By McGeorge Mbare
The South African Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Gayton McKenzie has lambasted the South African Football Association (SAFA) for failure to pay SA’s senior national teams, Banyana Banyana and Bafana Bafana‘s match appearance fees.
McKenzie’s blasting of SAFA follows news that SAFA owes Bafana players and staff for the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers from September until their last qualification matches played in November.
In a statement, Minister McKenzie highlighted that the Ministry released R5 million to SAFA last week for Banyana Banyana and Bafana Bafana ‘s match fees however it will come with conditions and one of those is forensic investigation to be carried out by the Ministry against SAFA.
“SAFA is doing a great injustice to our football because once you don’t pay the players, these players are qualified(to AFCON 2025). There’s two issues here people don’t see, the fact that people deserve to be paid for work done, that’s not happening. Secondly, what does it say about the country if (we) can’t pay ?”McKenzie said.
McKenzie is ordering a forensic probe into SAFA ‘s financial department after giving them R5 million to pay the players.
“Once you take my money as the Minister, we have a right to say something .So if FIFA ask me, we are talking about the money we gave them .?So now we can investigate there, “ McKenzie added.
SAFA ‘s financial woes have been compounded by legal challenges facing its President Danny Jordaan. He was arrested last month on charges of fraud and theft ,accused of misappropriating approximately R1,3 million of SAFA funds diverting it for personal use.