For the first time since the battle for the soul of SAFA began a few months ago and in the countdown to the 12 September conference, presidential candidate Sandile Zungu directly accused his rival, Danny Jordaan, of attempting to rig the forthcoming elections. Employing hitherto unprecedented and vitriolic language, Zungu charged that “there is an attempt at destabilising SAFA regions and this will not succeed; there is an attempt at committing electoral fraud and that will not succeed; and worse still, a charge was laid in the Northern Cape against the Safa president Danny Jordaan and the SAFA CEO”.
These are serious allegations made by billionaire businessman and owner of AmaZulu FC against the current leadership of SAFA led by the embattled and controversial veteran administrator Danny Jordaan.
In a packed media conference yesterday in Sandton, Zungu took no prisoners in attacking Jordaan and his administration for incompetence, failure and possible corruption at a time when the SAFA president is still in court for fraud charges relating to SAFA funds. Zungu also raised the issue of the VAR technology that has dominated the headlines in the last few weeks.
It was only last week that Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture, Gayton McKenzie, lashed out at SAFA for failing to deliver the much-needed technology to improve refereeing decisions in South African football. The straight talking Minister who never hesitates to express his feelings, revealed to the media that he had donated R30 million to SAFA and that nothing had come out of his generous offer and demanded a refund.
Sandile Zungu also promised that after his victory on Saturday, the first item on his agenda on arrival at SAFA House, that SAFA would fire those who have up to now failed to pay the bonuses of Bafana Bafana players and technical staff that participated in the FIFA World Cup in June/July 2026 in North America. After Zungu’s threatening statement, SAFA released a statement on its website after the Zungu press conference explaining that tax issues in Mexico and the US were the reason for the delay in payment of bonuses.
In presenting his personal manifesto for the elective conference, Zungu boldly stated that
“the mission of my leadership of SAFA is to ensure that we build a strong foundation and follow through with a development programme that will ensure that South Africa is the Number one football country in Africa and in the Top 10 of world football. Ultimately, Bafana Bafana and Banyana Banyana should in the future win both the AFCON and World Cup tournaments”.
One of the priority areas identified by Zungu is school soccer that he believes to be the real foundation upon which South African football should be built.
“Our schools should serve as a pipeline for professional football and in pursuit of that objective I will ensure that project Schools Football Pilot will be initiated in 2027, my first year in office”.
Billionaire & SAFA Presidential Candidate Sandile Zungu and Author of Ndizani Bafana Bafana Sello Lediga
Addressing the challenges facing SAFA as the national football association, Zungu charged that the organisation was so badly run that most stakeholders had given up, including the private sector whose sponsorship of soccer is sorely needed. He emphasised that governance was the biggest problem and something he would pay attention to in order to deal with the trust deficit between SAFA and business.
Zungu also promised once he takes office all the 52 regions will get a monthly financial injection of R50 000 as they have not been funded at all in the past.
Several soccer luminaries and legends graced the occasion and included former stars Malombo Lechaba, Bhudda Mathate, Mike Ntombela and Thulani Hlatswayo. Even Augusto ‘Professor’ Palacios was seen talking to everyone.
