On the 30th of October 2018, the PLFA Executive Committee appeared before the SAFA Tshwane Executive Committee to answer for the perceived conduct on the part of PLFA towards the region.
From the last four months, PLFA has led a call within the region for accountability. This started when, on the eve of the SAFA Tshwane’s Ordinary Congress, which was scheduled to be held on the 7th of July 2018, PLFA picked some grave constitutional anomalies. So serious that PLFA sought to ensure that these are identified accordingly, corrected, and for people who are responsible for those to account before the members of the region.
A number of sister LFAs agreed with this view, and thus also saw it fit to do what PLFA sought to do, that is, to request for the Ordinary Congress to be put on hold, and for the Extra Ordinary Congress to be convened in order to correct the discovered anomalies in preparation for the Ordinary Congress. The issues raised by PLFA are listed here-below:
Financial Reporting
disregard Article 72.2 of its Constitution when reporting its finances based on incorrect financial periods. For quite some time SAFA Tshwane has been reporting on the finances of the region based on a January to December period. Article 72.2 says:
“The financial period of SAFA TSHWANE shall be one (1) year and shall begin on 1 July and end on 30 June in each year”
Ordinary Congress Timing
disregard of Article 27.1 of SAFA Tshwane’s Constitution when convening Ordinary Congresses during the incorrect time periods. For quiet some time SAFA Tshwane has been convening Ordinary Congresses during April / May months. Article 27.1 says:
“The Regional Secretary/Regional Executive Officer shall, by registered post or telefax, give all Members at least ninety (90) days advance notice of the date of the Ordinary Congress, which date shall be determined by the Regional Executive Committee and shall ordinarily be a date in September”
Elective Congress Timing
Skip a year without a Congress in 2014, and thus causing confusion with regards to the sequence of Quadrennial Congresses which originally flowed from 2006 and with four year intervals there-from. Since 2014 was skipped, it is not clear whether the same four year intervals are being upheld, in that the next Quadrennial Congress will be in this year (2018). Alternatively, could the sequence have been shifted given that the current Executive Committee was elected in 2015, and if the next Quadrennial Congress will be in 2019.
Article 1.8 states that SAFA Tshwane was incorporated in 2006. Article 25.1 states that the election of office-bearers shall be by vote of accredited delegates and office-bearers present at a Quadrennial Congress of SAFA Tshwane. Therefore, it can be safely concluded that the SAFA Tshwane’s elective Congress is indeed the Quadrennial Congress.
PLFA together with other sister LFAs sent the letters to SAFA Tshwane early in June to have the Ordinary Congress moved to a later date, and to instead hold the Extra Ordinary Meeting to deal with the above issues. The Regional Executive Committee, on the strength of the arguments raised in the letters, agreed that indeed the Ordinary Congress needed to be moved and to indeed hold the Extra Ordinary Congress. However, based on the technicality that at the time they received four letters instead of five (one third of the membership), the Regional Executive Committee did not include the above items on the Agenda of the Extra Ordinary Congress, which it called to take place on the 8th of September 2018.
During the Extra Ordinary Congress on the 8th of September 2018, members of the region, including PLFA requested the Regional Executive Committee to add the above items on the Agenda, to which the latter refused on the technical grounds that the members did not reach the one third requirement in requesting the Extra Ordinary Congress. This persistence in refusing to add the items on the Agenda by the Regional Executive Committee led to the collapse of the Congress. The Regional Executive Committee contended that they were not ready to discuss those issues as they did not prepare for them.
Two weeks after the collapse of the above meeting, the Regional Executive Committee did not communicate when was the Extra Ordinary Congress was going to be reconvened. There was a risk that the region might not reconvene this important meeting. Then the members of the regions, including PLFA started writing letters to the region to pressure the region to reconvene the collapse meeting. There was no response from the region. Then the Members requested that a formal meeting be convened by the members as the region did not respond, and this requested PLFA to write a letter to the region to allocated a venue, to which the region responded without delay to decline the request. The Members then agreed that the matter be escalated to SAFA National, to which PLFA was against requested to write the letter. SAFA National delegated the region to address and report back in order to respond to the escalation request.
The above letters and the fact that PLFA was on the forefront of the campaign was the source of grief for the Regional Executive Committee, and thus summoned the PLFA EXCO to appear before it. The items to have been discussed were:
- Motions sent by LFAs;
- Letter Inviting LFAs to the meeting;
- Letters written to SAFA National Office.
PLFA EXCO went SAFA Tshwane as summoned on the 30th of October 2018. The matters were discussed robustly. SAFA Tshwane indicated that it intended to open a disciplinary case against PLFA on items 2 and 3. PLFA provided its reasons and motivation on its behavior, and what it really intended. It did not hide and has done everything in the open. There was no dishonesty on its part, and it linked its behavior, which could be explained as agitation, to the behavior and omissions of the Regional Executive Committee.
At the end of the meeting, the Region agreed that it will send a letter of apology to all its members on the issues of its omissions, and has also resolved that it provides a Verbal Warning to PLFA for allegedly acting in a disloyal manner.
To date, the letter of apology has not been sent by the region. However, the date for the reconvening of the Extra Ordinary Congress has been communicated, and will be held on the 17th of November 2018. This time, there is an item agenda to accommodate the issues raised by the Members, including those raised by PLFA.
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