So, Bra Danny Jordaan will get another four years in charge of the South African Football Association (Safa), but where are we going?
The grootman won with a clear majority at the Safa Elections this past Saturday, his challengers Mme Ria Ledwaba and Bra Solly Mohlabeng only getting 27 and eight votes respectively to his 186.
The grootman didn’t even publicly declare what his vision and manifesto was leading up to the elections, while Mme Ria and Bra Solly were out there saying whatever they needed to say to convince the public about their vision and plans to “make SAFA better”.
Bra Danny said nothing and yet he’s the one Safa people have re-elected with a clear majority that can’t even be challenged via the backdoor.
So what happened? Well, the people that matter voted and the people that mattered in this case were the Safa LFA and Regional leaders who had the voting power on the day.
One of those people who mattered was Safa Cape Town president Bennett Bailey, he used his vote on Bra Danny and his reward was that he retained his seat in the Safa National Executive.
There’s very little anybody can do to change the outcome of the elections, it doesn’t matter what anybody says or does from here on, Bra Danny is in charge until 2026.
So where are we going as a football nation now, since Bra Danny’s Vision 2022 has failed?
Bailey is clear in his response: “It’s up to you, the media, to investigate”.
The Safa CT President admits that their communication is not up to scratch, “but the media must do their job and investigate instead of waiting on us to give them the information.
“The information is there, but the media has chosen sides and they have been against Danny the whole time. All the reporting was negative against Danny instead of reporting fairly about the elections.”
So is there going to be a Vision 2026 or 2030 this time around?
Bailey says: “That’s all from the media. We haven’t said anything.”
And I think that’s where the problems start between Safa and the media, there’s nothing for the media to hold the organisation on.
The media even clashed with some members of the NEC who said that they were defending “their leader (Danny Jordaan)” on the day of the elections.
The failures of Vision 2022 are well-documented and it’s all there on the Safa website for everyone to read and see that the organisation is nowhere near achieving what was set out in that vision.
Bailey adds: “We will address all that , but you see, the media mustn’t jump the gun. The media mustn’t paint a picture of Safa being led by ‘uneducated’ people. Safa is full of very smart people, we have judges within Safa that’s why we won against those people who have tried to take us to court. We have accountants, teachers and all kinds of people with respectable professions serving within Safa. We are not a bunch of stupid people who know nothing which what we see being reported by the media.”
Bailey adds that things are made more difficult because most of Safa’s Regions and LFAs “don’t have offices” to communicate all their activities.
Safa Cape Town has been in a battle against the City of Cape Town who kicked them out of their Athlone Stadium office.
He explains: “For almost five years now, they’ve been saying they are ‘rezoning’ the stadium. “They are saying that we can use the stadium to play football but we cannot operate from there but they are calling it ‘the home of football’.
“Most of Safa operates from garages and cars, and the media is not telling that side of the story. The media is not telling the people about our challenges and helping us fix them. The media want to wait until something goes wrong and they jump on that and make it seem like everything is wrong.
“Facilities are ruined all around Cape Town and the Western Cape, and they blame Safa for that. How is that our fault? What is the media saying about that?”
There’s not much else that can be said about Safa’s failures, especially when measured against Vision 2022.
It also sounds like it’s pointless to do that as well because “Danny is going nowhere” according to Bailey.
dailyvoice@inl.co.za