SAFA to take legal action against IEC

Cape Town - The South African Football Association (SAFA) announced that it will pursue legal action against the Independent Electoral Committee (IEC) for its refusal to conduct the football body's Presidency Elective Congress.

A statement from SAFA read: The South African Football Association (SAFA) has received numerous enquiries about the status of the planned Elective Congress scheduled for 24 March 2018. Please note that the following steps have been finalised:

 - The process of nominations by SAFA Members has been completed and the list of candidates for the Office of the President of the Association was circulated to Members on 3 March 2018;

 - The SAFA Auditor released further details on Wednesday evening and this was forwarded to the Electoral Committee early on Thursday morning to enable the vetting of candidates;

 - The last step in the process is the actual election which is scheduled for 24 March 2018.

The IEC has for reasons unknown to SAFA decided not to proceed with conducting the elections on 24 March 2018.

SAFA’s Members overwhelmingly voted on 24 August 2013 to appoint the IEC as the Electoral Committee based on its independence and it is very concerning that this decision has now been compromised by the very body that had agreed to conduct a free and fair electoral process.

As of the release of this statement, no reasons were advanced to the Association for their decision and, to our disappointment, we had to learn this through the media. The Association has been trying to engage the IEC Head Office, to no avail.

We believe strongly that the IEC’s action is unethical and unprofessional and shall pursue legal action against it. The Association has been severely prejudiced as a result of this administrative action without an opportunity to respond to whatever complaints may have been lodged about the process.

The decision to call the Elective Congress on 24 March 2018 is the decision of the highest decision making body of the Association; the SAFA Congress and that decision remains.

The Association has also invited representatives from COSAFA, CAF and FIFA to monitor and oversee the election.