ADEKEYE ADEBAJO | Give Khaas a red card for Motsepe praise singing

The recent article in the Sowetan by Tebogo Khaas (“CAF’s financial recovery under Motsepe sparks debate”) could almost be mistaken for satire. Khaas complains about the “sudden moral fervour” and “performative outrage” directed at Motsepe’s leadership of the Confederation of African Football (CAF). However, these issues have been raised since the Mamelodi Sundowns owner assumed the presidency of African football in 2021.

Khaas argues that “at no point in its history has CAF experienced the degree of transparency, democratic practice and ethical leadership” as under Motsepe. But he fails to mention the most damning allegation reported by the Guardian against the South African billionaire by a senior CAF staff member that: “In [the] four years of his mandate, he [Motsepe] only came [to Cairo] twice and met the staff once. He doesn’t have a clue what’s going on inside his own confederation.” This staff member was suggesting that Motsepe has continued to live in Johannesburg, leaving the running of CAF in Cairo largely to its general secretary, Veron Mosengo-Omba, of the Democratic Republic of Congo: a close friend of Fifa’s megalomaniac Italian-Swiss president, Gianni Infantino.

The Guardian has publisheda series of articles detailing Mosengo-Omba’s reported autocratic and unaccountable leadership of CAF. He was accused of transferring bonuses worth five times the maximum perks in his employment contract into his Swiss bank account. Though the Swiss public prosecutor declined to press charges due to a lack of sufficient evidence, the damning allegations have damaged CAF’s reputation.

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Mosengo-Omba was also charged with creating a toxic environment of fear in which employees have been sacked for speaking out and further accused of appointing Congolese nationals to senior positions for which they were unqualified. Motsepe instituted an independent investigation but failed to suspend Mosengo-Omba, who has denied all charges. The CAF president also expressed “total confidence” in his beleaguered general secretary.

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