Patrice Motsepe (Gallo Images)
- Patrice Motsepe’s “Africa loves Donald Trump” comment earlier this year could influence his bid in the upcoming CAF presidential election.
- Motsepe is up against Ahmad Ahmad (Madagascar), Augustin Senghor (Senegal), Jacques Anouma (Ivory Coast) and Amid Yahya (Mauritius).
- However, the incumbent Ahmad has just been banned by FIFA for five years due to financial indiscretion.
It’s been likened to getting into bed with the devil – and although billionaire Patrice Motsepe had made a partial apology earlier this year for his’ Africa loves Donald Trump ‘comment, the lingering reminder of the Mamelodi’ s astonishing blunder about the controversial US president Sundowns owner could influence his bid in the upcoming CAF presidential election.
Motsepe, with his bid to lead the African Football Monitoring Body, launched by the South African Football Association (SAFA), is one of five candidates, including Madagascar’s current incumbent Ahmad Ahmad, vying for the post of CAF President when the elections are held in March. .
However, Ahmad has just been banned by FIFA for five years due to financial missteps and despite his stated intention to appeal the sentence, his bid for reelection appears to be significantly jeopardized.
The others in what could become a tough, unconditional struggle for the presidency are Senegalese President Augustin Senghor, Ivory Coast Jacques Anouma and Amid Yahya from Mauritius.
Trump, the US president since 2016 but who will be defeated by Joe Biden, is widely despised in Africa – and around the world for that matter – for his often rude remarks, incessant and compulsive lies and countless corruption allegations, which he has suggested. indiscretions that African nations were “sh ** holes”.
He led an unfounded, vicious campaign insinuating that Barack Obama was not born in America until he became the first black man to be elected president of the United States and although now universally beaten by Biden, he refuses the outcome of the accept recent elections.
After the outrage that followed his extraordinary remark that Africa loves Trump, the Sundowns boss and chairman of the African Rainbows Mining Empire admitted he had no right to speak on behalf of the continent, adding that his motive was to relations between South Africa and the United States.
But at no point has he reversed his personal feelings about the delicate matter.
Motsepe’s unconditional apology has not allayed the disgust many on the African continent maintain for initial praise towards Trump and is likely to be a factor in the CAF election – despite the multi-billionaire’s immense services to South African football in general, including transforming Sundowns into the most successful club in the country, as well as his philanthropic acts that extend beyond the boundaries of sports activities.
Plus, it’s a mystery why Motsepe stands up for the continent’s riddled football presidency at all, with so many other commitments – business and otherwise as the country’s third richest person – with most of CAF’s business coming from their headquarters in Egypt, where he should spend a lot of time.
If elected CAF president, Motsepe must relinquish the presidency of the Sundowns.
Could it be that after several failed missions to become CAF president himself, SAFA president Danny Jordaan sees Motsepe as a viable and attractive candidate to represent the interests of South Africa and SAFA in a more sympathetic way, while breaking through what is compared as a North African stranglehold? on the organization?
In this regard, the lovable Motsepe certainly has a lot to offer – while the CAF government and many member states have in the past viewed South Africa in the light of an attempt to usurp their own control and power for its wealth.
Could Motsepe contradict this teaching with his fortune of R30 billion or so? And then there’s the gory link and acclaim for what most Africans feel is a despicable, racist enemy in Trump and anything but a friend of the continent.
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