Gay Mokoena stepped down as CEO of the South African Football Association (Safa) last week, almost five months after being appointed to the position on an interim basis.
When Mokoena was appointed in November 2019, Safa said the role was for three months.
Now, Mokoena alleged Safa president Danny Jordaan was actually the one who requested him to vacate the position in what has been deemed as an explosive letter by the former acting CEO.
The country's FA admitted to receiving Mokoena's letter without going into detail but said the now-NEC member went about expressing his grievances the wrong way.
Safa said the letter was yet to be tabled and discussed by the NEC which is the highest decision-making body in the organisation.
The association further denied Mokoena's allegations that Jordaan was contravening company rules, saying the former acting CEO never raised the issue on his 'report' during his tenure.
Lastly, Safa pledged its full support and confidence in the leadership of Jordaan.
Below is the statement as released by Safa:
It is with disappointment that we have noticed that a confidential letter by former Acting CEO, Mr. Gay Mokoena to be tabled and discussed by the NEC, has been circulated to the media even before the Association had the opportunity to develop a response.
We want to reiterate that a detailed response will arise out of a discussion at an NEC meeting first. However, we want to note the following:
- The Association’s normal process and protocol to submit reports and documents to the NEC are through Safa Sub-Committees, Administration and/or through the President. That was not the case in this instant as the report was submitted directly to NEC members by Mr. Mokoena.
- The former acting CEO has not, in the 4 months he held the position, in his tenure as the NEC member, Chair of Finance Committee and the time he has been the Vice-President, raised the issues on his ‘Report’ nor has he submitted a single statement, grievance, terms of engagement or his contract to NEC members.
- Mr Mokoena was appointed to stabilize the operations of the association, enable the NEC to complete the process of appointing a new CEO and to ensure the resolutions of the NEC are properly interpreted and implemented by management.
In the meantime, the management of Safa considered the impact of Covid-19 on the financial environment in which sport operates, and these recommendations were circulated to NEC members and the majority of the NEC members supported the recommendations.
- That all persons whose contracts terminated at the end of March should be removed from the payroll.
- That all month-to-month workers should also be removed from the payroll.
- That no temporary staff will be employed or be on the payroll during this period.
It was also noted that all staff members received their March and April salaries, with the April payroll taking the abovementioned considerations into account.
The Safa staff have been ordered to stay at home from 26 March and will remain at home until when it is safe to return to work.
It is obvious that there is no football activity and therefore no operations during the period of lockdown and SAFA cannot fill positions and pay most staff when not necessary to do so.
The CFO is providing essential service during this lockdown as he has the responsibility to pay Safa suppliers and collect revenue due to SAFA and he is continuing to carry out his responsibilities.
It is also important to note that Gronie Hluyo has been the CFO for more than 20 years.
SAFA has not appointed any other staff member nor did the management recommend any retrenchment of staff.
The NEC wishes to express its continuous support and confidence in the leadership of Dr Danny Jordaan as the President of the Association.
