Motlanthe: Safa election governance committee will have independence

SA Football Association (Safa) CEO Tebogo Motlanthe has given the assurance that the newly formed governance committee to oversee the eligibility of candidates for this year’s elections will be independent.

Safa on Tuesday announced Dr Victor Mogajane as chair of the committee that includes Tumi Dlamini, advocate Anzel Laubscher, Abel Ramolotja and Shakespeare Hadebe.

Ria Ledwaba, Solly Mohlabeng and Nomsa Mahlangu are among potential candidates reported to be interested in challenging incumbent Danny Jordaan for the Safa presidency.

“The difference is mainly in the name because we have done away with the electoral code, as Caf has done,” Motlanthe said. “We always try to align. We said let’s now have the governance committee that will have powers to check issues.

“Where they find problems, they can refer and if they are ethical issues they can go to the ethics committee, which is led by retired judge Sisi Khampepe.

“It is in line with having an independent process where no administration or elected official is allowed to participate.”

Motlanthe emphasised that the committee members will not take sides in the execution of their duties.

“As an administrator, I would not like to talk about camps because we have people of great reputation. You had all of them [the committee members] talking and emphasising ethics.

“They were emphasising good governance and you don’t want to say these people may want to align to this one or the other. The requirements of football are very clear and they are there in the constitution.

“They are not going to reinvent the wheel. When we say they are going to tighten the rules it will be a wrong perception, because the rules are there in the constitution.

“If a member of the public comes and says they have a serious case against someone, then they [the committee] will look at him or her. At Caf there was a complaint that the current president [Patrice Motsepe] hosted people here [in SA] and he had to go to the governance committee to clear himself.

“When they give me the final report, they would have followed all processes to say these are the candidates that are fit and proper. If they say this candidate is not fit and proper, they must specify [why].

“The statutes empower them. The committee will interact with the candidates and if they say this is someone's problem they will talk to that person about their challenges.”

Mogajane said their role is to ensure compliance.

“Our role is simple, we are here on an advisory role to assist Safa in ensuring that they adhere to the rules that they have outlined themselves in terms of the constitution.

“The rules of the constitution are there to ensure there is corporate governance in all the structures up to national level. Our work is to make sure that once the nominations are done there is compliance in terms of promoting effectiveness and efficiency.

“Our duty is to ensure that at the end there are no disputes and the process is fair and sound.”