Dylan Bettencourt
The South African Football Association (Safa) insist that they have not been contacted by the Hawks regarding any investigation into possible corruption within the organisation.
A report by Daily Maverick claimed that the South African football governing body was being investigated by the Hawks for financial concerns mainly involving President Danny Jordaan.
The main incident was reported by suspended Safa national executive committee member Willie Mooka, who said he had opened a case against Jordaan for alleged unauthorised payments.
Safa’s ethics committee chairperson Poobalan Govindasamy said the governing body has not been contacted by any local authorities and had to read about the alleged investigation in the media.
“People see things from different angles. If there’s an investigation, the first thing is for the investigator to approach the person against whom the complaint has been made and deal with it,” Govindasamy said.
“We saw in our country that former president Jacob Zuma has been treated like that.”
Safa claim that unlike Zuma they have not been contacted by any authorities regarding the investigation.
He asked why Safa was also treated like that.
Despite Safa insisting that there is no investigation against them, Hawks spokesperson Colonel Katlego Mogale confirmed that a case has been opened against the organisation.
“I can confirm. Yes, we have a case open,” said Mogale.
Safa national executive member Bennett Bailey said the news of an investigation came as a surprise to them especially after the organisation received a clean audit from Sondlo Chartered Accountants.
“It’s now the second financial year that we are going through with the firm. One of the findings that is to be communicated to us was the disagreement with management. That is where you differ in terms of the figures,” said Bailey.
President Jordaan has in the past been accused of inflating the prices of services rendered for what was claimed as personal benefit but Bailey explained that it comes from a disagreement with management, not inflated prices.
In terms of the allegation related to fraud, Bailey said the audit found no evidence of wrongdoing.
“They are very explicit. They state our audit didn’t review any instances of fraud. So, we didn’t only get an unqualified audit, we also got a clean one,” he added.
Safa stated that they have begun legal proceedings into what they call, the cowboys who are damaging their reputation.
Image source: @SundayWorld
