFC said its evidence was based on x-rays of the bones of the players taken during the tournament in Vietnam to determine their ages, and the results proved scientifically that the players were over 16.
AFC chief Peter Velappan promised that those caught would be punished.
SA Football Association chief executive officer Danny Jordaan challenged the media to bring irrefutable proof that any member of the squad was over the age limit and cast doubts over the accuracy of the scientific tests, claiming that during the under-14 tournament in Oudtshoorn in the Western Cape, some people suggested that 75 percent of the players were over age, while others felt the opposite.