The South African Football Association (Safa) shenanigans of the past week regarding accusations levelled against Sbu Mngadi, the former CEO of the national association’s commercial wing, SA Football, continued unabated on Friday — much to the detriment of the reputation of the administration of soccer in South Africa.
Mngadi, having been accused by Safa of what amounts to forging the signatures of the association’s president, Molefi Oliphant, and CEO, Raymond Hack, as well as misappropriating funds, hit back at a media conference of his own after a charge against him had allegedly been laid with the police.
He described Safa’s allegations as outrageous, claiming that instead of misappropriating funds, he had negotiated a record match fee of R3,5-million for the South African Under-23 team to play in the since-aborted game against Colombia.
He also said Chief Mwelo Nonkanyana, the chairperson of SA Football and a Safa vice-president, who supposedly laid the charge with the police, had made overtures to him on Friday to hold a meeting to settle the unsavoury affair.
Safa communications manager Morio Sanyane, however, reiterated that Nonkanyana had been mandated at a board meeting of SA Football ”to hand the matter and all the relevant information over to the police — and he has assured me that he has done as much”.
So who is being fooled?
Mngadi, meanwhile, said he had instructed his attorneys to deal with the defamatory allegations against him — and he was confident the courts would restore his dented reputation.
What is more, he said, he can account for every last cent he has been accused of misappropriating — and that super-imposing signatures, as was done with those of Oliphant and Hack, is common practice in business circles.
He was more evasive when asked whether he had the permission of the two senior Safa officials to super-impose their signatures and said Hack had sent him a message proclaiming ”Congrats, Sbu. Well done,” referring to the Colombian gambit.
”Does that sound as though Safa knew nothing about these negotiations as they are now claiming?” asked Mngadi. — Sapa