Safa Tshwane president takes aim at national level

The South African Football Association’s (Safa) Tshwane president, Solly Mohlabeng, is one of many South Africans who have a love for football and a passion for its development.

He has spent most part of his life involved in football. Born and bred in Avon village in Limpopo, Mohlabeng started his football career at the age of 15 when he played for the junior league team named Ditlou Flying Birds FC.

Playing in the A team of Ditlou Flying Birds FC squad depicted that he was one of the best players of the team. After completing matric at Malusi Senior Secondary School in his province, he moved to Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) formerly known as Technikon Northern Transvaal (TNT) in Soshanguve.

At TNT campus, he joined a soccer team named Student Christian Fellowship.

In 1997 he moved to Pretoria central where he played for Power of Grace soccer team.

He then moved to the west of Pretoria in 2005 where he played for Hawks Football Club. In 2008 he became the referee and in 2010 he started being the referee administrator in Safa Tshwane. In 2016, he was elected secretary of Phelindaba Local Football Association and in 2019 he was elected the regional president of Safa Tshwane.

“The reason I contested for the Safa Tshwane president position was because I wanted football to grow,” Mohlabeng said.

He said he took the decision to contest after realising that some adjustments in the management of football in the region were needed in order for football to grow.

“That is when I realised that I needed to go in there and make my contribution.”

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He said since assuming his duties, he had ensured that, among other things, all the Local Football Associations (LFAs) in the region were functional in such a way that they were even attracting sponsors.

“I made sure that the LFAs host coaching courses B and C licences themselves.”

He said together with the technical team they had developed a long-term development plan for football.

Another important area that needed urgent attention was the stabilisation of the finances of the region, which he had done, he said.

“I have managed to stabilise the finances of the region, after the region was experiencing financial problems in the past.”

He said he was in a campaign to be the next Safa national president.

“I have developed interests to turn things around in Safa national after realising that it faces some problems in relation to financial stability and others.”

He said he was interested to use the same tried and tested strategy he was using in the Capital City to turn things around nationally.”

His approach is based on five pillars including the transformation agenda, development of skills, creation of job opportunities, social development and challenging for continental glory.

Mohlabeng officially made his interest to lead Safa nationally known last Saturday at his campaign launch at Sammy Marks Square, city centre.

“It is time for change and we need to make sure that the change happens now,” Mohlabeng said, addressing the gathering at the launch.

He said he was contesting for the top Safa national leadership position with an aim of working with fellow football enthusiasts to bring changes in the football fraternity.

“Professor Patrick Lumumba once said: ‘No matter how good you are, if you stay for too long you spoil it. A good dancer must know when to leave the stage’,” Mohlabeng said.

He urged LFAs to work with him in the process of developing football and view it as not just only a sport but as a ‘product’ that needs to be marketed and taken care of.

“We are bringing the change that will ensure that football is respected, its governance is respected and sponsors come back and say we have confidence in it.”

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The launch, attended by more than 10 Safa Tshwane LFAs and clubs, saw all of them pledging their support for Mohlabeng.

They described him as a man who is hands-on and had done so much in the development of football in Pretoria since he took over as Safa Tshwane president in 2019.

Mamelodi Football Association president Kgoroshi Mashifane said he supported change.

He said grassroots soccer was the foundation of football in the country and therefore needed to be taken care of.

“Without local football, there is no Bafana Bafana because players are developed at a local level before moving up to national.”

He praised Mohlabeng for being one of the leaders who takes local football seriously.

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