Durban — Danny Jordaan's chances of continuing as the president of the South African Football Association for a third successive term received a huge boost after the approval of some of Safa's constitutional amendments at their ordinary congress.
Jordaan has been Safa’s top brass since 2013. In the last elective congress, he ran unopposed after Ace Ngcobo withdrew at the 11th hour. But he is set to run for a third term in a row after the elective congress, which is not later than August 30.
At their 30th ordinary congress that was hosted at the Sandton Convention Centre on Saturday, the members of the National Executive Committee and Local Football Association agreed to certain changes in the association’s constitution.
It was upheld that the PSL club owners are barred from running for the presidency. That shut the door on Siviwe “Chippa” Mpengesi, the owner of Chippa United, who had admitted that he was keen to run for the Safa top position.
“We met with the special member of the National Soccer League. That question has never arisen from the league. There were three regions which said let us allow the team owners to contest,” Safa CEO Tebogo Motlanthe said.
“But that was rejected by the congress. They could not attain the 2/3 of the majority as per rules. They only had three votes. The status quo remains that if you are a club owner you can’t stand for elections, especially the PSL owners.”
Secondly, it was agreed that the chairman of the PSL, Irvin Khoza, cannot run for the presidency. However, he’ll still automatically serve as the vice-president of the association – having served in that position for the past 23 years.
There was also a new rule in the constitution that the vice-presidents can’t be elected by the congress in accordance with Caf and Fifa statues. That means that the Safa boss will elect his two other deputies, besides the NSL head honcho.
Upon the start of the congress, there was commotion. Jordaan called security on Ngoako “Solly” Mohlabeng, the Safa president in Tshwane who had publicly admitted that he’d contest for the association’s top position later this year.
Mohlabeng disrespected the congress by wanting to ask Jordaan to do a roll call before they could get the congress underway. But Mohlabeng felt that he was already targeted by the Safa leadership even before the congress started.
Mohlabeng has since been suspended by the association, with Motlanthe confirming that he will write to him on Monday while he’s set to stand before the disciplinary committee on account of disrespecting the proceedings of the congress.
“He wanted to speak even before the meeting could even start. The agenda of this congress is prescribed by the statues. And the first item says that the chief executive officer must say if the congress was in line with the statues,” he said.
“He even disrespected the orders from the president (Jordaan) until we even had to call security to remove him. I’ll send him the charge sheet and he must appear before the DC committee as the congress felt that he disrespected the meeting.”
IOL Sport