He is a lawyer from South Africa, a business tycoon, a mining magnet with a net worth of $2,9 billion and one of the wealthiest African on the continent. A father, a husband and a brother-in-law to both President Cyril Ramaphosa and Minister Jeff Radebe.
Patrice is the owner of Mamelodi Sundowns, the reigning premier soccer league champions in South Africa and holds a 37 percent stake in the rugby outfit, Blue Bulls Co. Now at the age of 59, Motsepe begins his four year term as the President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
Mr. Motsepe began his campaign as the least favourite among the candidates, as a debutant in the political theatres of CAF. Patrice is a very smart and intelligent professional and his campaign strategy says it all. Instead of him announcing his candidacy for CAF, the South African Football Association (SAFA) did that on his behalf.
That was clever; Motsepe is already an authority but he was humble enough to let the association endorse him. That's the sort of grand entrance a debutant carefully looks out for. Patrice stood unopposed at CAF's 43rd General Assembly held in Rabat, Morocco on Friday.
An election is a process, it goes beyond voting every four years in one day. It's about numbers and that's why Patrice's campaign team went all over the world searching for those precious numbers. The team went to Cameroon, Morocco, Egypt and Qatar meeting countless African Football association heads.
The trips were well calculated and they coincided with events such as the African Nations Championship (Chan), a CAF executive meeting, the CAF Champions League final and the FIFA Club World Cup which were attended by FA presidents.
Financial resources were probably not a big deal for Motsepe's camp, but what could have been critical was getting the right people at the right place at the right time selling Patrice's dreams for African Football. There is nothing so important as a campaign message; how it is delivered and received.
Patrice Motsepe's manifesto was on point. He presented the manifesto just fifteen days before the elective congress and placed emphasis on good governance and ethics. Motsepe believes there are many companies all over the world that are prepared to fund football, but they fear corruption especially in Africa.
This is true, we have seen this happening in Europe, big companies are involved in football; there is money in that game. His message was well directed, in other words Motsepe was simply saying, vote for me, I already have billions of dollars, why would I steal from CAF and deprive footballers and upcoming talent.
Senegal's Augustin Senghor, together with Ahmed Yahya from Mauritania and Jacques Anouma from Ivory Coast withdraw as Motsepe's rivals in exchange of leadership and executive positions. It's better to "win some and loose some" than to loose everything. Thirteen of the fourteen Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) were rallying behind Motsepe although West Africa was seemingly split.
There is surely a lot that one can write about Patrice's victory; his message was simple and straightforward, his plan worked, the campaign team was legit, his business experience punctuated his work, his leadership role at Mamelodi Sundowns put him ahead, the man has a clean background coupled with fair controversy, no wonder why he was unopposed.
Congratulations President Patrice
@stajicesimmz