SAFA suspends four NEC members after the Nasrec brawl

Gladwin White and Emma Hendricks from Northern Cape, Monde Montshiwa and Orapeleng Setlhare from North West, are the four members who have since been suspended by the SAFA Emergency Committee meeting, which sat on Friday night, pending formal charges. 

The four members are alleged to have disrupted the NEC, where the warring factions of the Football Transformation Forum (FTF) and Save Our SAFA (SOS) were seen exchanging heated words before pushing, shoving, and eventually throwing punches. All four members are aligned to SOS. 

At the centre of the dispute was a proposed motion on the meeting’s agenda to suspend several NEC members.

The motion was put forward by NEC member and national convenor of the Football Transformation Forum (FTF), Tankiso Modipa, whose grouping is backing Jordaan for a fourth term in the SAFA presidential elections later this year. SOS is strongly opposed to Jordaan’s fourth-term ambitions. 

The latest move by the SAFA Emergency Committee, which still has to be ratified by the NEC, also follows Minister Gayton McKenzie’s strong words after last weekend’s brawl, and even threatened to report the matter to CAF and FIFA. 

The emergency meeting was also expected to discuss the approval of the 2024/2025 audited annual financial statements, a matter that was also alleged to have been central to the disputes that led to last weekend’s NEC meeting brawl. 

The proposed dates for the Ordinary Congress and Constitutional Congress were also on the agenda for this meeting, as part of preparations for the much-anticipated SAFA elections, possibly around September this year. 

“The South African Football Association (SAFA) Emergency Committee has moved to suspend four members of the National Executive Committee (NEC) with immediate effect following a late-night meeting held in Johannesburg on Friday, 13 March 2026.

This decision will be submitted to the NEC for ratification. Once ratified, the affected members will be issued with formal letters detailing the charges against them.” SAFA confirmed when asked about these latest developments. 

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The suspended members have already indicated that they will challenge the emergency committee’s decision to suspend them, a process that could be lengthy. 

As SAFA builds up to its next elective congress, disputes between NEC members, regions and Local Football Associations (LFA’s) continue to pile up, together with the planned build-up congresses, it’s about to get messy.