Coronavirus: Safa’s senior management agrees to 15 percent salary cut

The South African Football Association (Safa) is feeling the pinch of the coronavirus lockdown in the country, and the senior management has made several recommendations in an attempt to cut costs and save the organisation money. 

In a statement released on Saturday, the country’s FA revealed there as a two-day (March 20-22) meeting of the senior management where football and the financial impact of the lockdown were discussed.  

Present in the meeting was technical director Neil Tovey, chief financial officer Gronie Hluyo, Mzwandile Maforvane who is the general manager and also looks after football business/events, head of commercial and marketing Darryl Coutries and Dominic Chimhavi who is head of communications among others. 

Safa said: “The objective of the management meetings is to consider various cost reductions and this includes employees’ salaries, expired employment contracts, temporary staff, and month-to-month employment contracts which must be terminated.”

The association also confirmed all the senior management staff who formed part of the review meeting.  

“The following managers (Mr. Gronie Hluyo – Chairperson, Mr. Mlungisi Ncame, Mr. Mzwandile Maforvane, Mr. Tebogo Motlanthe, Mr. Neil Tovey, Mr. Darryl Coutries and Mr. Dominic Chimhavi) participated in the review meeting.”

The seven-member panel then made seven recommendations to the association’s National Executive Committee (NEC), some of which are subject to consultations.

However, what stood out from the review meeting was that the management will take a 15 percent salary cut while other staff members will be offered ‘voluntary retrenchment packages’.   

• That Safa staff members were ordered to stay at home as from 24 March 2020.
• That Safa staff must be paid their full salaries for the month of March and April 2020.
• The senior management agreed on the pay cut of 15% across the board subject to consultation with the staff and finalisation of the proposal.
• The employees will be offered voluntary retrenchment packages as part of the cost-cutting measures.
• The staff who cannot work from home must take their annual leave as from 4 May 2020. Those staff members who are working from home must continue to do so.
• In the event where staff does not have sufficient annual leave to cover the lockdown period, once annual leave has been depleted, unpaid leave will be taken.
• In this case, staff who have worked overtime will be allowed to take leave in lieu of overtime worked as verified and approved by their respective general managers.   

In the meantime, SAFA has made payments to different constituent groups.