The South African Football Association (SAFA) has slammed the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks) following a raid at its headquarters on Friday.
SAFA has now instructed its legal team to bring an urgent application to review and set aside the search and seizure.
In the statement on its website, SAFA said the search was unlawful, malicious and not conducted under the directives of the warrant served.
"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 in order to action this malicious action," SAFA said.
According to Hawks spokesperson, Colonel Katlego Mogale, the operation was in regards to allegations of fraud and theft amounting to R1.3million.
Mogale said between 2014 and 2019, SAFA president Danny Jordaan allegedly hired a private security company for his personal protection.
"He further allegedly used the organisation's resources to hire public relations company without authorisation from the SAFA board and allegedly violated SAFA's statutes thus prejudicing SAFA an actual loss of R1.3m. During the search, a laptop, external hard drives, a USB and documents were seized," Mogale said.
SAFA has instructed its attorneys to bring a formal complaint to the Hawks's oversight arbitrator.
"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,” the organisation said.
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