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/ 4 November 2005
The appointment of Mfanano Majola as the Premier Soccer League’s (PSL) national safety and security head earlier this year was supposed to waft a breeze of change through professional football. This week he lashed out at his bosses for failing to implement his suggestions and lacking vision in tackling and curbing crowd violence.
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/ 23 September 2005
Nothing in domestic soccer shows the problems that beset the game better than the South African Football Association (Safa) national executive committee elections held every four years. This is an occasion when regional representatives should decide who can develop and channel the game in the right direction for another term.
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/ 2 September 2005
In a decision that might anger many who want Stuart Baxter out, South African Football Association (Safa) president Molefi Oliphant refused to accept a verbal offer of resignation from the national team coach three weeks ago. By declining to accept Baxter’s resignation Oliphant averted what could have been another protracted and costly lawsuit.
At the other end of the spectrum, some African families living in Johannesburg are luring unskilled young black women to work for them, at salaries way below the legal minimum wage. Many are from rural areas, or from Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Mozambique and reside illegally in the South Africa.
Forget the welter of inconsistencies dogging the Telkom Charity Cup phone-voting system to choose the four teams for the one-day tournament. For the spectators, this competition may be a thrilling outing but in reality it signifies the start of another football season.
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, it has emerged that the organisation’s books will show a R50-million deficit when they are tabled at Safa’s annual general meeting scheduled for September.
Cheating normally benefits from conditions of extreme secrecy. The fewer people who know about your dirty dealing, the better your chances of success. So when you’re out there in the middle of the field with the whistle between your lips and 60 000 fanatical fans ruthlessly scrutinising your every move, surely it can’t be easy to pull a fast one? On the contrary. Here is how it is done …
Less than a week after South Africa was awarded the 2010 World Cup, questions are being raised about the financial stability of the South African Football Association (Safa). No annual general meeting has been held for 23 months and regional affiliates are becoming concerned that Safa may be bankrupt.
In KwaZulu-Natal, where politics is conducted in hush-hush tones, locals –particularly the old and the uneducated — have invented a street language that says more about politics than do any number of pundits. The language they have invented is the language that tells of their struggles for survival. Thabo Mbeki is referred to as ”the man who gives us grants [ubaba weqolo]”.
Things are looking up in Soweto, with improved facilities making it an altogether better place to live. In the decade since the African National Congress came to power, the township has undergone tremendous cosmetic improvements. But is that enough to stem the flight to the more upmarket areas of Johannesburg?