Danny Jordaan has effectively confirmed he’ll bid for a fourth term as Safa president, reneging on a promise he made three years ago when he stated his third stint would be his last.
Answering a question from Rise Mzansi MP Magashule Gana when Safa was grilled by parliament’s sports portfolio committee on Tuesday, Jordaan said the decision whether to stand again rested squarely with the organisation’s 52 regions.
“I don’t know if they will nominate me or not. There are no nominations yet,” Jordaan responded if he stood again.
Gana probed further: “Are you available [to stand]?” to which Jordaan responded: “I don’t know.”
Gana reminded Jordaan that his uncertainty was in direct contrast to the response he gave three years ago after being voted in. “For the next term, which is 2026 to 2030, I won’t be there. I must tell you now, this is my last term,” Jordaan said then. “Did I say that?” Jordaan asked Gana on Tuesday. “Yes, you did.”
Former Safa vice-president Gladwyn White, who’s also an NEC member, said Jordaan’s backtracking on standing for a fourth term confirms suspicions he first raised last year, when he penned a damning dossier distributed to Safa members.
He just wanted one of the regions to formally raise it, but that hasn’t worked thus far, so he’s raising it himself even though he volunteered the information to the media, unprovoked, that he won’t stand again.
— Safa vice-president Gladwyn White
“I’m not surprised because I raised the matter with the regions. It has always been there that he [Jordaan] would seek a fourth term. He just wanted one of the regions to formally raise it, but that hasn’t worked thus far, so he’s raising it himself even though he volunteered the information to the media, unprovoked, that he won’t stand again,” White said.
“But he can’t be wanting to stay on when there’s a system of misgovernance under his watch. Finances are in disarray as we saw in parliament, there are no sponsors and NEC meetings are postponed on flimsy reasons.”
White added that Safa “missed a great opportunity” to present a good picture of the embattled organisation to South Africans. “It was a chance to cleanse the image of Safa by winning back corporate trust. But instead, they sent a cartel there to lie under oath to parliament. The finances presented there have never been approved by any NEC. How can you say you can’t disclose sponsorship values due to contractual confidentiality, but then you tell us how much the SABC paid? They also provided a lame excuse as to why Bafana’s ticketing revenue is not reflected in the income statement. It’s a lie to say it was put under ‘sundries’.”
Safa last held an NEC meeting in January and has pencilled in a congress for June 28.
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