Stuart Hess
EXECUTIVE members of the South African Football Association (Safa) are preparing to sack their former boss, Solomon Morewa, after this week’s damning indictment by Judge Benjamin Pickard of financial irregularities in local football.
Safa executive members contacted by the Mail & Guardian said they would continue to support Morewa as president while he remained in office. But they also respected the authority of the Pickard Commission and its recommendations.
The next executive meeting is scheduled for February 9 and Morewa’s fate will be decided then.
“As an organisation we accepted the establishment of the commission and offered our support and co-operation during its sittings. Our standpoint remains the same,” said executive member Molefi Olifant.
He added that the commission’s recommendations were being “investigated” by executive members. Olifant believed Safa should look at the merits of the recommendations before making its standpoint known.
Pickard’s report calls for the Safa executive to “insist on the resignation of Mr Morewa, failing which steps should be taken to dismiss him”.
The report criticises the relationship between Morewa, Kaizer Motaung, the managing director of Kaizer Chiefs Football Club, and Brian Mahon, chief executive of Awesome Sports International, which acted as Safa’s marketing agent.
“Awesome emasculated South African football using Safa’s assets against it, in such a way that football was no longer run by Safa but Awesome,” Sports Minister Steve Tshwete said in releasing the commission’s report.
Another Safa executive, Danny Jordaan, disputed earlier media claims that Safa was no longer an independent body. “Safa’s independence is very much intact. Minister Tshwete made it quite clear that the decision regarding Morewa would come from the executive and not any outside body like the government,” he said.
Jordaan said nobody “stole” money from Safa as was alleged during the commission’s hearings. “If money disappeared illegally from Safa’s coffers, why does the report not recommend criminal charges against anybody?”
Tshwete expressed the hope that the executive would implement the commission’s recommendations but added the government would not dictate terms to Safa.
Reuben Mahlalela, also an executive member of Safa, expressed his discontent that the report did not offer proof of the alleged payment of R28-milliion into Swiss and Irish bank accounts.
“I am dissatisfied that the commission made so little mention of the R28-million payment when this was the direct cause for its establishment,” said Mahlalela. He also questioned the legitimacy of Judge Pickard: “Remember, he hanged former comrades.”
Executive members also questioned the manner in which the commission conducted “a one-man search” – “It was never really about the executive or about Safa, but about one man.”
In another development, Tshwete said he would not set up a commission to investigate financial irregularities in local rugby after receiving a document from Brian van Rooyen, former vice-president of the Transvaal Rugby Union. “There is not enough compelling evidence,” said Tshwete.
Van Rooyen was in the news late last year after failing in his bid for the presidency of the union. “In light of the evidence given before the Pickard Commission pertaining to football, I believe the document I submitted to Tshwete warrants a similar commission for rugby,” Van Rooyen told the M&G this week.
His 500-page document details alleged illegal financial practices by the South African Rugby Football Union.
The union’s former chief executive officer, Edward Griffiths, said he would be willing to testify before such a commission but added: “I haven’t seen Van Rooyen’s document and therefore cannot say whether it warrants a commission.”