The latest embarrassing pictures of an SA Football Association national executive meeting which almost turned violent are a worrisome reflection of the sorry situation at Safa House.
Last year, we reported on how Safa national executive members heckled one another during a parliamentary portfolio committee meeting. Now at the weekend, the members almost came to blows, leading the meeting to adjourn without tackling issues on the agenda.
At the base of the argument, it seems, was an attempt by one faction to discuss the suspension of certain members said to be against president Danny Jordaan. These members then wanted their own motion for the suspension of chief executive Lydia Monyepao – a Jordaan appointee – to be heard first.
But instead of listening to each other, the NEC members hurled insults and threatened violence after a security company had been called in to remove certain members.
The brawl came in a week when we thought Safa, which has battled cash flow problems for the past few years, would be on the way to recovery after announcing a lucrative sponsorship deal with Standard Bank.
We thought now that corporate SA is seeing value in Safa, it would clean up its house, even when we know that’s not entirely possible, as Jordaan and Gronie Hluyo, the chief financial officer, still face a court case over allegations of fraud.
Having set down the first NEC meeting for the year, Safa, as per the agenda we saw, had a lot to discuss over the weekend.
Bafana Bafana and Banyana Banyana have a busy year ahead, with the Fifa World Cup and Women’s Africa Cup of Nations coming up.
There was also the latest financial statement, which showed the association is running at a loss, as well as other reports from departments that needed to be discussed. Some of Safa’s regions have been waiting for their grants for years and last Saturday’s meeting was supposed to shed some light on the delay.
Lo and behold, the meeting didn’t even get that far. Men in suits started screaming at each other and howling like schoolchildren. It is unbecoming of the leadership of a national association.
But for how long should we put up with this childish behaviour? We implore sport minister Gayton McKenzie to follow up on his promise to inform Fifa and CAF that he will be intervening. Safa has become too much of a circus that it can’t be trusted to fix its own house.
