The president, as head of administration, is the only person in South Africa with the power to appoint a judicial commission of inquiry and decide the people who form part of it, as well as its time frame.
After its national executive committee meeting on Saturday night, Safa insisted no (local) past or present soccer administrators should be part of the commission, adding that the commission would only deal with matches played by Bafana Bafana in the build-up to the 2010 World Cup.
Fifa ethics committee chairman Michael Garcia was the only football person Safa wants on the commission, which has its basis in Friday’s milestone agreement in Zurich, where it was decided that the South African government will set up the commission.
The agreement was reached between Sport and Recreation Minister Fikile Mbalula, Fifa general secretary Jerome Valcke and Safa president Kirsten Nematandani.
“The issue of appointing an independent commission of inquiry as per the agreement between ourselves, the minister of sport and Fifa secretary-general was unanimously endorsed by the Safa executive committee,” said Nematandani after the national executive committee meeting on Saturday night.
In a statement released after the meeting, Safa said its executive committee also agreed that the independent judicial commission of inquiry should complete its work within a period of three months from the date of establishment.
“The commission must submit its final report to the president of the Republic of South Africa within a period of one month after the date on which the commission completes its work,” added the statement, which has not gone down well with senior government officials.
They argue Safa was not supposed to come up with conditions, with one of them saying “it is like Safa are telling President Zuma what to do. Safa are now coming up with all sorts of demands and deadlines.”
Mbalula’s spokesman Paena Galane said: “We are aware Safa had an NEC meeting on Saturday and we are waiting for them to tell us the outcome of the meeting. We can’t comment on what we read in the media.”
