The recently concluded McDonald’s U14 Schools League has been rocked by allegations of age cheating.
The tournament took place at the Lucas Masterpieces Moripe Stadium in Atteridgeville on 1 October and one of the schools accused of this was finalists, Dr John Langalibalele Dube High School, named after the founding president of the African National Congress.
The school was alleged to have fielded ineligible players to beef up its squad for the national finals of the tournament.
Reacting to the allegations, the South African Schools Football Association (Sasfa) said it had noted them with concern.
“We hereby wish to appeal to anyone with facts and evidence that indeed Dr JL Dube High School did field ineligible players to beef up their school team, to come forward,” said Mandla ‘Shoes’ Mazibuko, president of Sasfa.
He said the association had been tackling “the cancer of football age in all our development programmes and we have in the past named and shamed schools and suspended them for lengthy periods from all football activities. We boast of a track record in this regard”.
“We do not take lightly these allegations and have requested our provincial structure – with the assistance of the Department of Basic Education – to launch an investigation into these allegations.”
Sasfa said it had one of the most stringent methods of team-screening prior to teams’ participation in various tournaments. During the registration process, Sasfa said it subjected the players to a scrutiny process, followed by a test and an oral interview.
“All these steps are then collated and analysed for any discrepancies. This is further supported by the registration letter signed by the principal and School Governing Body, and it has a legal standing because in a case of a school found to have fielded defaulters, the principal might be held legally liable and the education department might want to take legal steps,” said Mazibuko.
He added that Sasfa would leave no stone unturned to get to the bottom of these allegations and whoever was responsible – should it turn out to be true – would have to face the music.
“As a province, we pride ourselves in clean administration for all our events. It will be a travesty of justice should these allegations prove to be correct,” said Thembinkosi Zoleka, Sasfa KwaZulu-Natal president.
Read: Malandela downed by sheer brilliance of two stars
