Safpu Leadership headed to court

The controversy around the recent South African Football Players Union (Safpu) elections is not going away and the organisation’s President Thulaganyo Gaoshubelwe admitted as much to SABC Sport. 

Former Deputy Secretary General Calvin Motloung will challenge the legitimacy of the recent sixth national congress in Cape Town’s Labour Court on Wednesday. This comes shortly after numerous complaints from former Safpu members and staff before the elective congress last month. 

Gaoshubelwe, however, believes this is just meaningless commotion.

"I can tell you that this noise at some point gets to die down because people are not genuine in the issues they raise. It's about personalities, it's not about where the organisation is going. 

They will die down, and once they die down we will see them after another term", he claimed. 

Motloung, who lost his position to AmaZulu midfielder George Maluleke during the elections, is challenging how this congress was constituted. However, Gaoshubelwe, who was re-elected unopposed, says there’s no basis for this.

"We had a special national executive committee mandated by the leadership. He was part of the people who organised the congress, he was part of the congress. After the congress then he went to the courts. 

We received a letter, and we are very surprised, but we are dealing with all those issues that are before the courts. We must respect the processes of the courts", Gaoshubelwe argued. 

Gaoshubelwe and his leadership have been accused of financial mismanagement, by buying themselves cars. The former Bush Bucks and AmaZulu attacker though refuted the claims and defended their car policy.

“It (the policy) says the organisation would assist an official of the organisation, which is the secretary and the deputy to purchase a car. That's a policy adopted by congress, and we found that policy here. 

It says the organisation will pay 75%, and an individual will pay 25%, but here's an important part: that contribution is capped at R150 000. So If you decide to go and buy a Ferrari the 75%/25% falls off, what would kick in is R150 (000)," he concluded.