No suspensions after record 15-hour SAFA NEC meeting

The long-awaited SAFA NEC meeting that had previously been postponed finally took place at SAFA House in Nasrec at 14:00 on Friday until 05:00 on Saturday morning. 

The agenda included motions that SAFA president Danny Jordaan and Chief Financial Officer, Grony Hluyo, should step aside following their arrest and fraud and corruption charges last year, but this was unsuccessful as Jordaan preached unity.

"The way SAFA operates is that people must make a proposal and then we vote, and nobody is suspended or nobody has to step aside," said Jordaan.

"All of those matters were dealt with and concluded, so we came in together, united, and we left together, and I'm happy."

Another motion raised by some members was to suspend CEO Lydia Monyepao for her own failure to suspend Jordaan and Hluyo following their arrest, but this too failed to win the vote.

Meanwhile, plenty of attention was on the violation of the SAFA’s communication policy, with NEC members Gladwin White, Monde Montshiwa, Bhudda Mathate, and Lebogang Riet accused of commenting publicly on organisation matters without permission.

SABC Sport understands the quartet was ultimately not charged, with Jordaan saying they are now helping the NEC members to better understand the policy.

"It's very important, but of course we also had to explain that there are certain things that members misunderstood, so we asked the CEO [Monyepao] to exchange correspondence on these matters on a regular basis," he added.

"Because a lack of information was a big problem, and sometimes when people sit out, they don't have information and they make the wrong conclusions, so it's better that we all get together in one room and deal with any issues that may be there."

Since the arrests on 13 November last year, the SAFA NEC has been divided with one faction calling for Jordaan and Hluyo to step aside while attending to their legal matters, and the other arguing that there’s no need for such.

The president said, despite the marathon meeting, they fleshed out a lot of issues.

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