Baxter's salary is 'no one's business'

New Bafana Bafana coach Stuart Baxter is either earning the same or less than his predecessor, Shakes Mashaba, SA Football Association (Safa) president Danny Jordaan has intimated.

Briefing parliament's sports and recreation portfolio committee yesterday, Jordaan denied rumours that Baxter would earn R1-million a month or that he had demanded that his son, Lee, be appointed a goalkeeping coach with the national team.

"Did Baxter make a demand that [his son must be a goalkeeper coach]? No. Is Baxter getting R1-million a month? No. Is Baxter getting more than Shakes Mashaba? No," he said.

Jordaan refused to reveal Baxter's salary on the basis that it is confidential. Mashaba's R583000-a-month package became public knowledge during the previous coach's CCMA hearing against his dismissal by Safa, which is still under way.

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Baxter was named by Safa as the new Bafana Bafana coach earlier this month for his second stint.

At yesterday's briefing, both Jordaan and Safa CEO Dennis Mumble flatly refused to reveal the exact amount paid to Baxter despite repeated requests by DA MP Tsepo Mhlongo.

"We have not published any salaries of any of our staff, including the former coach. What you read in the papers ... they are throwing around figures that have no basis in reality," said Mumble.

He said Baxter's salary was a contractual matter and that the two parties had signed a confidentiality clause in that regard.

Jordaan said MPs who wanted to view Baxter's salary could visit Safa House and sign a non-disclosure agreement before seeing the new coach's package.

The two were responding to Mhlongo, who had said Mashaba's salary was known to the public.

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"[In their presentation Safa is] talking about transparency and accountability and I fail to understand when we ask about the present national coach, that you don't get actual figures," said Mhlongo.

He said he understood the clause but they still needed to know the actual salary of the new coach.

Jordaan also flatly refused to answer questions about Mashaba's departure, saying he could only brief either the chair or the committee during a closed meeting.

"There are other issues that we don't want to talk about, but we can brief you privately on the kind of problem that arose.

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"You always have to look at your players and the best interest of your players and ... what issues they have," he said.

He said Safa took time to appoint a new coach because the top three coaches it had approached were all employed and had to serve notice with their clubs.

- TMG Digital