The SAFA Vhembe Regional League’s “Champ of Champs” play-offs are in jeopardy. Magomani All Zones Football Club filed an urgent application with the Limpopo High Court on Wednesday, asking that the play-offs be interdicted, with the hearing set down for Friday morning, a day before the matches are due to start.
Magomani All Zones, a team competing in Stream A of the league, wants to stop the play-offs from proceeding while three complaints it lodged against its main rivals, Ntsemi Football Club, remain undetermined. Alternatively, it wants Ntsemi barred from taking part. The club’s legal team has approached the court on an urgent basis to stop the matches from going ahead.
In its founding affidavit, Magomani All Zones argues that it has previously complained to the league of bribery, an ineligible player fielded by Ntsemi, and the conduct of match officials. It believes these complaints have not been decided on their merits.
Magomani cites the South African Football Association (SAFA) Vhembe Region as first respondent, along with Ntsemi Football Club and its chairperson, Ntshovelo Baloyi, SAFA’s national body, and the nine other clubs due to take part in the play-offs.
According to the club’s chairperson, Risimati Lenners Ngobeni, Magomani and Ntsemi were the two clubs contesting top spot on the Stream A log this season, with the winner earning a place in the promotional play-offs and the benefits of promotion to a higher league.
During May, Magomani lodged three complaints with SAFA Vhembe:
That on 6 May, Baloyi allegedly contacted a Magomani player – a minor – asking him to feign illness and miss a fixture against Ntsemi on 9 May. The club says evidence includes a R2,100 payment into the player’s bank account and a WhatsApp message reading “Deal done and don’t disappoint me.”
That the 9 May match itself was manipulated, with kick-off allegedly brought forward without notice and the first half cut short, while Magomani officials say they were prevented by security personnel from reaching match officials to lodge a protest.
That a Ntsemi player, Miyelani Mabasa, was fielded despite allegedly being registered with three clubs during the same season, in breach of SAFA’s competition rules, which would ordinarily result in forfeiture of points from matches in which he played.
Magomani says SAFA Vhembe initially took up the complaints under its disciplinary rules but subsequently required the club to proceed on only one of the three, advising – incorrectly, the club’s court papers argue – that bribery is not misconduct under SAFA rules and that the ineligible-player complaint lacked evidence.
A disciplinary hearing on 6 June reportedly ended with the bribery count abandoned after Magomani could not immediately produce the minor player’s bank statement. The match-manipulation complaint was allegedly dismissed on procedural grounds without any finding on the facts.
An appeal to the SAFA Appeals Board was dismissed on 6 July, though the Board found that the failure to rule on the facts “constitutes a serious violation of the rules” and described SAFA Vhembe’s conduct as “strange.”
Magomani says none of its three complaints has, to date, been determined on the merits by any SAFA structure, while SAFA Vhembe’s Emergency Committee proceeded to fix the play-off schedule on 2 July.
Magomani is asking the court, on an urgent basis, to interdict SAFA Vhembe from proceeding with the play-offs pending the final determination of its complaints, or alternatively to bar Ntsemi specifically from participating and from any result involving Ntsemi being given effect.
Magomani also wants an order compelling SAFA Vhembe to refer its three complaints to a competent SAFA structure for a final decision on the merits within 15 days, and to hold off finalising the Stream A log or the play-offs until that determination is made.
None of the respondents had filed answering papers as at the time of the application. This article is based on the applicant’s court papers; SAFA Vhembe’s version has not yet been placed before the court.