Johannesburg - The South African Football Association (Safa) look set to avoid having Sascoc conducting a forensic audit into their affairs.
The country’s football governing body will on Wednesday meet with the Sascoc board and The Star has been informed that a compromise might be reached between the two parties.
“It looks like they will appoint a three-man team to work with Safa around their finances,” said a source close to the affair who requested not to be named.
“So there might not be an audit after all.”
The audit came about after Sascoc were instructed by the Hawks to conduct an investigation into Safa’s financial affairs. This after Sascoc received a dossier that detailed some irregularities within the football association.
The audit has yet to take place, and in between there have been some exchanges between the two bodies. In one, Safa’s chief executive officer, Dennis Mumble, writing to his Sascoc counterpart, Tubby Reddy, accused the umbrella body for sport in South Africa of essentially “messing” with Safa’s name.
Safa are said to have sought government protection, which is suspected to be the reason for the audit being called off in favour of the two “working together to get to the bottom of things”.
In a letter to Reddy, Mumble suggested he would go over Sascoc’s head. “Your decision (to audit) runs counter to the audi alteram partem rule prevalent in all societies around the world.
“Our national executive committee have therefore decided to raise this matter sharply with the relevant authorities and challenge your connivance with the law enforcement structures to bring the association into disrepute,” said a part of Mumble’s letter to Reddy, which The Star have in their possession.
Safa apparently think the audit has to do with the 2010 World Cup finances, but according to The Star’s source, that is not the case.
We understand Safa have recently approached the government, asking them to apply pressure to put an end to the audit.
Efforts to obtain comments from Mumble as well as Safa president Danny Jordaan proved futile.
Sascoc are said to be divided on the matter of the audit, with president Gideon Sam apparently in favour of scrapping it.
The majority of the Sascoc board, however, are in favour of the audit but indications are Safa will come out of Wednesday’s meeting smiling.
The Star