South African billionaire Sandile Zungu faces long odds in next week's SAFA election

Sandile Zungu goes into next Saturday's South African Football Association election with 12 of the 52 regions behind him, against 36 for Danny Jordaan, a senior figure inside the association told Journal News Network.

That split points to a landslide for the incumbent when delegates vote on Sept. 12 in Johannesburg.

The same source said Jordaan had intended to resign before the congress and was persuaded to stand again solely to keep the AmaZulu owner out. Powerful figures within the association pushed him to stay, according to the source, because they regard Zungu as a vehicle for outside interests trying to take control of South African football.

"We couldn't allow him to leave before the conference, because they are trying to get into SAFA and start their own things," the source said. "We can't allow that."

The account goes further. It holds that Jordaan is standing only to bar Zungu, and intends to resign afterwards to make way for Linda Zwane, one of SAFA's four incumbent vice-presidents, who would then take the presidency without facing an election against an outsider.

Zwane's position across South African sport supports that reading. He is president of the Mpumalanga Sport Confederation, sits on the board of the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee, leads the Football Transformation Forum, and holds executive roles at SASCOC and COSAFA. His connections run through the same regional structures that decide the presidency.

The other vice-presidents each carry an obstacle. Irvin Khoza, the Premier Soccer League chairman, cannot take the role without divesting entirely from professional club ownership. Bennett Bailey broke with the ruling group by publicly endorsing Zungu. Natasha Tsichlas has concentrated on administrative portfolios rather than building support among the regions.

The arithmetic explains why regional backing decides everything. The congress casts 265 votes by secret ballot. The 52 regional bodies hold 208 of them between them, four each, while the national executive committee holds 41 and associate members and the league account for the remainder. On the source's numbers, Jordaan's 36 regions deliver 144 votes, a majority of the congress before any other bloc is counted, against 48 for Zungu.

Jordaan has led SAFA since 2013 and turned 75 on Sept. 3. He is standing trial on fraud charges arising from his arrest in November 2024, in a case concerning the alleged misuse of about 1.3 million rand of SAFA money to hire Grit Communications, a public relations firm owned by Trevor Neethling, which the state says was used to improve his personal image before the 2018 elections. He denies wrongdoing and has said the arrangement served the federation. The matter was postponed again on Aug. 27 and resumes in two months. He has not been convicted.

Zungu was cleared to stand only on Aug. 28, when SAFA's governance committee under Victor Mogajane confirmed both nominations were eligible, ending a dispute over his standing that had run since May. Nominations were submitted to Mogajane on Aug. 5.

The businessman behind the challenge

Zungu is an engineer by training who built Zungu Investments Company into a group spanning mining, energy, telecommunications, property, manufacturing and financial services. He has held positions across corporate South Africa and served as a director on several listed boards, and he chaired the Black Business Council, which put him at the centre of arguments about who owns the South African economy.

He bought AmaZulu in 2020, taking control of the KwaZulu-Natal club and funding a squad rebuild that carried it to second place in the Premier Soccer League and into continental competition. That purchase is what gave him standing inside football, and it is the basis on which the regions approached him. He has said they came to him over a long period before he agreed to stand, and that he consulted people who understood the terrain before raising his hand.

His campaign has centred on the association's finances. Zungu has argued that SAFA suffers from misgovernance and a trust deficit with corporate South Africa, and that the sponsorships it attracts amount to what he calls sympathy sponsorships. He has said the association must put its house in order before it can ask for better, and wants Bafana Bafana among the top three national teams in Africa, alongside a revival of women's and school football.

He has also said he intends to change a constitution he argues favours whoever already holds office. The source's account of how the vote has been organised speaks to exactly that.

SAFA has confirmed that FIFA, CAF, SASCOC and Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie have all been formally invited to the congress.