Cape Town - The upcoming SA Football Association’s (SAFA) elective congress has enjoyed saturated media coverage as presidential hopefuls pull out all the stops in the public domain to win support.
The SAFA elections will be held at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg on June 25.
By this time nominations have closed and SAFA will make their names known at a later stage.
However, it is an open secret that four names have reached SAFA's Governance Committee which is headed by its chairman Victor Mogajane. The unconfirmed nominations are SAFA president Danny Jordaan, SAFA vice-president Ria Ledwaba, University Sport SA president Nomsa Mahlangu and SAFA -Tshwane president Solly Mohlabeng.
According to Mogajane, the Governance Committee will oversee the preparations and scrutinising of the candidates for the elections. "We (the committee) are here on an advisory role in assisting SAFA to ensure that we adhere to the rules they have outlined themselves in terms of their constitution.
"The rules of the constitution are to make sure that there is corporate governance in all the regional and national structures. We ensure compliance in terms of promoting effectiveness and efficiency," said Mogajane, who will serve alongside Tumi Dlamini as his deputy, Advocate Anzel Laubscher, Abel Ramolotja and Shakespeare Hadebe. Dlamini, an attorney, also serves on CAF's Governance Committee.
SAFA CEO Tebogo Motlanthe says that it will wait on the Governance Committee to complete its task before announcing the candidates’ names for the various positions two weeks before the elective congress.
“At this stage, we (SAFA) do not get involved and we are just the Post Office,” said Motlanthe.
"We have received nomination documents and handed them over to the Governance Committee. This is an independent committee and will do its work without any interference from us as administrators or anyone who occupies a position as SAFA."
Motlanthe added if the Governance Committee comes across ethical issues, they will consult with SAFA's ethics committee which is headed by retired Justice Sisi Khampepe.
SAFA's 52 regions hold the key to the elections since they will have a collective of 208 votes out of 224. Each of the regions have four votes. The remaining 16 votes will come from 10 associate members and the National Soccer League which have six votes.
In the case of the nominees, they will only stand if they are endorsed by two or more regions. One endorsement must come from the region where the nominee resides.
Of late former Bafana Bafana captain, Lucas Radebe has been calling for a change of leadership and has even availed himself for the post of president. Presently he does not serve football in any capacity although he is a member of the South African Football Masters and Legends Association (SAMLFA), which is an associate member.
Some of Radebe's peers have shown him support but they will do well to see what happened to the great Didier Drogba who wanted to be the president of the Ivory Coast Football Federation. He was eliminated after the first round of voting earlier this year in April.
Ledwaba and former SAFA CEO Dennis Mumble have been raking the airtime miles with frequent attacks to discredit SAFA.
CAF President Patrice Motsepe, new COSAFA President Angola's Artur de Almeida and SAFA President Dr Danny Jordaan in Namibia.
And next, SAFA President with his Cote d'Ivoire counterpart in Namibia on Saturday where COSAFA elections took place pic.twitter.com/xBn8Ra6sqy
One calming influence in the pre-election heated exchanges has been former Bafana Bafana defender David 'Going Up' Nyathi who is the secretary-general of SAMLFA. He is pleased with the organisation’s partnership with SAFA.
"More work is being done to increase the participation and contribution of former footballers within all the levels of SAFA structures," said Nyathi. "These developments are being done through consultations with the leadership of SAFA and have been making immense progress since 2013.
"However, there are no quick-fix schemes, and we understand that proper processes and procedures must be followed to address the challenges affecting our football and former footballers, on the right platforms and with the relevant bodies of SAFA.
"There has been increased participation of former footballers within SAFA administrations, technical structures, and the SAFA committees. We have enjoyed full participation and representation of our members in SAFA congresses, and we now have voting rights."