Bart Henderson, who SAFA are taking to court for accusing the president Danny Jordaan of misusing the 2010 FIFA World Cup Legacy Trust, has hit back at the mother body’s president.
Jordaan, in an article published by this website, labelled Henderson as “white man who is right wing Afrikaner who writes rubbish” about him in a petition to step down.
Having been aware of the article, Henderson approached this website for a right of reply, saying he would have contemplated to refer the matter to the Human Rights Commission, but decided against it, saying, “I decided against this, as in doing so I would be accepting the role of victim, a role I have refused to play”.
Henderson, who sent a 42-page document to this publication with plenty of allegations levelled against SAFA and its incumbent, stated:
“This article and the ventilation of SAFA president Danny Jordaan comment about me featured prominently on your Twitter social media account and elsewhere cannot go unchallenged,” he wrote via a letter from Henderson.
“I think we can all agree that the statement ‘A white man who is a right-wing Afrikaner writes rubbish’ was meant to negate me as a human being and there with my voice, based on my race, but also my language and culture.
“I think we can all agree, it was meant as a slur. I’m patently not an Afrikaner. That’s not to say I don’t love and respect the Afrikaner, also the Zulu, the Xhosa, the VhaVenda and every other group that makes up the tapestry of our beautiful country deeply as a whole, and not distilled to the acts of individuals.
“Just as with the many, who have come before him and those who will come after him, whatever their colour code, what Mr Jordaan is incapable of doing is negating me as a human being and there with my voice, based on my race, my language or culture.
“He is incapable of denigrating me, of depriving me of my dignity, of dehumanizing me. Based on what he thinks I am, not who I am. Calling the report ‘rubbish’, or me a ‘white male right-wing Afrikaner’ to shut me down won’t cut the mustard.
“If the report is so rubbish, why is Danny Jordaan so reticent to speak directly to its specific detailed allegations in the petition published on Change.org and many similar questions I believe sent to him by numerous members of the media instead of constantly referring the public to the actual rubbish posted on the SAFA website?
“A guilty conscience is the mother of invention – Carolyn Wells, (born June 18, 1862). Playing the man not the ball is a yellow card in soccer and it could be a red card.
“What’s not in doubt are the many South African Football Association’s administrative Red Flags! Instead of posing as the victim, cloaking himself as a man of colour in the same worn Afrikaner racist trope of the past, by attempting to drape it on me to divert attention, I think in soccer this is called ‘taking a dive’, Mr Jordaan should stick to addressing the very serious substantive issues as raised in the report.
“He should step down while an independent, comprehensive, transparent forensic audit is conducted into SAFA’s affairs with the report forming the terms of reference, for the period 2009 to 2023. It’s time for the soccer mother body FIFA to tell President Danny Jordaan to step aside and SAFA to open its books. I expect SAFA and FIFA to condemn this patent for unwarranted racism and discrimination directed at me by Danny Jordaan.”
Henderson said what he wrote in the petition, alleging that SAFA’s books were cooked, was 99 percent factually, having worked in the forensic investigations for close to 30 years in the country.