The Johannesburg Specialised Commercial Crimes Court has dismissed South African Football Association (Safa) president Danny Jordaan’s application to have his fraud and theft case struck off the roll.
During court proceedings on Tuesday, Jordaan brought a Section 342A application to have charges against him dropped. He also wanted his case removed from the court roll.
Jordaan said this was because he has two pending civil matters in the Gauteng Division of the High Court. These are relating to his arrest and the raid at the Safa House. He said his fraud and theft case must be struck off the roll until the High Court matters are finalised.
The two High Court matters are of his making an application to have his arrest declared unlawful. And the other matter is to have the search and seizure operation by the Hawks at Safa House declared unlawful.
Outcome might impact other cases against him
Jordaan said the outcome of these two High Court matters might impact his fraud and theft case.
Jordaan’s co-accused, Safa CFO Gronie Hluyo, 55, and director of Grit Communications Trevor Neethling, 46, also brought a Section 342A application to have charges against them dropped and their case removed from the court roll. Their applications were dismissed.
Jordaan, 73, Hluyo and Neethling, made their third appearance on Tuesday. This was at the Johannesburg Specialised Commercial Crimes Court sitting at the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court.
Grit Communications is the fourth accused in the matter.
The trio are all charged with three counts of fraud, three counts of theft, and conspiracy to commit fraud and theft. These stem from allegations of R1.3-million fraud and theft of Safa’s financial resources. And the offences were committed between 2014 and 2018. All accused are out on R20, 000 bail.
Search and seizure at Safa House
Jordaan and Hluyo’s lawyer, Adv Norman Arendse SC, said his clients have made an application in the Gauteng Division of the High Court to declare the search and seizure operation at Safa House in March this year unlawful. The search and seizure operation was conducted by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks).
During the operation, a laptop, external hard drives, a USB and documents were seized.
Arendse said the High Court has not yet issued a judgment on his clients’ challenge of the search and seizure operation.
He said the outcome of the civil matter is expected to have an impact on Jordaan and Hluyo’s fraud and theft case.
Arendse said should the High Court declare the search and seizure operation unlawful, there is a possibility that his clients’ criminal prosecution will fall off.
Application dismissed
State prosecutor Adv Moagi Malebati said the court should dismiss the accused’s Section 342A application. This because there has been no delay to date in the matter since the accused made their first court appearance on November 13 2024.
Malebati said the court cannot make decisions based on anticipating what might happen in future.
He said the court should make a decision on a delay application based on what has already happened. Not what is going to happen.
Malebati said Jordaan and his co-accused are bringing the Section 342A application in order to delay their criminal prosecution.
Magistrate Sheron Soko-Rantao dismissed the accused’s Section 342A application. She said there has been no delay in the case and it is premature to bring a Section 342A application.
Earlier, Soko-Rantao dismissed an application by the state to get Jordaan’s lawyer Arendse recuse himself from his fraud and theft case
Meanwhile, Neethling’s lawyer James Ndebele told the court of Neethling and Grit Communications’ representations to the director of public prosecutions (DPP). The application was to have charges against them withdrawn, and it was unsuccessful, he said.
Soko-Rantao postponed the fraud and theft case to February 7 2025 for the defence lawyers to take instructions from their clients regarding the case docket.
NPA gives details
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) regional spokesperson Phindi Mjonondwane gave details of the case. She said the accused’s R1.3-million fraud and theft allegations stem from a 12-month Service Level Agreement (SLA) allegedly entered into by Safa. It was represented by Jordaan and Grit Communications in December 2017. And it was for the provision of Public Relations (PR) and communication services to Safa.
Mjonondwane said the state alleges that Jordaan, in contravention of the Safa statutes, signed the SLA. The deal was neither sanctioned nor approved by Safa. And that he and Neethling backdated the agreement to October 01 2017.
Contravention of Safa rules
“Jordaan is alleged to have employed Grit Communications for purposes of protecting his personal image following allegations of rape levelled against him in 2017. Furthermore, that he allegedly acquired protection services worth over R40, 000. This was purported to be for Safa from Badger Security, during the SAFA 2018 elective congress. While these protection services were allegedly exclusively rendered to him [Jordaan].
“According to Safa statutes, Jordaan was precluded from doing so. This as only the CFO and CEO of Safa were authorised to sign contractual agreements. The PR services were already rendered to Safa by its existing department that handled PR and communication. …It is alleged that Hluyo approved the payments to Grit Communications and Badger Security. This despite full knowledge of the unauthorised and unlawful nature of the actions of both Jordaan and Neethling,” said Mjonondwane.
