McKenzie launches investigation into SAFA governance

Sport Minister, Gayton McKenzie, says he will launch a forensic investigation into the governance and financial affairs of the South African Football Association (SAFA).

SAFA has been plagued with financial and governance issues, which have culminated in the association’s President, Danny Jordaan, and Chief Financial Officer, Gronie Hluyo, being arrested last month for allegedly defrauding the association of R1.3m.

Just last week, McKenzie’s department had to step in to rescue the beleaguered SAFA with a R5m advance on its 2025 grant so the organisation can pay Bafana Bafana and Banyana Banyana bonuses and staff salaries, which had been unpaid for months.

“SAFA is doing a great injustice to our football for not paying the players who have qualified for tournaments. People must be paid for work done and that is not happening. Second, what does it say about our country if you can’t pay people?” asked Minister McKenzie.

He has vowed to come down hard on the association.

“We are going to have a forensic investigation, and I don’t think FIFA will be angry because we must find out what is really happening there,” McKenzie told journalists in Johannesburg.

“Why is it that rugby and cricket players don’t struggle for their money? I am investigating them now,” he added.

[WATCH] Sport Minister Gayton McKenzie says a forensic investigation will be launched into the governance of SAFA.

The Minister also says his meeting with FIFA President Gianni Infantino on SAFA President Danny Jordaan is close to happening.

“What SAFA is doing is an injustice” pic.twitter.com/hcgFosMg3d

— Ntsako Mkhari (@Ntsako_Mkhari_) December 18, 2024

“SAFA doesn’t understand what I have done now [advancing them the R5m], I didn’t just give them money. It was earmarked for them already, this R5m they were going to get anyway in April.”