16 November 2020 – City Press’ assertions, in the article written by Timothy Molobi and headlined: ‘’Motsepe should be cautious of parasites who are after his millions,’’ alluding to Motsepe’s candidature for the CAF President, should be condemned with utter contempt.
It is a vicious and malicious attack on the integrity of African leaders that reinforces the xenophobic assertions of City Press and the writer.
It is sad that City Press choose to insult and denigrate Africans, from a newspaper that is perceived to be black oriented. In fact, the publication has of late allowed the said reporter to continuously attack the SAFA leadership on behalf of 3 or 4 disgruntled football officials.
Club ownership:
- SAFA’s position is crystal clear and entrenched in its statutes that ‘’no club owner can become President of SAFA’ and the reason is obvious. SAFA is the controlling body of all football in the country and any dispute between clubs are referred to the National Association for a fair resolution. It should be clear to Timothy Molobi that there are disputes between clubs are referred to SAFA. Therefore, club owners cannot sit as the President of SAFA when disputes involving clubs are referred to SAFA. Motsepe is not a candidate for the President of SAFA or any other position in the Association.
- Secondly, the governance requirements in South Africa including the King Code on corporate governance is not applicable to Egypt or any other country.
- The Zondo Commission has sufficiently placed the issue of corporate governance in South Africa in the public domain.
- The Constitution Bill of Rights and other regulations in South Africa does not exist or apply to Egypt or any other country. For Timothy Molobi to create false impression that the statutes of SAFA, the code of governance, constitution, national laws in South Africa applies to CAF or Egypt or any other country, is deliberately misleading and mischievous.
- The rehash of SAFA National Technical Centre, Fun Valley has clearly placed Timothy Molobi from being journalist to a blatant factionalist leader abusing his media platform for factional purposes. Journalism requires fact checking, requires that the other part is given the right to reply and is guided by objectivity, fairness and balance. Molobi’s coverage of SAFA issues are one-sided, intended to promote the agenda of a faction of a few and has no factual basis, integrity or credibility.
- Timothy Molobi has failed to provide SAFA with the opportunity to respond to his fabricated allegations. He further ignores the facts he covered multiple times over 7 months and he presents to the public no new facts but rather confirms he has consistently served as a propagandist for the same few disgruntled officials.
- SAFA has on numerous occasions addressed the issues Molobi raises, on print, radio and other platforms but the writer has failed to attend any of these briefings where all documents were made public to the media but the writer, accepts as facts whatever the faction provides him.
- For the record, SAFA has nominated Patrice Motsepe for the position of CAF President based on his standing, principles, his legal training, his observance of governance and ethics and his success in business and football.
- Secondly, SAFA had an extremely successful football weekend with Bafana Bafana beating Sao Tome 2-0 in AFCON qualifier, Banyana Banyana winning the COSAFA Cup for the fourth time in a row with the team comprising 5 players from u20s. We also had a highly-successful ABC Motsepe finals which delivered a team from rural Eastern Cape, Bizana Pondo Chiefs and Pretoria Callies to the great delight of football great, Lucas Moripe. The two teams will now compete in the Glad Africa.
- South Africa should celebrate these achievements instead of one journalist being obsessed with negativity.
- City Press deliberately ignored the fact that while a club owner was shot and killed, there was no dispute in football but rather in taxi industry where he was a taxi owner. For the record, the ABC Motsepe league has transformed the National First Division (NFD) that is truly national in character with the last winner coming from the Bizana/Ntabankulu area of Alfred Nzo Region. Many players from rural areas now have an opportunity to become professional footballers as a result of the ABC Motsepe league.
- Black achievements are always discredited by this Naspers publication and Timothy Molobi.
(Posted on behalf of SAFA NEC)