The embattled South Africa Football Association (Safa) has been hit by a spate of resignations by top managers, due to disgruntlement at the federation.
High ranking football manager Mzwandile Maforvane has abandoned the sinking ship.
Safa head of integrity Alex Abercrombie also tendered his resignation which is alleged he has since rescinded after he was persuaded otherwise by Safa president Danny Jordaan.
In the last couple of months, other high-ranking officials of the national association also tendered their resignations. The most notable was the sudden departure of former chief executive officer (CEO) Tebogo Motlanthe. Other resignations include finance manager Gift Sikonde and human resources boss Lerato Mabuse.
Motlanthe said in a damning letter that he had been reduced to a mere clerk, as part of his reason to leave.
Safa has also had several retrenchments in the last couple of years due to financial problems.
Maforvane is said to have resigned after a number of promises that were made to him were not kept.
He served Safa with his resignation letter at the end of September and finished his notice period at the end of last month.
He has apparently moved back to the Free State, the province where he rose to prominence.
“They were unhappy with a number of issues,” said a Safa national executive committee member (NEC) who opted to remain anonymous.
“There is serious low staff morale and poor financial reimbursement. After the retrenchments, staff is overworked since they operate with a skeleton staff compliment to do the job that was done by the people who were let go,” he added.
“When Maforvane left his job as a vice-principal in Bloemfontein he was promised that he would be made chief operating officer (COO) and then CEO of the association. But he was instead made football manager and recently events manager, which is down the ladder from being COO.
“So, none of the promises were fulfilled and as a result he had a fallout with Jordaan,” added our informer.
It is also alleged that staff members felt there was too much direct interference in their work.
There were also complaints with the leadership of the association headed by Jordaan.
Jordaan allegedly met with Maforvhane this week in an attempt to convince him to reconsider his decision.
Maforvane was at the forefront of the Football Transformation Forum that lobbied and petitioned for Jordaan to be appointed as president in the 2013 electoral congress. He had been Jordaan’s loyal soldier and was taken from the NEC and roped in as a full-time employee.
Efforts to reach Maforvane were unsuccessful as his phone rang unanswered and did not respond to the text messages.
Safa CEO Lydia Monyepao was also not available for comment on her cellphone.
