SAFA Constitution precludes Jordaan from staying on as President 

19 May 2015

The President of the South African Football Association (SAFA), Dr Danny Jordaan, has been deployed as the new ANC mayoral candidate for Port Elizabeth, to be confirmed at the next council meeting.

The DA is concerned that this will compromise the principle of independence that is required for fulfilling his role as an office bearer of SAFA.

Article 3.1 of the SAFA Constitution expressly stipulates: "SAFA is neutral in matters of politics and religion". 

As President of SAFA, Dr Jordaan must exemplify the principled application of SAFA's Constitution and its regulations.

His deployment as a cadre of the ANC to a highly volatile political arena when SAFA is just recovering from a lengthy period of instability, does not bode well for the continued recovery of SAFA, which requires stable leadership at SAFA House.

The reality is that by occupying both roles in the lead up to the 2016 local government elections, Dr Jordaan will become the most politically partisan sport administrator in the country. This will, no doubt, be to the detriment of fair and dedicated football administration and should have been considered before Dr Jordaan accepted the mayoralty.

It will be curious to see how Dr. Jordaan will deal with this situation which clearly rises to the level of a conflict of interest when his party's policies clash with those of SAFA, CAF and FIFA.

Given that he has taken the decision to become a full time politician, Dr Jordaan must do the honourable thing and recuse himself from the presidency of SAFA to salvage the political independence of the body. SAFA cannot be seen to be neutral when it's President is a political deployee of the ANC.

Statement issued by Solly Malatsi MP, DA Shadow Minister of Sports and Recreation, May 19 2015