Response to City Press regarding questions sent on 9 December 2017 by Timothy Molobi
9 December 2017 – It is not possible to sneak through any resolution when the constitution of SAFA indicates the final authority for all resolutions of SAFA rests with the Congress — the general membership of the association.
This particular motion of moving the elections to which you refer had in fact been circulated to all regions — the entire membership body of SAFA — before the congress. The matter had not been addressed to the NEC but to the regions and therefore it was their right to discuss the matter.
This matter was therefore not on the agenda of the NEC but there was an attempt to raise it onto the NEC agenda after the meeting on 2 December, however it had already concluded and therefore could not be discussed.
At the Congress on 3 December only one NEC member objected to the matter of elections being tabled but the overwhelming sentiment from the floor was that the matter should be tabled and that the general members be allowed to provide input on the matter.
The Congress discussed the matter of bringing forward the elections and an overwhelming majority first voted to make it an official agenda item and over 90 percent of the electorate voted in favour of the motion. The vote count was verified by Ernst & Young, our financial advisors. Therefore, the notion that this indicates a split in SAFA is false, barring the one NEC member. It is the right of the general members to dictate the direction of SAFA.
On the agenda of the Congress, under item number 19, was the election of the president and vice president so it could legally have been concluded in the meeting. It is important to note that the Constitution was never amended so the term of office of the current elected leaders is over.
At the last Congress in 2016, it was resolved that the current leadership shall be granted a grace period until September 2018, on the understanding that it needed to prepare a team for the World Cup. At the 2017 Congress the members felt it was important to regularise these elections due to the fact that the grace period of six months was no longer required as South Africa had failed to qualify for the World Cup; the basic premise of extension in the first place. Therefore the Congress resolved that the six month grace period should rather be added to the mandate of the incoming NEC to give it more time to prepare for the 2022 World Cup. This sentiment was the overwhelming view of the floor and resulted in more than 90 percent of regions voting in favour of the hosting elections in March instead of September.