ABOUT TURN: McKenzie bailouts Safa for R5-m for outstanding salaries while boss
Danny Jordaan is in court facing fraud charges
By Ali Mphaki
Minister of Sport Gayton Mckenzie has thrown a lifeline to cash-strapped South African Football Association, Safa, with a R5-million grant with a condition that the soccer body’s leadership would need to provide reasons for why their financial affairs are so troubled.
It is the same McKenzie who in July dissed Bafana Bafana as compared with the Springboks, sentiments that did not go down well with the national soccer squad players but the minister seem to have seen the folly of his wisdom and has made serious amends for his reckless statement by offering the grant.
The grant follows reports that the South African Football Association (Safa) has become cash-strapped to pay Bafana and Banyana Banyana players salaries ahead of the festive season, which saw the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC) intervene to advance the federation with R5 million.
“We cannot allow players to go into this festive season without payment, especially since they have done the country proud. The men’s team recently qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations, and we need them to focus on preparing for this challenge, as well as making sure we get to the 2026 World Cup in the USA, Mexico, and Canada. Banyana Banyana have also led the way, winning the African Women’s Championship in 2022 and going deep at the FIFA World Cup last year.”
McKenzie personally wrote to the organisation to offer the advance, with the understanding that it will be subtracted from the grant paid in the 2025 financial year. This comes with the condition that Safa’s leadership would need to come up with a viable turnaround plan to avoid such a situation in future.
Safa agreed to the conditions and thanked the Minister for the intervention.
In their correspondence to the Minister, the CEO explained that sponsorship revenues have been insufficient, while they have also been dealing with delayed payments from various partners. Safa has been working on a financial turnaround strategy to increase revenues and cut costs, which will be presented to the Minister following the federation’s upcoming National Executive Committee meeting.
McKenzie said: “We cannot allow players to go into this festive season without payment, especially since they have done the country proud. The men’s team recently qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations, and we need them to focus on preparing for this challenge, as well as making sure we get to the 2026 World Cup in the USA, Mexico, and Canada. Banyana Banyana have also led the way, winning the African Women’s Championship in 2022 and going deep at the FIFA World Cup last year.”
The South African Players Union, Sapu, has welcomed McKenzie’s intervention, saying they first heard about the issue of non-payment of players in September.
Meanwhile, Safa boss Danny Jordaan and two others had their case postponed by the commercial crimes court in Palm Ridge has postponed to February 7, 2025.
Jordaan and his co-accused appeared before the East Rand court where the soccer boss is facing charges of using R1.3 million belonging to SAFA for his personal benefit.
The marathon hearing saw two applications ventilated in the lower court. However, both the State and the defence were unsuccessful in their applications for the recusal of the defence legal representative and the striking of the case from the roll respectively.
Section 342a of the Criminal Procedures Act relates to unreasonable delays in criminal proceedings. The accused attempted to invoke this section citing pending interlocutory matters.
However, magistrate Sheron Soko-Rantao found that the lower court did not have jurisdiction to consider such an application. She said the matters cited by the defence were not ventilated before her and she could not consider them. Several Safa regions have offered their support to Jordaan and entertain no motion of either suspending him or calling him for a disciplinary hearing.
It is not the first time that SAFPU have stepped in to resolve the non-payment of players’ bonuses, as they had before the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.