Parliament told of alleged fraud in SAFA regional elections - SASCOC urged to step in

SAFA Vice-President Bennet Bailey alleged regional elections irregularities in the Sarah Baartman region in the Eastern Cape this past weekend. He says two SAFA NEC members, Mzimkhulu Fina and Chris Tyhawana, aligned to the Football Transformation Forum (FTF), arrived at the regional elections with auditors’ vetting forms and results without the auditors’ presence in the congress. 

Bailey alleges that these vetting results excluded candidates who do not support SAFA President Danny Jordaan’s re-election...

"The elections were supposed to take place on Saturday, but SAFA via our CEO deployed two people who are not part of the membership committee. These nominations were sent to the audit firm, but mysteriously the audit firm said on Saturday that they are not available to attend. The delegates who were in attendance submitted their proof that the document produced by the auditing firm is wrong. Mzimkhulu Fina and Chris Tyhawana argued that it should be accepted and that the elections will be conducted according to that document, but the LFA stood their ground."

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Sarah Baartman is one of the eight regions in the EC, the second biggest province for SAFA in terms of regions after KwaZulu-Natal (11 regions). Bailey, who is part of Save Our SAFA (SOS) lobby group behind AmaZulu owner Sandile Zungu’s campaign, went on to explain that the auditors have disowned those vetting forms, and says a case has since been opened with the police.

SABC Sport recently had an interview with the Chairperson of the Save Our SAFA (SAFA) Lebogang Riet, the lobby group behind Zungu’s presidential campaign, where he complained about regional elections being stolen. 

He revealed that they had sent letters to SASCOC, CAF and FIFA to intervene but there was no response. Today, Bailey reiterated those words and said the elections won’t be free and fair.

Portfolio Committee member Marlon Daniels of Patriotic Alliance stopped short of saying these elections won’t be free and fair. He questioned why SASCOC has not been responding to letters from the SOS, questioning impartiality in this matter...

"This is not healthy and I want to know what role SACOC is going to play because I'm disturbed, but not surprised that SASCOC did not respond to communication sent to them. If memory serves me well, we had the same challenges the last time we had another federation here and SACOC were dragging their feet. I see the same movie playing out and I see SACOC doing what they usually do, which is not standing up and being firm. The upcoming SAFA elections is a mess and it may not be fair, and if that's the case it will be hijacked."

The SAFA elections are only three weeks away from now (12 September 2026) and the SAFA Governance Committee is expected to announce the names of the people who will be eligible for the elections on Friday. 

The 52 SAFA regions, the 11 association members and the National Soccer League (NSL) as the special member, will send delegations to vote at the SAFA Congress.