The Confederation of African Football (Caf) is concerned about the raid by the Hawks on the South African Football Association (Safa) headquarters. The Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation Unit raided the association’s offices last week Friday.
The commercial crime unit conducted a search and seizure operation at the Safa offices in Nasrec, Johannesburg. They seized laptops, USBs and hard drives belonging to the association. The Hawks are claiming allegations of fraud and theft amounting to R1,3-million.
Unauthorised use of Safa resources
Hawks spokesperson, Colonel Katlego Mogale, gave details on the matter. He said allegations are that between 2014 and 2018, Safa president (Danny Jordaan) used the organisation’s resources for his personal gain. These include hiring a private security company for his personal protection. In addition, he hired a public relations company without authorisation from the Safa board.
Reads the statement from Caf on Saturday afternoon: “Caf is looking into this matter based on, and in accordance with the Caf and Fifa Statutes and Regulations… and has requested Safa to provide Caf with a report, indicating that Safa and its president, Danny Jordaan at no stage and under no circumstances, violated or breached the Caf and Fifa Statutes and Regulations.
Presumed innocent until proven guilty
“Whilst the allegations made by the Hawks Serious Commercial Crime Investigation Unit are serious, in line with international legal principles and jurisprudence, Safa and Jordaan are presumed to be innocent until an appropriate Judicial Body concludes otherwise. Caf has also requested Safa to provide it with any other information or facts which Safa and Jordaan would like to bring to the attention of Caf.”
Safa dismissed the Hawks’ allegations, and they have vowed to take legal action. “We want to set it out from the onset that we believe the search was unlawful, malicious and not conducted in terms of the directives of a warrant given to us. [Safa] was not furnished with all the documents prescribed by law. The documents that were furnished by the Hawks during the shameful raid were incomplete and unlawful. We contend that it was done deliberately and intentionally in order to action this malicious action,” said Safa via a statement.
Safa denies allegations
“As a result of this, we have instructed our attorneys to bring an urgent application to review and set aside this search and seizure. We have further instructed our attorneys to bring a formal complaint to the oversight arbitrator of the Hawks regarding the action of all involved members.
“[Safa] will further institute civil action for defamation of character against those involved in the naming of the Safa president’s name in an ongoing investigation. We contend that this is unethical and unlawful. …As the police never mentioned anyone’s name in matters that are under investigation.”
