Former SAFA CEO Dennis Mumble has slammed the recent chaos in Nasrec, citing the turbulent National Executive Committee meeting as a glaring indictment of the association’s failing governance.
What was intended to be SAFA’s first NEC meeting of the year descended into physical violence at Nasrec on Saturday. The session, chaired by president Danny Jordaan, imploded as members exchanged heated insults before the confrontation escalated into pushing, shoving, and the trading of punches.
At the heart of the brawl was a controversial motion to suspend four NEC members: Gladwin White, Monde Montshiwa, Bhuda Mathate, and Lebogang Riet, as per reports. The motion was brought forward by Tankiso Modipa, national convenor of the Football Transformation Forum [FTF]—a group staunchly backing Jordaan for a fourth term.
The quartet is accused of breaching SAFA’s communication policy by speaking to the media. While the matter was debated in June 2025, it was never put to a vote until Modipa successfully lobbied for its return to the agenda.
Tensions reached a breaking point when the suspension item was strategically moved from number 13 to number 4 on the agenda. This manoeuvre would have allowed for the immediate removal of the four members before the meeting addressed critical business, including: audited financial statements, Bafana Bafana’s 2026 FIFA World Cup preparations and National team programmes, including Banyana Banyana.
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Dennis Mumble did not hold back in his assessment, telling FARPost that the weekend’s violence is a clear sign that the association has “dispensed with good governance.”
“To me, this is a continuing symptom of an association that has dispensed with good governance,” Mumble said. “I say that because the rules no longer matter. From what I’ve gathered from those in attendance, there was an intent to suspend NEC members despite full knowledge that the committee lacks the power to do so in the first place.”
Mumble argued that leadership should have intervened: “The legal committee, the president [Jordaan], or the CEO [Lydia Monyepao] should have advised that the motion was out of order. The NEC cannot suspend a person without a formal judicial process.
“This is not an isolated incident; it is one instance in a series of governance failures at the association. It’s a symptom of a much larger problem regarding how the organisation is run.”
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The timing of the chaos is particularly damaging, coming just days after the high-profile announcement of a major partnership with Standard Bank to support Banyana Banyana and the 2026 FIFA World Cup-bound Bafana Bafana.
Mumble expressed concern over how such a prestigious partner might view the internal warfare. “I don’t know how Standard Bank will react, but it’s never a good image for a reputable institution to be associated with an organisation facing these kinds of reputational problems.
“What we see in SAFA now is an executive committee that has gone way beyond its powers and is dominating the association when that’s not supposed to happen.”
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