By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
South African Football Association (SAFA) president Danny Jordaan has confirmed that the association has accepted the resignation of CEO Tebogo Motlanthe.
Motlanthe also acknowledged his resignation in a Monday morning press conference and said he’ll be resigning with immediate effect.
He will be replaced by Lydia Monyepao as SAFA CEO. Monyepao was previously the organisation’s chief operating officer.
Jordaan told the media that the decision to appoint Monyepoa was unanimous.
“The decision was unanimous, everyone agreed to the appointment of Lydia Monyepoa as CEO for SAFA. So congratulations and you have to hit the ground running, with the first engagement tomorrow (Tuesday) in Cape Town with the government, and she knows all the deadlines because she has been working on these matters in any case. So it is not new.
“We cannot have a vacancy for one day, that’s why we said we must immediately act and appoint a CEO,” said Jordaan.
Monyepoa is SAFA’s first female CEO.
Monyepao will be Safa’s seventh CEO since 2010 after Leslie Sedibe, Robin Petersen, Mumble, Mokoena, Russell Paul and now Motlanthe vacated the position.
The news of Motlanthe resignation has come at a time when there is a simmering war between Safa and the PSL which seems to have reached a crescendo.
Motlanthe in his resignation letter complained about the “planting of cameras in my office”, Safa filling positions that are not in the association’s organogram at a huge cost, calling this a “flawed recruitment process”. Worryingly, he stated he was no longer happy to be in Safa’s employ as it took a toll on his health.
Since his appointment in January 2021, Motlanthe has proved to be an excellent administrator of football in South Africa.
Motlanthe came without baggage, and throughout his tenure common sense and honesty have prevailed.