CAF’concerned’ about the raid by Hawks on Safa House

The Confederation of African Football (Caf) has raised concern after a raid last week by the Hawks’ serious commercial crime investigation unit on the offices of the SA Football Association in Johannesburg in connection with allegations of fraud and theft involving R1.3m allegedly linked to Safa president Danny Jordaan.

In a statement sent to the media on Saturday, Caf which is led by South African billionaire Patrice Motsepe, said: “Caf is concerned about the respect and image of football in South Africa following the raid at Safa’s headquarters.

“Caf is looking into this matter based on and in accordance with the Caf and Fifa statutes and regulations and has requested Safa to provide it with a report indicating that Safa and its president Jordaan at no stage and under no circumstances violated or breached the Caf and Fifa statutes and regulations.”

The Hawks named Jordaan as the person they were investigating in a case involving R1.3m which they claimed was used without the approval of the association.

At the time Caf issued their statement on Saturday, Safa were having an NEC meeting at Safa House and the Hawks raid at their offices was one of the issues they were expected to discuss.

“While the allegations made by the Hawks are serious, in line with international legal principles and jurisprudence, Safa and Jordaan are presumed to be innocent until an appropriate judicial body concludes otherwise. Caf has also requested Safa to provide it with other information or facts which Safa and Jordaan would like to bring to the attention of Caf,” Caf said.

Safa threatened to sue the Hawks for naming Jordaan as someone they were investigating.

“We will further institute civil action for defamation of character against those involved in the naming of the Safa president’s name in an ongoing investigation. We contend that this is unethical and unlawful as the police never mentioned anyone’s name in matters that are under investigation.

“We believe, unfortunately, that these members of the police have been compromised and are being used in the callous abuse of state resources. Let us reiterate: there is no money missing from Safa.

“As a result of this, we have instructed our attorneys to bring an urgent application to review and set aside this search and seizure. We have further instructed our attorneys to bring a formal complaint to the oversight arbitrator of the Hawks regarding the action of all involved members,” Safa said in a statement last week.

Hawks spokesperson Col Katlego Mogale confirmed that the allegations “are that between 2014 and 2018 the president of Safa [Jordaan] used the organisation’s resources for his personal gain, including hiring a private security company for personal protection and a public relations company without the authorisation of the Safa board”.

“The president is also reported to have violated Safa statutes thus prejudicing Safa an actual loss of R1.3m,” Mogale said in a statement.

During the raid, a laptop, external hard drives, a USB drive and documents were seized.