Incumbent South African Football Association (SAFA) president Danny Jordaan and his campaign platform, the Football Transformation Forum (FTF), have received overwhelming support across KwaZulu-Natal ahead of next Saturday’s extraordinary elective congress.
According to a high-placed insider, “Everything is good in KZN,” in favour of Jordaan.
Jordaan, who has held the SAFA presidency since 2013, met with regional leaders at the Maharani Hotel in Durban, where officials pledged their votes for the upcoming election.
The seven KZN regions backing Jordaan’s re-election bid are eThekwini, Umkhanyakude, King Cetshwayo, iLembe, Zululand, Ugu, and uMzinyathi.
Although representatives from Amajuba and Harry Gwala were present, both regions are managing internal leadership disputes. Neither region currently has an active president. However, Amajuba is scheduled to hold new elections following the collapse of its previous congress before delegates travel to Johannesburg for next weekend’s national vote.
Having engaged nine of KZN’s 11 regions, Jordaan will next fly to East London in the Eastern Cape to rally regional support. The trip follows similar campaign stops in Limpopo alongside the Football Transformation Forum in July.
With the election approaching, the race was narrowed to a two-horse battle between Jordaan and AmaZulu FC president Sandile Zungu, who was recently cleared by the SAFA Governance Committee to contest the presidency.
Several KZN regional officials told Sportswire that Zungu’s campaign gained traction too late in the process. “There is nothing we can do now because we will vote for Danny Jordaan,” one official stated.
Insiders also point to significant logistical advantages favoring the incumbent. Because this is an extraordinary congress, travel and accommodation logistics are funded and managed directly by the SAFA head office at SAFA House in Nasrec.
Unlike an ordinary congress—where regions must cover their own travel expenses—delegates to the extraordinary congress do not have to foot their own bills. This administrative framework creates additional headwinds for Zungu’s challenge against the sitting president.
However, as the adage goes in sports and politics alike, elections remain as unpredictable as the game itself.
