We are Danny Jordaan. Danny Jordaan is us.
No matter how much South Africans may want to pretend that the SA Football Association (SAFA) president is a rogue, the truth is that he is a phenomenon that should neither surprise nor drive us to anger.
What he tries to get away with is not surprising at all. Indeed, we see what Jordaan does all the time — and we tolerate it. Look in the mirror, SA, and you will see Danny Jordaan.
Let me explain. As some of you will know, national football team Bafana Bafana nearly missed out on going to the US-Canada-Mexico next year to compete in the Soccer World Cup finals.
That’s because when the team was in the lead to qualify for the games, Safa illegally fielded Mamelodi Sundowns star Teboho Mokoena in a qualifier against Lesotho even though he was suspended from play.
That wholly unnecessary transgression forced international football governing authority Fifa to deduct three points from Bafana.
This put the team’s chances of advancing in jeopardy.
If Bafana had lost their match to Rwanda on Tuesday, , they would not have progressed despite having won more games than any other team in the competing group.
The nation would have been crushed.
So, one would expect that whoever was responsible for this transgression of the Fifa rules — and the rules of decency and sportsmanship — would face some sanction.
Not in SA. Not under Danny Jordaan. The soccer chief has told the country no-one will be held responsible, and no explanation will be forthcoming.
After Bafana’s win against Rwanda and with the path now cleared to the World Cup finals, Jordaan said: “We are going to the World Cup.
“So the matter is closed, we are not interested in the matter, we’ve qualified ...
“So we’re not going to dwell on what is behind us because what is in front of us is the World Cup ...
“The coach [Hugo Broos] must have told you that we are now focusing on the next point, which is the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco and then the World Cup.”
No consequences, thank you very much. Absolutely zero attempt to explain to fans why Safa fielded Mokoena.
Jordaan’s arrogant declaration that “the matter is closed” (by who?) should, however, be seen within the South African context.
We have become a country where our leaders and civil servants constantly tell us to move on when there have been massive transgressions — and we do.
We demand no sanctions, no explanation, no action, against those who do absolutely the worst things in society.
Why should Safa identify and sanction the culprit in this matter when just last week we all sat quietly and watched as the late Nathi Mthethwa, a rogue from the state capture days, was garlanded as a hero despite being named repeatedly at the Zondo commission and now the Madlanga commission?
Did he abuse crime intelligence slush funds to build walls at his house, as alleged?
Did he tell KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi to not arrest rogues that he and former president Jacob Zuma wanted to protect?
This nation, we the people who now demand action at Safa, has been happy to see all this swept under the carpet.
Old black men and women, pensioners, lost their life savings in the VBS Mutual Bank fraud.
Yet politicians who benefited from this looting continue to hop happily from one political party to another and to lecture us on various matters.
What happened to the VBS criminal cases? What happened to the pledges to ensure “justice for all”, not just for some?
We are a country where impunity is entrenched and normalised. Transnet, Eskom, the SA Revenue Service, SA Airways and others were looted in the state capture years, but no-one is in jail right now for these crimes.
Violent crime flourishes because few are caught and even fewer prosecuted. No-one at the NPA is ever held accountable.
The politicians responsible for allowing such impunity are not punished by the voter at election time.
I write this sitting in a Johannesburg where there is no running water, yet voters have repeatedly returned the same politicians to power.
Danny Jordaan has worked out that we like to scream and shout and demand accountability.
He knows that he can dismiss all these demands and protect his people within Safa.
He knows we will accept his actions and, come election day, we will vote for the people who put him in power.
Jordaan knows the one great truth of democratic SA: No one is ever held accountable, and rogues thrive.
We know it too and have accepted it. The impunity at Safa is typical of SA. Danny is us and we are him.