The Hawks’ raid on Safa House has really dealt the national association’s already dented image a massive blow.
In recent years, the SA football mother body has been plagued by damaging and destructive publicity, and even though it managed to drive Bafana to win a bronze medal at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) in Ivory Coast in February, it still cannot shed the ugly skin when it comes to its image.
Safa and Bafana are supposed to be on a high at the moment. They achieved the unthinkable and finished third, their best finish at the Afcon in 24 years.
National associations are mostly judged by the success of their senior national teams, the flagship of any football federation in the world.
Safa should be attracting sponsors, partners and suitors and riding the crest of the wave right now. In a normal world, they should be capitalising on the fruits of success that the tree bore and exploiting the opportunities the Bafana success would have unlocked.
But alas, the association, under Danny Jordaan, finds itself at the bottom of the rung, having to defend itself for the umpteenth time.
Last week, a mere six weeks after Bafana charmed the continent, the organisation’s headquarters were raided by the Hawks, who seized laptops, USB drives and hard drives belonging to football officials.
What could be more embarrassing than a convoy of branded Hawks cars speeding past security and invade the offices of the chief financial officer Gronie Hluyo? This is the lowest that Safa has been in its scandal-ridden history.
Read a statement from The Hawks: “The Serious Commercial Crime Investigation execu-ted search and seizure warrants this morning, 8 March 2024 at the South African Football Association’s office. The warrants were prompted by allegations of fraud and theft amounting to R1.3-million.
“The allegations are that between 2014 and 2018, the president of Safa used the organisation’s resources for his personal gain, including hiring a private security company for his personal protection, a public relations company without authori-sation from the Safa board.
“The president is also reported to have violated Safa statutes thus prejudicing Safa an actual loss of R1.3-million.
“During the search, a laptop, external hard drives, a USB and documents were seized.”
These events have left us with more questions than answers. Safa has bloated structures, with more than 40 national executive committee members. What are the NEC members saying about these latest shenanigans? What is their role in ensuring clean corporate governance at Safa House instead of prancing around in fancy Safa suits and ties?
As we speak, Safa has still not clinched any broadcast deals after its last one with SABC expired last October. Sponsors are scooting away faster than Khuliso Mudau’s lung-busting gallops on the right flank.
No one wants to be associated with an organisation that does not have direction and reeks of corruption.
Instead of stamping its foot and dealing with the elephant in the room, Safa is clutching at straws and has vowed to sue.
“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,” this is how Safa responded on its website.
“We were not furnished with all the documents prescribed by law. We have instructed our attorneys to bring an urgent application to review and set aside this search and seizure. We 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. We believe, unfortunately, that these members of the police have been compromised and are being used in the callous abuse of state resources.”
If this is the perceived best way forward by Safa, then SA football is in a lot of trouble.
