Safa national office, led by the deputy president, Chief Mwelo Nonkonyana and other delegates, dissolved the new executive during a meeting which was held at the Avhkom Hotel in Thohoyandou on Sunday.

The new Safa Vhembe executive was elected a fortnigt ago at Thohoyandou, and Hulisani Mabasa was elected as the new president. Marcus Mukumela was elected as the first vice-president, Mr George Kubayi as the second vice-president and Albert Malisha was elected as the third vice-president.

Mabasa was elected to the position which was left vacant by Mr Kirsten Nematandani, who is now the president of Safa.

This is likely to split the region, after members from the Mabasa-led executive made it clear they would challenge their dissolution. "This is not fair. We expected Safa to come up with such a decision. It´s all about connections at Safa," said a member of the dissolved committee, who refused to be identified.

The four-hour meeting resolved to nullify the elections held in Thohoyandou two weeks ago. "We know that the Safa delegate wants to force us to elect the previous president, Mr Thivhonali Khorommbi Nemavhola. This is not a chieftiancy, but an organisation which is ruled by the people who were voted in by people and we didn´t vote for Khorommbi", said Mabasa-followers, who don´t want to mentioned.

Nonkonyana said they had agreed to invalidate the election results after allegations were made at the head office that election processes were not followed properly. "A letter was written to the region by the national office, advising them not to conduct the elections during their annual general meeting as there were complaints, but apparently there was a communication breakdown and the message could not be communicated to all parties," said Nonkonyana.

"We agreed to nullify the results to ensure that all parties participate in elections that will be free and fair," Nonkonyana said. "We will appoint an administrator to run the affairs of the organisation. Subsequent to that, there will be elections in 30 days as per the constitution." Both members from the previous committee that was led by Khorombi Nemavhola and the Mabasa-led committee declined to comment about the dissolved committee.