Jordaan to finally face motion to quit

After months of wrangling and postponements, Danny Jordaan should finally come face to face with those who want him to step aside as SA Football Association (Safa) president on Saturday, when the association holds its long-awaited congress in Sandton.

Sowetan has seen a motion proposed by four Safa regions who seek to have Jordaan temporarily removed because of his ongoing court case, after he was arrested, charged with fraud and released on bail last year.

The Uthukela, Dr Kenneth Kaunda, Joe Gqabi, and Frances Baard regions will call for the “immediate provisional suspension of Jordaan, due to his arrest and alleged involvement in fraud and corruption, pending the outcome of an internal or independent investigation”.

The four say “the Safa president should step aside and must not chair the congress session, with an acting chairperson to be appointed”.

A regional leader, who requested anonymity because he is not mandated to speak on the matter, said Jordaan could no longer escape accountability after several postponements. It’s been seven months since the president was arrested, and any attempt to discuss the matter has been frustrated,” the leader said.

“We had an NEC [national executive committee] meeting in January, and were supposed to meet on this specific issue in February, but it was postponed. The congress should have taken place in May, and it did not. There’s no turning back this time.”

Getting Jordaan not to chair the congress will be the first step on Saturday. “We agreed in the January NEC meeting that he can’t be present when we discuss a matter directly affecting him, so we need him to recuse himself. We can then appoint an acting president to chair the meeting,” the regional leader said.

Jordaan’s detractors have already claimed victory from last week’s marathon NEC meeting, which was adjourned without the matter of his possible recusal being finalised. “We got him to recuse himself last week, and the vice-president (Bennet Bailey) rescued the situation by correctly interpreting the statutes,” the regional leader added.

But a defiant Jordaan emerged from last week’s meeting claiming victory and “unity”, saying in a Safa statement: “Nobody is suspended, and nobody is to step aside. All those matters were dealt with and concluded.”

Sowetan has been told that last week’s meeting was anything but cordial, with Jordaan’s supporters first seeking to have NEC members Bhudha Mathate, Gladwyn White and Monde Motshioa suspended for allegedly breaking Safa’s communication protocol.

“That didn’t pass because we came prepared and presented them [with] evidence of other members supporting Jordaan, commenting openly without NEC approval, so suspending these members would have ended up in court,” another regional leader said.

Jordaan is not the only person the aggrieved regions are gunning for. There’s also a motion for the “dismissal of CEO Lydia Monyepao, for failure to communicate and implement resolutions regarding regional grants, and for not taking appropriate action following the arrest of the CFO [Gronie Hluyo]”.

Hluyo was arrested and charged alongside Jordaan last year, but has remained in office.

There’s also a proposal to limit the presidential terms to three, something which would bar Jordaan from seeking re-election next year. “We propose to amend the Safa statutes to introduce presidential term limits [maximum of three terms, consecutive or not], aligning with Fifa best practices,” a regional leader said.

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