Two regions in danger of missing out at Safa poll

There are two outstanding regional disputes SA Football Association (Safa) is working around the clock to settle before Saturday’s elective congress.

Harry Gwala in KwaZulu-Natal and Amathole in the Eastern Cape are the only Safa regions with outstanding issues. Failure to resolve the disputes could lead to the two not taking part in the electoral process. 

Safa CEO Tebogo Motlanthe is optimistic they will iron out these issues before the polls at the Sandton Convention Centre on Saturday, saying the outstanding issues involving Harry Gwala and Amathole will be dealt with internally. 

“[At] the [extraordinary] congress last Saturday, Safa got status reports from all the regions and nobody contested them. The congress accepted 50 regions who’ve gone to elections and complied. There are two regions which had problems. I am assigned, alongside some members, to solve those issues before the elections,” Motlanthe told Sowetan yesterday.

“The regions I am talking about are Harry Gwala and Amathole. It’s issues which we can deal with internally and I am optimistic everything will be sorted out before the elections. The issue at Amathole is that they went to elections beyond the date which was agreed.

“In Harry Gwala there are people who are claiming disputes in the elections and the region seems divided in two. But then the congress assigned it to membership affairs to deal with it, and we’ll deal with it before elections.”

Motlanthe then confirmed the two regions were at risk of not voting:  “Of course if a region isn’t in good standing, it doesn’t vote. It’s not for the first time... when we went into the last elections Sekhukhune region didn’t vote because it wasn’t in good standing,” said the Safa CEO.

Incumbent Safa president Danny Jordaan and his deputy Ria Ledwaba, who’s also a national executive committee member, alongside Safa Tshwane president Solly Mohlabeng, will battle it out for the presidency.