More obfuscation

YOU know, we should count ourselves lucky to have our government. At every opportunity it educates us and opens our eyes to things we may have been misinterpreting or misinforming others about.

I am going to give you two examples. Let us take the so-called swimming pool at the President’s compound, ‘Nkaaandla’. What appears to some of us as a swimming pool is nothing of the sort. Honourable Police Minister Nkosinathi Nhleko says, “Firefighting experts tested the water pressure and found that an open water source is best for firefighting and nothing could be better than a pool or dam.” Last year it was called a ‘firepool’ and now it is an open water source - all R2.8 million of it. Then, when the Fifa scandal broke and South Africa was mentioned in the FBI probe we were, at first, told there was no such thing. Sport and Recreation Minister Fikile Mbalula convened a press conference to distance the government from the whole thing. “I’ve gone through SA government bank accounts to see if any of this money was paid from our coffers,” Mbalula said. Then Danny Jordaan admitted over the weekend that the $10 million, R120-million to you and me, was paid on behalf of Safa by Fifa to Jack Warner’s Caribbean federation. Then the letter instructing Fifa to pay over the money was published. This prompted another Mbalula press conference, the third in a week.

He said, ‘The South African government has not paid any amount to anyone at any point for the rights to host the 2010 World Cup.” The FBI says it was a bribe, we say not. When the government under Mbeki donated R10-million during the 200year celebration of independence of Haiti he announced it publicly. I am sure the donation of R120-million by the Safa LOC was something similar to help the African diaspora, right? Why did they keep it a secret until the FBI probe uncovered it? Why would they need to specifically say the fund was to be administered by Jack Warner? Surely, when you donate to an organisation you give it to the whole organisa- tion?

“We allocated the resources and haven’t received a breakdown. Money was given unconditionally,” DG Alec Moemi said. Moemi says. “We” yet the minister had said the government was not involved. So which is which? Did the government reimburse Safa for the R120-million shortfall in the Fifa grant? If that was the case it should reflect somewhere. So, in fact the government paid the R120-million. Moemi later said, “We would have won the World Cup bid without us giving money to the Caribbean. We only got two votes from Concacaf”. The final vote was 14-10 to South Africa - do your maths.