South African Football Association (Safa) president Danny Jordaan and chief financial officer (CFO) Gronie Hluyo are expected to bring a formal application to have the fraud and theft case against them struck off the court roll.
This was revealed during court proceedings on Thursday when Jordaan, 73, Hluyo, 55, and businessman Trevor Neethling, 46, made their second court appearances at the Johannesburg Specialised Commercial Crimes Court sitting at the Palm Ridge magistrate’s court in Ekurhuleni.
Neethling’s company, Grit Communications, is the fourth accused in the matter.
The charges against the trio include three counts of fraud, three counts of theft, and conspiracy to commit fraud and theft.
The charges stem from allegations of R1.3-million in fraud and theft of Safa funds between 2014 and 2018.
The accused are out on R20 000 bail each.
Section 342A application
During the court case, Jordaan and Hluyo’s lawyer, advocate Norman Arendse (SC), told magistrate Sheron Soko-Rantao that his clients would be filing a formal Section 342A application.
This would enable them to argue in court that excessive delays warrant the dismissal of the case against them.
James Ndebele, who represents Neethling and Grit Communications, told the court that his clients made representations to the Gauteng director of public prosecutions on November 16 to have the charges against them withdrawn.
Ndebele said his clients were still waiting for the outcome from the director of public prosecutions’ office.
Meanwhile, advocate Moagi Malebati, the state prosecutor, said the state only disclosed a partial case docket to the accused and will make plans to deliver the full docket to them.
Malebati said the state intended to bring an application to have Arendse recuse himself from the case due to an alleged conflict of interest.
According to Malebati, Arendse has represented the complainant in the case, Safa, on previous occasions and since he is now representing the accused, Jordaan, the state believes there is a conflict of interest.
Arendse denied that he is conflicted by being part of the case.
Soko-Rantao postponed the matter to December 10 to allow the prosecution to make a full docket disclosure to the accused.
The court will also consider Jordaan and Hluyo’s request to remove the case against them from the record.
The magistrate also postponed the matter to allow for the state to bring a formal recusal application against Arendse.
The case against the accused
National Prosecuting Authority regional spokesperson Phindi Mjonondwane said the fraud and theft charges stem from a contract entered into by Safa, represented by Jordaan, and Grit Communications in December 2017 for the provision of public relations and communication services to Safa.
According to Mjonondwane, the state claims that Jordaan and Neethling backdated the service level agreement to October 1, 2017, in violation of Safa statutes, and that he signed the agreement without the association’s approval.
“Jordaan is alleged to have employed Grit Communications for purposes of protecting his personal image following allegations of rape levelled against him.
“Furthermore, he allegedly acquired protection services worth over R40 000, purported to be for Safa from Badger Security, during the Safa 2018 elective congress, whilst these protection services were supposedly exclusively rendered to him.
“According to Safa statutes, Jordaan was precluded from doing so, as only the chief financial officer and chief executive officer of Safa were authorised to sign contractual agreements.
“The PR [public relations] services were already rendered to Safa by its existing department that handled PR and communication.
“Despite full knowledge of the unauthorised and unlawful nature of the actions of both Jordaan and Neethling, it is alleged that Hluyo approved the payments to Grit Communications and Badger Security,” said Mjonondwane.
