2 August 2026 – The South African Football Association (SAFA) welcomes the order of the High Court of South Africa, Gauteng Division, Johannesburg, handed down this week where the urgent application brought by the four expelled National Executive Committee members was struck from the roll for lack of urgency. The four were ordered to pay SAFA’s legal costs.
This is the fourth occasion where the same dispute has been placed before an urgent court, and the second division of the High Court after the first attempt was struck off the roll in the High Court of South Africa, North West Division, Mahikeng. The NEC members were expelled following the 34th Ordinary Congress held at the Birchwood Hotel & Conference Centre in the East of Johannesburg in May 2026.
The four (4) members – Emma Hendricks, Gladwyn White, Orapeleng Setlhare and Monde Montshiwa – approached the Mafikeng High Court to challenge and reverse their initial suspensions and subsequent expulsions. They lost this challenge and the matter was struck from the roll.
The latest ruling brings, for the time being, to an end a prolonged course of urgent litigation in which the four repeatedly withdrew or amended their case when faced with procedural shortcomings or substantive opposition, instead of allowing the dispute to be adjudicated on its merits.
This outcome brings to four the number of urgent hearings SAFA has had to defend in relation to this single dispute, across two divisions of the High Court, without the Applicants ever allowing a court to determine the matter on its merits. SAFA maintains that the underlying decisions were lawful governance resolutions, validly adopted by Congress acting within its powers under the SAFA Statutes.
SAFA notes that the urgent court process exists to determine matters that genuinely require immediate judicial intervention, and is not a forum for litigants to test successive versions of the same case until one is regarded as sufficiently persuasive. The costs order on Scale B reflects the seriousness with which the Court viewed this pattern of conduct.
SAFA remains committed to good governance, the integrity of its constitutional structures, and the development of football in South Africa, and will continue to defend its governance decisions robustly against any further attempts to re-litigate this matter.
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