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PATRICE Motsepe has been confirmed as the first South African president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
Motsepe, whose candidacy was announced by the SA Football Association (SAFA) in November, stood unopposed at CAF’s 43rd General Assembly in Rabat, Morocco, on Friday. He will serve a four-year term until the next elective congress in 2025.
This came after a deal was concluded over the past month that saw Motsepe’s rivals – Senegal’s Augustin Senghor‚ Mauritanian Ahmed Yahya and Jacques Anouma of Ivory Coast – withdraw their candidacies in exchange for leadership and executive positions. Senghor and Yahya have been offered vice-presidencies‚ and Anouma an advisory role.
Billionaire South African Patrice Motsepe has been confirmed as the first personality from English speaking part of the continent to be elected president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
Motsepe, whose candidacy was announced by the SA Football Association (SAFA) in November, stood unopposed at CAF’s 43rd General Assembly in Rabat, Morocco, on Friday. He will serve a four-year term until the next elective congress in 2025.
Motsepe’s predecessor, Ahmad Ahmad of Madagascar, unseated the 29-year reign of Cameroonian Issa Hayatou in 2017, but was banned from football for five years by FIFA for ethics violations in 2020.
The punishment has been reduced to three years by the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS).
Kaizer Chiefs incurred costs of about R1m as they prepared to travel to Morocco for their CAF Champions League group phase opener against Wydad, Sowetan has established.
25 years later . Bafana Bafana’s Class of ’96 still waiting for Afcon repeat
By Matshelane Mamabolo
JOHANNESBURG - While delighted at still being national football heroes 25 years after they led Bafana Bafana to Africa Cup of Nations glory, Clive Barker and Neil Tovey are saddened that their great feat is yet to be replicated.
Following that success at the biennial continental showpiece back in 1996, South Africa’s senior national team has literally regressed, with qualification for Afcon now as rare as an honest politician.
“I often get asked why is it that there has not been another success like 1996,” Tovey said as he looked back to that glorious Saturday, February 3 at a packed FNB Stadium when Mark Williams came off the bench to score a brace that sunk Tunisia to deliver the title.
George was also a deputy defence minister.
He and former defence minister Mosiuoa Lekota were among a group of breakaway ANC stalwarts who astounded delegates at the Polokwane elective conference of the ANC, making public their intention to serve divorce papers on the party.
This was amid a struggle for power between former presidents Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma.
They were among a group of prominent ANC heavyweights who left in support of Mbeki when Zuma ascended to the presidency of the party.
They resigned from the ANC shortly before their disciplinary hearing.
George went on to become the treasurer-general of the newly formed ANC breakaway the Congress of the People (Cope) in a life filled with achievements and firsts.