2010 World Cup bribery claims are ‘despicable’, says Mbalula
SPORTS Minister Fikile Mbalula said yesterday it was “ludicrous” and “insane” to insinuate that South African football officials had been part of a syndicate to defraud and corrupt world football body Fifa.
He stressed the government had not bribed anyone to ensure that South Africa won the bid for the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
Speaking in Parliament yesterday, Mbalula said Safa’s disbursement of $10 million to fund African Diaspora projects was totally legitimate.
He demanded that Fifa retract a statement it had made on Wednesday that it believed South Africa had paid a bribe to host a World Cup, saying the claims were “despicable”.
Mbalula said he wanted the Justice Ministry to intervene to stop Fifa’s “capricious’’ lawyers from targeting South Africans in the corruption scandal.
“I will ensure that we do not allow South African citizens to be victims of global syndicates and subjected to the unfair treatment of global bodies who show no regard for the sovereignty of our state,” said Mbalula.
The government had a letter to prove that the $10m was slated for African legacy projects, he said. None of the money had come from the government’s coffers, but from Safa and it had been transferred through established Fifa bodies, he said.
“It didn’t go through the underground or through a suitcase,” Mbalula said.
Fifa’s claim that South Africa had paid a $10m bribe to former Concacaf president Jack Warner was not based on any fact or new evidence, Mbalula said.
He claimed the information had been “rehashed” from a US indictment of corrupt former officials.
“It’s not Fifa which says this is bribery, it’s those who are in the hands of the authorities,” said Mbalula.
“The insinuation of Fifa on the relationship between South African and Mr Warner is contemptible.”
Mbalula claimed the money had been disbursed after the vote for the 2010 World Cup and hence could not have been a bribe.
“Why would you bribe people after the occasion? It is really absurd for anybody to suggest that we are hiding the truth, to say that this is bribery,” said Mbalula.
The DA has called for a police investigation to investigate the bribery allegations.
DA MP Solly Malatsi said: “What government or organisation would authorise the payment of $10m without documentation or regular reporting on how the funds were spent?
“Surely decisions of this magnitude would have been documented if they were indeed above board”.
Mbalula confirmed that Fifa had sent questions to Safa president Danny Jordaan, former Safa boss Molefi Oliphant and Premier Soccer League chairman Irvin Khoza in relation to the $10m.
Mbalula said he was taken aback by Fifa’s decision to sanction three South African officials on match-fixing charges, alleging that the football body had not held up a pledge to share the findings of its probe with the South African government first.
Mbalula dismissed questions about whether he had been offered the job of sports minister by the Gupta family.
“We are not governed by the Guptas, we are not run by the Guptas, we are not here for the Guptas, we are here for sport,’’ he said.
“I don’t just dance to music that I didn’t compose. Those who compose the chorus of the Guptas, let them dance to it.”