In a bizarre move, which may be interpreted as a plan to protect Bafana Bafana team manager Vincent Tseka, the South African Football Association (Safa) has taken the bold decision to finalise the Teboho Mokoena blunder on a ballot.
According to various letters that Sunday World has seen, the association’s national executive committee (NEC) members will now vote whether action should be taken against Tseka and Bafana head of delegation David Molwantwa for the gaffe that cost Safa a substantial fine and three points that almost resulted in South Africa not qualifying for the 2026 Fifa World Cup.
Safa NEC member and chairperson of the legal and constitutional affairs committee Poobie Govindasamy finalised his report titled “investigation report concerning the fielding of Teboho Mokoena in the 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifier against Lesotho on 21 March 2025” and recommended that the matter be finalised by round robin resolution-a vote.
His recommendation has been met with fierce criticism and rejection by some NEC members, who say it is an “infringement on the Safa statutes because employee issues are handled by the CEO, and not by the NEC”, said an anonymous NEC member.
In the report, Safa’s position is that it acted at all times in good faith and its failure to enforce the suspension was purely an administrative oversight, exacerbated by the passage of time – 16 months between the first caution and the Lesotho fixture.
Tseka concedes that during the match against Zimbabwe, he missed the second yellow card because he had left during the game to get ice for the team.
Says the report: “However, he [Tseka] concedes that according to the records, the player was not supposed to play in the match against Lesotho on 21 March 2025 in Polokwane. He deeply regrets any inconvenience… this glaring omission of the bookings of the player caused Safa and the country, and he undertakes to ensure that this mistake does not happen again.”
In what is seen as a vote of confidence, CEO Lydia Monyepao states in the same report, “The incident involving the fielding of an ineligible player was primarily caused by human error…
“Safa relied too heavily on external confirmation from Fifa, rather than maintaining proactive internal tracking of disciplinary records.
“The team manager, Mr Vincent Tseka is currently responsible for all men’s national teams. When camps overlap or run concurrently, his workload increases significantly, creating operational pressure that contributes to administrative oversights. “The incident occurred in the absence of any deliberate misconduct or intent to gain an unfair advantage. It was the result of communication gaps and procedural inconsistencies.
“Safa operated under the reasonable assumption, based on CAF practice, that Fifa would issue a suspension notice,” she added. “The team played a high volume of matches across various competitions during the period between the player’s first caution and his second. This made manual tracking of disciplinary records more complex.
Monyepao said despite the 3-0 forfeiture against Lesotho, the team successfully qualified for the 2026 Fifa World Cup.”
A resolution was then taken and the CEO communicated to NEC members to vote promptly whether disciplinary action should be taken against any, or all employees or that any or all employees be warned, and that no further disciplinary action be taken.
Other NEC members told Sunday World that they will not participate in what they call a charade because a resolution was taken at the last NEC meeting in Mbombela to take action against both Tseka and Molwantwa.
NEC member Gladwyn White also wrote to the CEO, questioning the legitimacy of the round robin voting. “This correspondence is prompted by concerns about misrepresentation and undermining of the NEC resolutions from the meeting held on 14th October 2025 in
Nelspruit. The report authored by Mr Govindasami contradicts the collective decisions made by the NEC.
“The Safa president and CEO must represent Safa’s collective interests and must not pursue personal agendas that contradict NEC rulings,” reads part of the letter from White.
