Safa to demand around R3m in legal costs from Ria Ledwaba, Solly Mohlabeng

Fresh from the South African Football Association (Safa)’s elective congress, which resulted in Danny Jordaan appointed as president for his fourth term on Saturday, the association has pointed the barrel of its shotgun in the direction of former members, Ria Ledwaba and Solly Mohlabeng.

This is in order to recover millions of rands incurred in their legal battles with them. Safa is set to send the first claim to the pair in the coming days.

A Safa insider who opted to remain anonymous, has revealed to *Sunday World *that the amount demanded from the duo is in the region of R3-million. Previously, Safa has attempted to attach Ledwaba’s bank accounts to recover escalating legal costs from multiple unsuccessful court cases.

Jordaan secures fourth term

On Saturday, Jordaan defeated his challenger Sandile Zungu by 157-82 votes in this year’s presidential elections. This means that the former 2010 World Cup Local Organising Committee CEO has retained his seat at the top table of SA football for another four years.

READ: Danny Jordaan defeats Sandile Zungu and gets fourth term as SAFA president

In the 2022 elections, Jordaan also blew Ledwaba and Mohlabeng out of the water with another landslide victory, but she has been relentless in challenging the association in the courts, saying Safa had violated its constitution. Mohlabeng was the second applicant in the matter.

Series of court setbacks

The duo has had several cases thrown out or dismissed by the courts, with costs. And in 2024, Ledwaba’s bitter dispute took a nasty turn, with the national association attaching her bank accounts to recoup legal fees costs from the numerous court cases she launched, and later lost.

Reads the statement from Safa:

“The South African Football Association (Safa) intends to recover all the costs that were incurred by the association in the courts during the multiple legal challenges initiated by Ria Ledwaba and Solly Mohlabeng in the last four years.

“Ledwaba and Mohlabeng approached numerous courts and attempted to overturn the Safa 2022 presidential electoral outcome that was concluded during the Safa electoral congress held at the Sandton Convention Centre on Saturday, 25 June in 2022. They also challenged their loss of standing within the Safa structures. Jordaan won the majority of the votes ahead of Ledwaba and Mohlabeng, and Fifa recognised the outcome.

READ: Relentless Ria Ledwaba taking Safa, Jordaan to Supreme Court

“But this did not deter the two and the matter moved through the Pretoria High Court, the Supreme Court of Appeal, and most recently, the Constitutional Court, the highest court in the land. At every stage, the courts consistently rejected, with costs, the applicants’ efforts to re-litigate the outcome of the elections,” added the statement.

Constitutional court ends challenge

The national association explained further that a few days ago, the Constitutional Court dismissed, with costs, the application for leave to appeal, marking the end of the road for Ledwaba and Mohlabeng’s long-standing legal challenge against the association.

“It was the seventh time in under four years that Ledwaba and Mohlabeng have failed in their legal attempts to challenge the Association. Through it all, Safa was never distracted nor deviated from its mandate to develop and serve football in this country. Banyana Banyana, Bafana Bafana, the junior national teams, the youth programes, and the coaching and referees’ departments, among others, have all remained focused on the task at hand,” said Safa.

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