If there is one thing one has to applaud Safa Cape Town’s president, Bennett Bailey (pictured), is the fact that he surely knows how to engage with the media – despite the message he delivers!
The 66- year-old Bailey, who also serves as vice-president of the South African Football Association (Safa), showed his savviness and experience despite some forthright and probing questions on whether he will be supporting his superior and Safa president, Danny Jordaan, in the upcoming elections.
Bailey addressed the media with poise and conviction during a briefing at the Athlone Stadium on Thursday for the Bafana Bafana versus Panama friendly match in the Cape Town Stadium scheduled for Tuesday, 31 March.
Asked if Bailey’s ballet will go to Jordaan, the former replied: “Oh, you know, I delivered a speech at a matric valedictory and a young girl sang a song, “One step at a time,”… We still have elections here in Cape Town that must still be landed.
“Then there are other things that must also happen. There is also a constitutional congress, there’s a… I’m talking about now. All those things must still happen so to pronounce on those matters is really premature – a lot of things must happen, and if you look at the two congresses that must happen, and it’s usually a 90-day notice period, and that is three months …. three months and that brings us, for example, to November. So, a lot of things can be in between. Some people can even get heart attacks and die. So, I really think it’s premature to pronounce those types of things,” Bailey further explained.
Needless to say, there have been calls for a change in leadership of Safa’s top brass, especially in light of Jordaan’s legal case, where he is facing multiple charges, including fraud and theft charges involving more than R1 Million – which is postponed until next month.
When probed on this, Bailey replied: “Those courts, I normally tell people, let the courts decide. Let us not be now the, what you call it, trial public opinion, and that is really unfair at times towards certain individuals, because you get besmirched, which you are not.
“And then they find you not guilty, but the mud is on you and that is the unfortunate part we find in South Africa. Everybody nowadays is a ‘keyboard warrior’ and when you check, they only have 200 followers, but they are keyboard warriors, and want to influence the way society thinks – and that is the unfair part.
“When it comes to mainstream media, you can go to the press council to lay a charge and then they must respond to that. But this keyboard warrior is only accountable to the keyboard itself, but it besmirches people and it really scares people to become involved – and I’m not blowing the trumpet for Danny Jordaan.
“I’m speaking about the unfairness that is in volunteering and there are a lot of volunteers who really want to volunteer, but they are scared of that. I just came out of an online meeting where I also serve – and my good friend is going to laugh now – I’m the chairperson of the National Professional Darts Association in South Africa, I’m chairing that board and Darts SA spoke about how they struggle to get good administrators to volunteer because they are scared of Facebook,” Bailey concluded.
PHOTO SUPPLIED BY CONRAY SWAIL
