Deputy sport, arts and culture minister Peace Mabe says heads must roll at the South African Football Association (Safa) after the visa blunder that saw Bafana Bafana fail to depart for Mexico on Sunday.
Safa confirmed it faced challenges in securing visas for the players and members of the technical team in time, and this resulted in the team being grounded and postponed their departure to Monday.
Mabe implied Safa retained team manager Vincent Tseka despite previous high-profile admin horrors, including failing to book a Dobsonville Stadium training venue for Bafana and the Teboho Mokoena yellow card saga, which saw Bafana docked three points in the World Cup qualifiers.
She said the latest incident points to a complete lack of leadership and accountability in Safa, suggesting those responsible must face immediate dismissal.
“It is shocking and embarrassing,” Mabe told eNCA.
“It shows the centre is not holding at Safa. If you are tasked with a responsibility of this magnitude, you need to execute it with absolute due diligence.
“The fact that they successfully navigated the team through qualifiers to reach the World Cup, only to fail at the final hurdle due to a simple administrative issue, completely erases their hard work. We are deeply unhappy about what has transpired, and we want to know why this was kept a secret. You cannot logically finalise international travel arrangements without a visa. It is a basic administrative rule.
“They should have used their brains and thought outside the box.”
Mabe also slammed Safa for keeping the visa issues secret until the last minute, saying this may affect the players’ morale.
“They should have processed visa applications for the entire preliminary squad pool months ago. Why wait until the final squad announcement to start the process?” she asked.
“We are not happy. There are huge financial implications in cancelling flights, and this can negatively affect the psychological state of the players.
“My message to the players is ‘Do not despair, and do not let this dampen your spirits.’
“As for the administrators, people must be held accountable. If junior officials are not answerable to their seniors, it proves there is no leadership. We need a complete review as South Africans and through Fifa.
“Safa needs to be transparent and tell the country exactly what went wrong. Are they protecting incompetent friends in these departments? What led to this? We want accountability, and if it means heads must roll, let it be. If we don’t hold people responsible, they will continue to commit these entirely avoidable, foolish mistakes over and over again.”
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