Mr Ephraim “Makhanda” Singo. Photo: Frank Mavhungu.
As part of their ongoing efforts to improve the standard of refereeing in the province, the provincial executive committee of the South African Football Association (Safa) in Limpopo has decided to increase the referees’ travelling fees from R600 to R1,200 per team.
According to the chairman of the refereeing sub-committee of the league, Mr Ephraim Singo, the increase was driven by several factors, including the safety of match officials. Singo explained that clubs used to be required to pay R600 each to match officials in the ABC Motsepe League over the past soccer seasons. The match officials would then share the money among themselves (referee, two assistant referees, and the fourth official), meaning each match official was receiving a travelling fee of R300 per match.
Singo said that although the new tariff was lower than what they had initially bargained for, it would still go a long way in addressing the plight of match officials. He indicated that, in some instances, referees were forced to solicit bribes from clubs to subsidise their travelling fees. He cited an example where a referee from Musina was appointed to officiate at a match played at the Jane Furse Stadium in Sekhukhune.
According to Singo, some match officials were compelled to risk their lives by accepting free lifts from strangers late at night as the travelling fee was not enough to cover their trips to match venues. When asked if they had charged any match official for soliciting a bribe from a club recently, Singo said that although they had had no formal records of such cases, they had been receiving unconfirmed reports of such incidents.
Makhanda, as he was widely known during his days as a referee, revealed that, in some cases, referees were forced to travel with the visiting teams to minimise travelling costs. In these situations, the referees often felt indebted to the clubs and returned the favour in the form of results. Singo concluded by stating that the standard of refereeing had improved remarkably since the new tariff was implemented two weeks ago.
