Sandile Zungu confident he has the numbers to win SAFA elections

The SAFA elections will take place in Johannesburg this coming Saturday, and it pits Zungu against the incumbent Danny Jordaan for the top seat. 

To win the elections, you need at least 28 of the 52 regions, and Zungu believes that they have done more than enough to win the regions over.

"The campaign to elevate me to president of SAFA commenced well before I was roped in to become the face of it. It's led by a formidable group of individuals leading regions and serving in the NEC, some of them,” said Zungu.

“It's deeply embedded, when the campaign started we counted that the regions that we commanded were quite significant, feisty but possibly in the minority. We did not believe that our counterpart was necessarily commanding the majority either. 

“In actual fact we believe that he commanded less than ours but there were a lot of regions who were in the middle who we call swing regions. 

“We have done remarkable work to win the confidence and support of those swing regions. We have even done greater work to penetrate the no-go areas so to say. We are very confident that victory is certain, come the 12th of September."

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This past weekend, there was a show of force from Jordaan and his camp, as they paraded pictures from KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape endorsements with regional leadership. 

But Zungu is unfazed and says they are aiming much higher than 50 plus one, and has also thanked regions that have been bold about their support for him, with some remaining underground for fear of victimisation.

"Fifty plus one is too low in ambition, we are aiming for much higher than that. It must be a clean sweep, by the way, we are not just talking about the regions, we are talking about winning the hearts and minds of NEC members who will be voting this time around,” he added. 

“We're talking about winning the support of associate members and special members and we believe if we add all of that, we may as well begin victory celebrations, so we are very confident. 

“On that note I want to thank people who have come out in the open, I said to some of them, they didn't have to come out and declare support for Zungu because we know the reactions can be quite harsh, suspensions and so on. They didn't have to but they have come out because they believe so strongly in our campaign."