In March, Safa headquarters was searched by the Hawks over suspected fraud and theft to the tune of R1.3 million.
Patriotic Alliance (PA) leader and newly appointed Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Gayton McKenzie has welcomed reforms to the South African Football Association (SAFA) amid allegations surrounding the Confederation of African Football's (CAF) investigation into Danny Jourdan.
Despite only being appointed on Sunday, McKenzie has already received several suggestions on how to run the Ministry of Sport, Arts and Culture. One of those suggestions came from sports enthusiast Palesa Motshone, who advised the minister to reform Safa.
“Please work on reforming Safa. Please advocate for making sports compulsory in schools. Please sign a memorandum of understanding. [memorandum of understanding] “Create collaboration between your department and the Faculty of Education, especially the sports department, and make high school seniors and honors students coaches and instructors at your school. They will manage the after-school programs and teachers will just teach,” Motshone wrote.
That's a great suggestion, thank you. https://t.co/ZgGwSjl7Nb
— Gayton McKenzie (@GaytonMcK) July 1, 2024
Mackenzie responded by describing the advice as a “very good suggestion.”
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CAFE investigates Jordan
McKenzie's appointment comes days after reports emerged that CAF was investigating the Safa presidency.
Reports emerged over the weekend that CAF had appointed an independent committee, including South African lawyer Thembeka Ngcgkaitobi, to investigate Jordan for alleged breaches of CAF and FIFA statutes.
Safa headquarters was raided by the Hawks in March over allegations of fraud and theft to the tune of R1.3 million linked to Jordaan.
The Hawks said they seized laptops, external hard drives, USBs and other documents during the searches.
The Hawks statement accused Safa of using association resources for personal gain and the Football Association said it would launch a civil lawsuit for defamation.
At the time, Safa claimed the attack was unlawful.
“We allege that this is unethical and illegal as police have not mentioned anyone's name in the matter under investigation,” Safa said in a statement on Friday.
“We want to be clear that we believe from the outset that the search was unlawful, egregious and not conducted in accordance with the warrant instructions given to us,” a statement on Safa's website said.
The cafe is led by South African businessman Patrice Motsepe.
African football's governing body has expressed concern about the respect and image of the sport in the country following the highly publicised investigation, with former sports minister Gigi Kodwa also expressing his dissatisfaction.
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