Shoes steps forward
SOUTH African Football Association (Safa) vice-president Mandla “Shoes” Mazibuko will go head-to-head with Danny Jordaan for the presidency of the football governing body.
The Safa elections on September 28 will be a two-horse race following Premier Soccer League and Orlando Pirates chairman Irvin Khoza’s announcement that he will not stand for the top job.
Mazibuko’s name is in auditing firm KPMG’s confirmation of the nomination list.
He was asked to step in after Khoza — whom he had been trying to convince to run — ended weeks of speculation and officially announced that he would not stand due to the clause in the mother body’s constitution that precludes anyone from holding the Safa president’s position while also holding an interest in a club.
Khoza had been nominated by the Safa regions. But on Friday
This election should have never been about personalities
he decided against running as he felt his ‘‘standing at this stage will create a negativity that I can’t afford to bring to football.”
Current Safa president Kirsten Nematandani was not nominated and withdrew.
Mazibuko told the Sunday Times yesterday that South African football has lost its way over the past few years and this is one reason why Bafana Bafana struggle to qualify for the World Cup and the Africa Nations Cup.
Bafana’s qualifying campaign for the 2014 Fifa World Cup hangs by a thread and Mazibuko said such is the decline of the sport that there is the possibility the national team could embarrass the nation in Brazil if Gordon Igesund’s charges qualify.
‘‘We can hardly qualify for the [Africa Nations Cup] in Angola or even Equatorial Guinea because we do not do the basics right. Our focus is total com- mitment to football. In short, we need to re-engineer football in this country,” Mazibuko said.
‘‘We are not going to be worried by whether we go to Brazil or not. Taking who to do what [in Brazil]? We want to go back to basics and all the structures have to be aligned with all the stakeholders. This thing of club versus country is mainly due to the fact that we are not doing the basics right.”
In the aftermath of this week’s deadline for nominations, confusion remained over Chief Mwelo Nonkonyana’s allegiance and there was still no clarity yesterday whether the Safa vice-president is loyal to either Jordaan or Mazibuko.
Nonkonyana was originally believed to be part of Mazibuko’s delegation and eyebrows were raised when his name appeared on the Jordaan camp’s nomination list this week.
After agreeing to clarify his position yesterday, Nonkonyana — who told the Sunday Times he was attending a funeral in the Eastern Cape — reneged and would not commit himself.
Safa national executive committee member Mzwandile Maforvane — who has spoken on behalf of Jordaan in the lead up to the elections — said he could see how Nonkonyana’s seeming reluctance to commit himself would be confusing and he hoped the Safa vice-president would put the matter to rest at a press conference in Johannesburg tomorrow.
‘‘Chief (Nonkonyana) was part of the meeting when we finalised our nomination list on Monday and he accepted the nomination from the regions,” Maforvane said.
‘‘He insisted that he was committed to us and that he would release a statement that would not reflect any contradiction on his part.”
Maforvane conceded that the election race has been divisive and an attempt should be made by all factions to begin healing.
‘‘This election should have never been personalised or been about personalities.
“It should have been about the greater good of the sport and taking South African football forward,” Maforvane said.