By Kgomotso Mokoena
Johannesburg – The South African Football Association (Safa) is anticipating problems for its delegation in terms of getting into Morocco for the CAF presidential elections on March 12.
This means that Patrice Motsepe, who will be running for the CAF presidency, may find himself scrambling around to get a visa to enter Morocco in order to be part of the elections in the city of Rabat.
The Safa travelling party that includes Safa president Danny Jordaan, CEO Tebogo Motlanthe and supporting officials may also be denied visas and entry into Morocco after South Africa was declared a Covid-19 high-risk area by the Moroccan government.
This is because of the new variant that has increased the rate of infections in SA.
As a result, officials in that country have put a ban and will not grant travellers from SA visas to enter Morocco. Kaizer Chiefs were blocked from flying to Morocco for their CAF Champions League encounter against Wydad Athletic because of Covid-19 restrictions.
Egypt agreed to host the match as a neutral venue, but they later changed their mind.
“We are proactive about it – we saw what happened to our clubs this week,” said Motlanthe.
“We have written to CAF secretary- general Abdelmounaim Bah and they are engaging the Moroccan federation and government so that we do not have problems when it comes to travelling to Morocco.
“We do not want our delegation blocked and they are aware that we have a presidential candidate in Dr Motsepe. We have given them a list of our delegates and we expect them to sort out the matter in time before the elections on March 12,” Motlanthe said.
It has emerged that the billionaire Motsepe, a well-respected businessman internationally, is a big threat to the north and west Africa regions and that there are dirty tricks being employed to defeat him in the election battle.
This week, Motsepe’s club Mamelodi Sundowns could not travel to Algeria to face CR Belouizdad due to further medical restrictions in that country. The match was scheduled for this coming Wednesday.
Motsepe attended the Cosafa annual general meeting together with president Phillip Chiyangwa and Fifa president Giani Infantino yesterdy.
On Thursday, he will hold a press conference to outline his election campaign.
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