”What’s all the fuss about?” said South African Football Association (Safa) CEO Raymond Hack on Friday while commenting on reports that the work-permit application for new Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira had still to be ratified by the Department of Home Affairs.
Speaking from Sudan where he is attending a CAF congress, the Safa chief confirmed the work-permit application for the renowned former Brazilian World Cup coach had only been submitted this week because documentation supporting the application had been delayed in Brazil.
”I suppose we could have cancelled this week’s informal camp where Parreira worked out with the Bafana squad,” said Hack, ”but it would have been a major blow for Bafana and long-term World Cup planning — and I can’t believe anyone in the country would have approved of that.”
Hack, a seasoned Johannesburg attorney, said the work-permit application had been meticulously prepared and Safa believed it to be a formality that it would be approved.
Newly appointed Safa communications manager Morio Sanyane said the matter appeared to be a storm in a teacup.
”The Bafana coach is in the country on a visitor’s visa,” said Sanyane, ”but this was simply done in order to speed up the procedure before obtaining his work permit.”
Disconcerting, however, was the reported comment of a Department of Home Affairs official in the Sowetan newspaper that ”Safa always employs overseas coaches first — and obtains their work permit afterwards”.
Parreira is contracted by Safa to remain the Bafana coach until the completion of the 2010 World Cup at a gross monthly salary of R1,8-million — work permit or not. — Sapa