Motlanthe welcome to return to Safa – Jordaan

Safa president Danny Jordaan has insisted the door is not closed to former CEO Tebogo Motlanthe for a return to the association.

Motlanthe resigned from Safa as chief executive officer last year and was replaced by Lydia Monyepao.

The former CEO was seen working at the recently concluded ABC Motsepe League national playoffs in Upington, Northern Cape, at the weekend. Jordaan said Motlanthe was “just assisting with the tournament” and did not rule out the possibility of the legal eagle’s return to Safa House.

“He [Motlanthe] is a legal adviser. He was helping with the tournament and we are happy to have him,” Jordaan said. “He has made a great contribution to Safa and he will continue to contribute. We are happy with him. We will talk to him about that [coming back] in the future.”

Motlanthe, in his resignation letter last year, cited Jordaan’s interference in his daily duties, and bemoaned that he had been reduced to a “glorified clerk”.

Meanwhile, after the Free State Stadium was packed to capacity when Bafana Bafana beat Zimbabwe 3-1 in the 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifier earlier this month, Jordaan said they were pleased with the response and they will continue to send the national team to other provinces.

Bafana has struggled to attract fans to stadiums, especially in Gauteng, and it looks like other provinces will now have a chance to host them.

“The Bafana game in the Free State was an eye opener both in terms of the play and the determination of the players,” he said. “The fans filled the stadium and other people could not get access. We had to block them because we could not have the stadium overcrowded.

“But it just shows that the people of the Free State don’t have a professional team and they were hungry for football. And we were rewarded by taking the decision and them coming in numbers and we were very happy.

“Now we will have to look at it. Of course, in some areas we don’t have an international compliant stadium, but the [2010] World Cup had 10 stadiums and every province will have a stadium that will comply with CAF regulations, so we will work on that.”