NKARENG MATSHE | Wafcon hosting confusion highlights sports ministry rift

A minister contradicting his deputy is not a completely foreign phenomenon in South Africa, but it is not something we’ve experienced on the sporting front — until this week.

Barely hours after Peace Mabe, the deputy minister of sport, had boldly told us South Africa would replace Morocco as hosts of next month’s Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon), her boss, Gayton McKenzie, issued a stern rebuttal, stating no such arrangement had been confirmed.

Those of us familiar with the hot air frequently coming out of our sports ministry viewed Mabe’s initial announcement with suspicion, given it was curious McKenzie would have passed on the opportunity of announcing such a momentous development himself.

But we can now deduce that Mabe, on seeing the lights and cameras, felt it was her time to shine and inform us of the latest developments of national importance. As it turned out, she was jumping the gun because South Africa, as we understand, was merely approached on a cautionary basis by the Confederation of African Football (Caf) after the fallout with Morocco sparked by the latter’s failure to win the Africa Cup of Nations last month in a controversial final against Senegal.

Morocco, it seems, has been sulking since Senegal’s victory in Rabat on January 18. Apart from expressing misgivings about Caf’s subsequent sanctions — including players’ suspensions and monetary fines — imposed on the country after that dramatic final, the North Africans apparently also threatened to pull out of hosting Wafcon, which kicks off on March 17.

This prompted Caf to put out feelers to potential emergency hosts, including South Africa, to find out if they would be willing to step in at short notice should Morocco make good on their threat.

How the highest sporting office in the country interpreted this as an invitation to replace Morocco is beyond comprehension.

Hosting any international tournament is demanding — arranging to host one with barely two months’ notice is almost impossible. You would expect people tasked with running a government department to know this because funds would first have to be secured — even as Caf is teeming with sponsors who would have made it easier.

Morocco is contractually bound to host the Wafcon from next month and, barring a disaster, it should go ahead

There are issues of security, logistics and ticketing, which Morocco has had in place for the past two years, since it hosted the men’s Afcon this year. That country also has a signed contract with Caf, which it can’t repeal overnight merely because Brahim Diaz could not convert a last-minute penalty against Senegal.

Even if it were possible, South Africa should not enter the fray. We’ve bailed out Caf when it was in a sorry state under the misrule of Issa Hayatou by agreeing to host major continental events at short notice. The organisation is now on solid ground under Patrice Motsepe, with whom our government officials should be familiar.

So it’s a huge surprise that our sports ministry could issue — within hours — contradictory statements regarding a matter that could have been ascertained with a text message. Morocco is contractually bound to host the Wafcon from next month and, barring a disaster, it should go ahead.

As for Mabe and McKenzie, they should be striving to genuinely improve women’s football so the national selectors can have a better pool to choose from. The domestic women’s league remains in shambles and even girls determined to take up the sport would be disillusioned.

But rushing to upstage each other before TV cameras — with incorrect statements — seems to be the more important preference of the ministry’s top two. What a shame.

Sowetan