Sandile Zungu’s bid to unseat Danny Jordaan as South African Football Association (Safa) president is gathering significant support among regional structures, according to key figures in his campaign, who also allege that regions are being “victimised” ahead of September’s elective congress.
Zungu, the billionaire businessman and AmaZulu owner, officially launched his presidential campaign at Emperors Palace in Johannesburg on Saturday, with his supporters insisting a majority inside Safa are unhappy with the current leadership.
The election is scheduled for 13 September, with Safa’s 52 regions forming the main voting bloc. Members aligned to Zungu claim those regions that have distanced themselves from Jordaan are now facing pressure and intimidation.
Lebogang Riet, a Safa national executive committee (NEC) member and a founding figure in the Save Our Safa (SOS) lobby group backing Zungu, said the mood inside the association had shifted.
“Actually, to be honest, it’s a majority that are not happy with how Safa is run, inside Safa,” Riet said. “Where we live is a world where we are victimised for standing up and saying when things are wrong.
“But if you look at where we come from [in SOS’s origins] and look at the number of regions that are not happy but saying, ‘We support what you are doing but we can’t do this’ [go along with it], it is actually overwhelming.”
Jordaan facing fraud charges
Jordaan, a former Safa chief executive who later headed the local organising committee for the 2010 Fifa World Cup, became Safa president in 2013 and has since been re-elected twice.
He is currently facing charges of fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud relating to R1.3m of Safa funds. He has previously denied any wrongdoing.
Jordaan’s 2018 re-election followed the withdrawal of challenger Ace Ncobo, while in 2022 he won by a landslide against Ria Ledwaba. Both losing camps alleged irregularities in processes that, they argued, favoured the incumbent.
Ncobo claimed Safa’s constitution had been “butchered” to suit Jordaan’s agenda. Ledwaba alleged intimidation of regions and criticised what she described as an already “bloated” NEC being extended to influence voting. She later took the outcome to court, but her challenge failed.
Eligibility battle looms for Zungu
Zungu’s own candidacy remains subject to scrutiny by Safa’s ethics committee, which must decide whether he meets the constitutional criteria to stand.
A controversial amendment, Article 30.4, stipulates that presidential candidates must have at least 10 years’ administrative experience within Safa’s structures – a change that critics argue effectively entrenches the existing leadership.
Zungu has argued that his service on Safa’s remunerations committee should qualify him under the rule.
Bennett Bailey, Safa vice-president and president of Safa Cape Town, was initially preparing to run against Jordaan before withdrawing to support Zungu.
“When we got [towards] our elections it was still only one person who was going to run for a fourth term,” Bailey said. “I said, ‘No, this is not what South African football needs.’ It needs change. And it does not just need a change of faces, it needs a change of direction, of the football philosophy, and we need emphasis.
“And to get emphasis, you need change. The same person doing the same thing over and again is not going to work.”
Bailey, who leads what he describes as the country’s largest football district with 134,000 members, said he had been confident he could transfer his local success to national level, but changed course once Zungu entered the race.
“But then when Sandile Zungu raised his hand, I said, ‘That is a man I can follow.’ So when you say I abandoned the campaign no. It is a change of direction, change of strategy and now we have a new face we can support.”
He added that Zungu’s team is prepared to contest any move to block his candidacy.
“We’ve got legal backing. We can say that out there, we’ve got senior people on our side. And if you want to come for us, come, we are ready.”
Allegations of ‘victimisation’ in the regions
Riet said a recent Safa congress, at which delegates rejected proposed constitutional changes that he claimed were designed to favour the leadership’s preferred candidate, had emboldened opponents of the current administration.
“If you look at the last congress, the Safa leadership wanted to change the constitution to favour their candidate and the regions said no,” he explained. “It’s the first time a Safa congress was actually won by another team to say, ‘No, we know there are problems with our constitution but we are not going to allow you to fiddle with the process.’
“And that has actually rattled a lot of people. It was actually there that people thought, ‘These people are not as few as we thought.’”
Riet argued the main issue now was not bribery, but pressure on those who resist changes viewed as pro-Jordaan.
“We can say there is not an element of corruption more than an element of victimisation. Our regions are now victimised because they have voted against the changes, because they are seen to stand in the middle.
“If you stand in the middle then you are also a danger because they believe you are also not on their side.”
He described the build-up to the election as a “war” inside the organisation.
“So many people are starting to see that this thing is not going to fly,” Riet said. “It’s not going to be easy, we agree to that, but there are a lot of regions feeling that ‘what is being done to you can be done to me, so we cannot support this any more.’”
High-profile backing for Zungu
Zungu’s campaign launch showcased several prominent football and cultural figures.
Among those in attendance were Safa NEC and regional officials, vice-president Bailey, former vice-president Gladwyn White, ex-Bafana Bafana captains Lucas Radebe and Thulani Hlatshwayo, and the poet Mzwakhe Mbuli.
Radebe and White were both initially considered as potential SOS-backed candidates before the lobby group coalesced around Zungu.
“When this [SOS] idea was hatched, I think some two years ago, we were just a few regions and a few NEC members who were not happy about how things are done,” Riet said. “We started having our own meetings and later we were joined by some other regions.”
After compiling documents outlining their vision for a reformed Safa, the group sounded out four possible leaders in a series of one-to-one discussions.
“They all reflected and saw a vision in what we were trying to do, but at the end we had to have one from the four,” Riet said. “We had to agree to say, ‘Let us put all our causes behind one leader.’”
Co-ordinating opposition to the current leadership has often meant operating discreetly, Riet added.
“Much of the time we had to work underground because there are a lot of regions that are still troubled for standing up. Some of us had to brave up to show we can face this and still come out.
“We are here today with Ntate Zungu being raised by the regions that were there at the start.”
Bailey, meanwhile, played down continued debate around Zungu’s eligibility under Article 30.4.
“I think the eligibility issue has been covered extensively. I think president Zungu already said that those people who do the vetting, let’s leave it to them. Let’s not speculate about things that are really unnecessary.”
Safa has yet to publicly confirm the final list of candidates for the presidency ahead of the September congress.
