Jordaan must choose: is he mayor or SAFA boss‚ says DA

The DA has accused SAFA President Danny Jordaan of lying and neglecting his job as the football association’s boss.

Jordaan’s “attempts to dismiss as ‘a non-issue’ his no-show at last week’s FIFA congress is completely disingenuous to say the least”‚ the party’s Shadow Minister of Sport‚ Solly Malatsi‚ said in a statement on Monday.

“Jordaan attempted to explain his absence from the FIFA congress by citing his involvement in budget week‚ questioning why he should ‘rather sit in a football meeting’. This shows a clear disregard for his role at SAFA‚” Malatsi said of Jordaan‚ who is also the mayor of Port Elizabeth.

“I will therefore request that Jordaan appears before the Portfolio Committee on Sport in order to make it clear once and for all where his loyalties lie.”

The DA said the top three SAFA officials had all failed to attend the FIFA special executive meeting on Friday. “It is highly questionable that three members of the delegation – including Jordaan‚ Irvin Khoza and Molefi Oliphant – all seemingly cancelled their plans to attend the congress at the last minute. Both Khoza and Oliphant cited family commitments for doing so in an odd coincidence.

“Given that the dates for budget week have been available for months‚ these last minute cancellations are curious - more so considering that Jordaan has now skipped two important successive FIFA meetings‚ both since the US Attorney-General identified two South Africans as co-conspirators in the 2010 World Cup bribery allegations.

“But one thing is clear. If Jordaan is using his mayoral obligations as an excuse to skip out on his SAFA duties‚ he is clearly trying to juggle too many balls at once and not succeeding in doing so.”