The South African Football Association (Safa) continuation of failing to pay Sasol Women’s League teams has reached a boiling point.
The matter has now escalated as Safa is now being accused by the teams from across seven provinces that the association had cocked a snook to 144 clubs as the organisation failed to pay grants of over R5.4-million.
So bad is the situation that Safa also allegedly suspended 14 clubs from the Western Cape, which took the organisation to court and replaced them with teams which were not part of the league from the beginning.
Club owners of 112 teams across eight provinces of South Africa, which include Gauteng, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, North West, Limpopo, Western Cape and Eastern Cape have formed a committee – the National Sasol Teams Representatives – to take Safa head on regarding its financial woes and non-payment of the teams’ grants, fixtures fees and competition prizes.
The committee, which comprises club owners such as Stefani Naidoo, Yushrie Solomons, Gugu Moroaswi, Hlase Sibisi, Emmanuel Mudau, Michael Matanzima, Malvin Khumalo and Dinkane Tlhalepe wrote to Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture Gayton McKenzie on April 20, requesting the ministry to intervene.
In the letter we have seen, the Sasol Women’s League committee said: “Without prejudice, we, the undersigned representatives of Sasol League Clubs across all provinces … united in our commitment to write this communiqué to address urgent challenges impacting our ability to operate and compete fairly.
“This national stance reflects the consensus of clubs and their provinces, with the intent of resolving the ongoing crisis around unpaid Safa obligations and ensuring accountability.”
The committee stated in its complaint that no team had received any grant payments for the current year and some teams are owed even for previous years. “The top eight teams receive winning money
after the league has completed and as of date of this letter certain clubs in all provinces have not received this winning money for the past two or three years. We request that these winning monies be included and paid to clubs.”
The committee pleaded with McKenzie to intervene, saying that the debacle was causing harm in the mental state of the players who are now frustrated by what is happening.
Chief director in the sports, arts and culture department Teboho Thebehae responded to the committee on April 25, stating that Safa had been contacted for a meeting to deal with the issue.
“It is our critical concern to resolve this matter soon.”
The committee also stated that it has been trying to resolve the matter with Safa provincial structures, adding that if nothing came to the fore, it would be forced to escalate the matter further through Fifa and CAF.
Sasol spokesperson Matebello Motloung said the company is continuing to engage with Safa regarding the matter pertaining Sasol Women’s League teams unpaid scandal.
