Safa reinstates Ria Ledwaba as vice-president

The South African Football Association (Safa) has announced the reinstatement of Ria Ledwaba as the vice-president following a recommendation by Natasha Tsichlas.

Tsichlas was appointed as vice-president during the Safa NEC meeting on Saturday to replace Ledwaba.

Ledwaba had been removed alongside fellow former Safa vice-president Gay Mokoena in June 2020.

However, Ledwaba reacted by appealing the decision of her removal through the organisation's arbitration. 

Tsichlas has now disclosed that she is withdrawing from the position as vice-president with immediate effect

The former Mamelodi Sundowns managing director proposed to the NEC to bring back Ledwaba, in the interest of football.

"After I served on the 2010 Fifa World Cup Organising Committee as a Board member, I convinced the NEC to bring Ria back to football in 2013," she said in a statement.

"I am happy that I could convince the NEC then and express my appreciation to the NEC to agree to withdraw from the arbitration and to reinstate Ria Ledwaba."

Safa's chief executive officer Tebogo Motlanthe explained that they agree with Tsichlas' proposal.

“Safa is happy to endorse the presentation of Natasha Tsichlas and to support it from one of our selfless women leaders who offered to step back from the vice president post for Ria Ledwaba to return," he said. 

“We want to reiterate that this must not be viewed as condonation of wrong-doing but a response from an internationally recognized woman leader in football.

‘’We further agreed that the money that would have been spent on legal costs is better served to provide our 52 Regions with financial support to further football development.”

Safa president Danny Jordaan was heavily criticized after the NEC removed Ledwaba and Mokoena a few months ago. 

However, Safa's communications manager Dominic Chimhavi insisted that the NEC was well within its rights to remove the pair as they were not elected by the national congress. 

The country's football governing body recently strengthened its current technical team with familiar faces and former football players including Lucas Radebe.  

The Leeds United and Bafana Bafana legend returned to the committee alongside fellow former Kaizer Chiefs defender David Nyathi.