As questions are asked about where the cash-strapped South African Football Association (Safa) is going to get more than R30-million to pay bonuses to its three top executives for winning the rights for South Africa to host the 2010 World Cup, it has emerged that the organisation’s books will show a R50-million deficit when they are tabled at the annual general meeting scheduled for September — the first since 2002.
Safa’s perilous financial position is compounded by the R47-million it owes to the South African Revenue Service (Sars).
The dispute with Sars dates back to 1992, a year after Safa was founded and South Africa was readmitted to Fifa. It involves more than 200 players, who Safa blames for the mess. Safa paid players in full without deducting PAYE and told them to sort out the taxman themselves. Administrative staff sal-aries are among those disputed.
Tasneem Carrim, communications assistant general manager for Sars, said: ‘We are not in a position to talk about this. Section 4 of the Income Tax Act prevents us from breaching confidentiality of any taxpayers’ affairs.â€
However, senior officials within Safa have told the Mail & Guardian that Sars has a ‘valid claim and Safa are going to cough up. In fact they are close to a settlement.â€
Safa president Molefi Oliphant refused to take a call from the M&G.
Well-placed sources within the organisation say the reason that Safa has failed to produce its financials is that auditor Deloittes has been refusing to sign the report, citing the magnitude of the deficit and the liability to Sars.
One of the key problems is the weakness of Safa’s balance sheet — the only quality assets were property and equipment valued at R10,7-million (June 2002).
Insiders reveal a sordid picture, showing that liabilities apart from the R47-million owed to Sars include unpaid debts amounting to several further millions. Based on these assertions, one official said, ‘Safa should not tradeâ€.
According to a senior official in the organisation members of the executive committee refused to contribute to any discussions around financial statements when Safa tried to table unaudited statements at last Saturday’s meeting.
Even if Safa manages to find a sponsor to pay the former bid chairperson Irvin Khoza, CEO Danny Jordaan and Safa president Molefi Oliphant R7,5-million each, it still has to settle its debts with other bid personnel. Kalusha Bwalya, Phil Masinga, Roger Milla, Abedi Pele and Jomo Sono worked tirelessly to ensure that South Africa won the bid.
There is also no consensus about the bonus issue. According to M&G sources, executive committee members are not against bonuses being paid to Jordaan and Khoza. The disagreement arises over the inclusion of Oliphant in the scheme.