The South African Football Association (Safa) will have an emergency national executive committee (NEC) meeting on Sunday to discuss the sudden resignation of its CEO Teboho Motlanthe.
A lawyer by profession, Motlanthe tendered his letter of resignation to Safa president Danny Jordaan on Friday, citing, among other things, that his position was being reduced to that of a clerk.
Since his resignation there have been frantic attempts by Jordaan and his associates to convince Motlanthe to remain in the embattled association.
According to Safa sources, Motlanthe’s resignation letter was not long. “It is very short and straight to the point. He said he was resigning with immediate effect following the discussions that he had with the president, which he didn’t formally include in that letter.”
The Sunday Times has learnt that it was not the first time Motlanthe had resigned. He did the same in December.
“But he rescinded it after they pleaded with him to stay. At that time, he was angry that the president wanted to reduce Safa staff, which also forms part of the reasons he’s resigned now,” a Safa insider told the Sunday Times.
Safa’s emergency committee comprises the Safa president, four vice-presidents — Bennett Bailey, Anastasia Tsichlas, Linda Zwane and Irvin Khoza (who is also chairman of the PSL) — and nine provincial chairpersons.
A virtual NEC meeting, which Safa’s communications manager Mninawa Ntloko denied took place, was apparently held on Friday night where things got heated when Jordaan was asked to read Motlanthe’s letter of resignation.
Jordaan still wants to have a meeting with Motlanthe to convince him to stay. “Jordaan will meet Motlanthe tonight (last night) to discuss the matter (his resignation) further and details of their conversation will be communicated after the meeting of the emergency committee on Sunday,” Safa confirmed in a statement on Saturday.
The following are among the reasons Motlanthe resigned, as told to the Sunday Times by Safa insiders:
- Motlanthe was angry that cameras were installed in his office without his consent or knowledge, and was then asked to sign a huge instalment bill against his will.
- He felt that he has been reduced to a mere clerk, where Jordaan makes all the decisions and only asks the CEO to append his signature so that when things come back he (Jordaan) will say: “It’s not me but the CEO.”
- Motlanthe was uncomfortable that Jordaan was again planning to retrench people from what is already a skeleton staff. (Safa currently has 59 full-time staff members, reduced from 200 three years ago. Safa has had three retrenchment processes in the past five years but has a staggering 50 NEC members, which is one of the biggest in the world.)
- Safa recently spent hundreds of thousands of rands hosting a Safa congress attended by more than 300 delegates flown from all over the country, housed and fed at the five-star Emperors Palace.
- The 2027 Fifa Women’s World Cup bid led by Jordaan is for him to remain in power, having stated this would be his last stay as Safa president.
Motlanthe was appointed in January 2021 after the resignation of Gay Mokoena in June 2020. Mokoena had also complained about Jordaan not giving him room to operate as Safa’s accounting officer.
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