OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 4.15pm.
PROFESSIONAL Soccer League chief executive officer Joe Ndhlela has been suspended on full pay by the PSL following his arrest on Tuesday on charges of corruption and fraud.
The charges relate to when Ndhlela was a senior official at Transnet.
He has been suspended from the PSL with immediate effect for bringing the league into disrepute. A date for a disciplinary hearing has still to be decided.
The decision follows a meeting by the board — consisting of 18 PSL clubs — in Johannesburg on Wednesday morning.
The board said it has not yet decided on a replacement.
Sports Minister Ngconde Balfour has thrown his weight behind the board and it’s decision.
The board suspended Ndhlela “from all duties with immediate affect pending an investigation into allegations of bringing the league into disrepute,” said Leepile Taunyane, the chairman of the league’s controlling body, the National Soccer League.
Balfour added: “I was briefed by Mr Taunyane and the league about the suspension of the CEO and I do concur with the both the PSL and the chairman that it was the right thing to do. I do not want to say anything further on the matter.”
Ndhlela was released on R20000 by the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday — “this kind of money is change to me” he told reporters — after being arrested at the Premier Soccer Leagues offices in Parktown.
He faces three charges of fraud, one of corruption and one of contravening the Companies Act for failing to disclose an material interest in a contract; all for allegedly defrauding Transnet of nearly R1-million.
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