Ria Ledwaba and Solly Mohlabeng have not thrown in the towel and are still challenging the validity of the Safa elective congress held last year, where Danny Jordaan came out triumphant and was elected for his second term as the president of the organisation.
Tomorrow, Ledwaba and Mohlabeng will meet Safa at the Johannesburg High Court after they filed an application challenging the refusal by Safa to convene arbitration proceedings to decide the dispute they referred to the national association.
They are seeking an order compelling Safa to convene an arbitrational tribunal.
Ledwaba, a veteran football administrator, together with Mohlabeng, Safa Tshwane president, challenged Jordaan in the Safa electoral congress last year. After several ugly spats and sideshows prior to the elections, Jordaan won by a landslide victory and was re-elected for his second term as Safa president.
According to court papers, their dispute relates to the ineligibility of Jordaan to stand for the Safa presidential elections.
Ledwaba and Mohlabeng are still adamant the elections were not held in terms of the Safa constitution. They said that the governance committee that was created in the new constitution amendments had not been properly appointed in terms of the constitution.
The applicants’ lawyer, Leruma Thobejane, said that “they declared the dispute and requested arbitration two weeks after last year’s elections, but Safa used its tactics to keep them at bay and only now Safa is saying it is not going to appoint an arbitrator at all.”
After Safa, through its legal representative Lesedi Mphahlele, advised Ledwaba and Mohlabeng that their claim would not be submitted for arbitration, the two said they had no alternative but to approach the courts for an order compelling the national association to comply with their demands and act in accordance with its own rules and statutes, by appointing an arbitrator.
“Following upon the elective process, that was adopted and followed in leading up to the election held on 25 June 2022, including the election process itself, certain disputes arose between the parties cited herein. We take issue with various elective steps that were followed and other procedural matters pertaining to the election itself,” reads the court papers.
“The respondents (Safa) on the other hand take issue with our contentions. It is the applicants’ contention that the elective process, which had been adopted and followed, resulted in members being appointed to the national executive committee (NEC), which includes the second respondent (Jordaan), in circumstances where the elective process and the procedures followed and applied are fatally flawed.
“The dispute which the claimants require to be resolved, relates to the legality of the procedure followed, both in leading up to the elections and the elective process followed during the first respondent’s elective congress, held on 25 June 2022. The claimants contend that the elective process, which eventuated in Jordaan being elected to serve members of the NEC stands to be set aside,” it reads further.
Thobejane explained they were seeking an independent arbitrator, and not the one appointed by Safa. “We have suggested the names advocates Vincent Maleka SC, Phillip Mokoena SC and Matthew Chaskalson SC because we want the process to be fair and transparent.
“We believe we have a solid case. We want those elections to be nullified so that we can have new candidates that qualify in terms of the Safa constitution,” added Thobejane.
