A number of Safa regions are up in arms calling for the national football governing body to start honouring the payment of outstanding monthly grants and to retract it’s circular preventing regions from canvassing for votes ahead of the June 25 presidential elections.
The call for grant payments comes after it was revealed that Safa made a profit of a mere R1-million in the past financial year but was splashing out more than half a million rand in allowances for its more than 42 executive committee members in the form of honorariums.
The disgruntled regions
Sunday World spoke to were of the view they have been taken for a ride by giving Safa time to get its house in order financially, on the understanding that the association was cash-strapped and operating on a shoestring budget.
Over the years, the Safa executive has ballooned from less than 30 members to the current 42 and Fifa intervened in 2015 by giving Safa a deadline of 2016 to reduce the size of its bloated executive.
Safa Uthukela region president Themba Phiri, a seasoned administrator and former player, said he was appalled by how Safa is flouting its statutes.
“You cannot bar people from electioneering, it’s part of a democratic process. The statutes, as per the Fifa rule book, have been flouted and thrown out the window to an extent that we as regions are not prioritised, and football development is not given priority.
“As the Uthukela region, we are owned R570 000 in outstanding grants.”
Vhembe region president Vhavhenda Vho-Muneri said when Safa wrote to the 54
regions asking for the scrapping of the grants owed before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, the regions were already in the red in relation to meeting the goals of their football development projects.
“We refused to scrap the debt. My region is owed R1-milllion. We’ve been informed of another extraordinary congress on June 18, seven days before the presidential election. For what? To be lectured on how to vote? The election process is clearly outlined in the statutes unless someone wants to amend the statutes at that meeting.”
Safa Tshwane president Solly Mohlabeng was scathing in his criticism of how the football association runs its affairs.
“Firstly, the minutes of the March 26 congress are far off and not in line with what happened at the congress. Secondly, I want to question how the governance committee was constituted. Thirdly, we are being dictated to how to vote after we received letters stating nobody is allowed to campaign before June 18. It’s absurd.”
In the letter to the regions, Safa CEO Tebogo Motlanthe warned the nominated candidates not to jump the gun by starting to canvass ahead of the presidential elections.
For the latest sports news from Sunday World, click here.
Follow @SundayWorldZA on Twitter and @sundayworldza on Instagram, or like our Facebook Page, Sunday World, by clicking here for the latest breaking news in South Africa. To Subscribe to Sunday World, click here
