South Africa’s Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Gayton McKenzie, has stated that VAR implementation in the PSL is now in SAFA’s hands after the government transferred R20 million, warning that failure to introduce it next season would amount to corruption.
The government official emphasized that South Africa cannot lag behind other African nations (including lower-tier leagues like Tanzania’s), stressed the need for fair results based on merit rather than poor refereeing, and expects SAFA to announce rollout plans soon, with preparations already advanced through official training and a study trip to Spain.
“But the timeline they have is next season – there are five games left. There’s a FIFA break happening between those five breaks. There’s a rest between the two. But when we start next year, we must start with, we shall have a commission of inquiry,” said McKenzie on SABC Sport.
“I’m saying that you must – quote me on this. If there’s no VAR, we will talk to the sponsors of this league, we will talk to the sponsors of SAFA, and we will talk to the portfolio committee; we will talk to FIFA, and we will then investigate what this is.
“We can’t be looking like we are a 10th world country. We are the leading the country in Africa. So there will be VAR, it must come so that we can see our teams, and when they win they must win on merit not on bad referring.”
Calls for VAR in the South African PSL grew louder in the 2022/23 season after multiple high-profile refereeing errors prompted several coaches to publicly demand the technology, and it remains to be seen whether it will finally be introduced ahead of the 2026/27 campaign
