More muck on SA part in FIFA corruption; Lekota: $10m was a bribe

So now we know many heavyweights within the ruling ANC including then President Thabo Mbeki knew all about the $10m bribe. They went along with paying bribes to the FIFA executives, it seems, because that was the only way to land the 2010 showpiece. If Morocco offered $5m for votes, we needed to offer $10m. And the final part of the plan is when you’re caught, deny everything as Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula has done. Mbalula wasn’t in the National Cabinet when apparent support for a Caribbean soccer academy was supposed to have been discussed. But COPE Leader Mosiuoa Lekota was. And both he and another then cabinet member Ronnie Kasrils say nothing was ever raised (see statement at bottom of story). In all the skulduggery to get the FIFA World Cup to SA, nobody seems to have stopped to consider the consequences which are now apparent. For Mbeki whose most common response to allegations of corruption was that the bribers should be treated as harshly as those bribed (fancy a convict’s jumpsuit Thabo?). For a political movement which attracted support because of its noble ideals, whose morals are being exposed to be aligned with those replaced. For Danny Jordaan, two days into his new deployment as the mayor of PE to bolster the ANC’s chances of retaining control of the important metropole in the 2016 election. The Good Lord sure hasn’t lost his sense of humour. Or timing. – Alec Hogg

Pull the other leg Mr Jordaan. More Zapiro brilliance at zapiro.com
Pull the other leg Mr Jordaan. More Zapiro brilliance at zapiro.com

Russia and Qatar could lose the right to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups if evidence is found of corruption in the bidding process, a FIFA official was quoted as saying on Sunday.

The comments by the head of FIFA’s auditing and compliance committee came as bribery claims mounted against disgraced former FIFA vice president Jack Warner, the man at the heart of the scandal engulfing football’s world body.

“If evidence exists that Qatar and Russia received the (World Cup) awards only thanks to bribes, then the awards could be annulled,” Domenico Scala told the Swiss newspaper Sonntagszeitung.

He said however that “this evidence has not been provided” so far.

His comments are the first by a senior FIFA official to even open up the possibility of either Russia or Qatar being stripped of the right to host the football extravaganza.

Swiss judicial authorities are already probing the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar as part of a far-reaching corruption scandal that has also raised questions about the 2010 event in South Africa.

Around 14 current or former FIFA officials and sports marketing executives are also accused by US prosecutors of taking part in a sweeping kickbacks scheme going back 20 years involving a total of $150 million in bribes.

Blatter’s replacement will not be chosen for months, but Freddy Rumo, a former vice-president of European football’s governing body UEFA, has said that changing FIFA presidents will not root out graft at the organisation.

“The corruption, in my opinion, has nothing to do with Blatter’s person,” he told Swiss public broadcaster RTS.

“The solution of replacing a president with another will have basically zero effect.”

Although Blatter has not been charged and has denied any wrongdoing, allegations are swirling around his one-time right-hand man Warner.

Accusations surfaced on Sunday that Warner sought a $7 million bribe from Egypt for votes in the bidding process for the 2010 World Cup, and that he pocketed a $10 million payment from South Africa — the eventual host.

Warner was arrested on May 29 at the request of US authorities and is currently free on $400,000 bail pending a decision in his extradition case.

The 72-year-old former schoolteacher and Trinidadian justice minister has denied all the allegations against him.

The BBC claimed he personally used the $10 million payment to FIFA in 2008 which South Africa says was intended for football development for the African diaspora in the Caribbean, where Warner was the longtime football baron.

The BBC, citing documents it has seen, said Warner laundered the money through a supermarket chain, made cash withdrawals, paid off his credit cards and took personal loans.

In three transactions in 2008, funds totalling $10 million were moved from FIFA’s bank into an account of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) which was controlled by Warner, then its president.

According to a 2007 email published on Sunday by South Africa’s Sunday Times, Blatter and then South African president Thabo Mbeki discussed the $10 million.

The email came from FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke, who has previously said “I have nothing to blame myself for” over the payment.

$1 million per vote

In another allegation, former Egyptian sports minister Aley Eddine Helal said Warner asked Egypt in 2004 for a $7-million bribe in exchange for seven votes to host the 2010 Cup.

“Warner was the one who approached us from FIFA. He said he could guarantee us seven votes… He asked for $1 million for each vote,” claimed Helal, who has said Warner’s offer was rebuffed.

Egypt, one of the countries dominating African football, received no votes in the 2004 FIFA ballot.

Warner — still a powerful member of parliament in Trinidad and Tobago — has taken out paid advertisements in the Trinidadian media, published articles in local newspapers and held rallies with his Independent Liberal Party to defend himself.

The country’s justice minister said on Sunday that Warner should be investigated locally, but added that he should nevertheless turn himself in to US authorities.

FIFA has also been rocked by testimony from disgraced former North American football supremo Chuck Blazer that he and other FIFA executives agreed to accept bribes during bidding for both the 2010 Cup and the 1998 event hosted by France.

Blazer’s testimony — released last week — is a key plank in the US probe against FIFA, which federal prosecutors are pursuing as a “Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organisation”.

South Africa on Sunday “categorically” denied it paid bribes to secure the World Cup — the first in Africa and one of Blatter’s main pledges when he took over as FIFA president in 1998.

The former chief of France’s 1998 World Cup organising committee last week also denied any “irregularities” over their bid. © 1994-2015 Agence France-Presse

Lekota: “It is nothing else but a cover up for a bribe that was indeed a bribe”

From COPE: 

Mosiuoa Lekota and Ronnie Kasrils have made it clear that the cabinet they served in, never discussed a $10m payment to Caribbean football. Keen footballer that he is, Lekota would have known if such a payment was approved. He was not aware of any decision to transfer funds for any legacy programme in the Caribbean. In his view, “Never once was anything like this discussed in that cabinet. We didn’t know anything. If this was an honest thing, why didn’t they tell South Africa? There is no way we can say this was authorised by government. It is nothing else but a cover up for a bribe that was indeed a bribe.”

COPE President Lekota made the above statement to Sport 24.

Former minister Ronnie Kasrils also confirmed on Sport 24 that he too had “no recollection of that (subject) ever being discussed or such a decision being taken while (he) was in cabinet.”

Former Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel needs to throw light on this matter. He is the best person to do so. He must now come forward and admit or deny government involvement in the $10 million payment. Jabu Moleketi, who was then deputy finance minister and a member of the 2010 local organising committee (LOC ) denied, in the media, that he ever had a discussion with Danny Jordaan recommending the payment of any money to Fifa for transfer to the Diaspora Legacy support programme.

What does Danny Jordaan have to say about that?

The BBC on Sunday 7 June 2015, revealed very detailed information of how the $10m payment went straight to Jack Warner. He was shown to have funnelled a big portion of the money to himself through a supermarket into ready local cash. It also showed documents revealing personal card payments he made; and the other uses to which he put the so called legacy millions. No legacy of any type seems to have arisen from those millions that South Africa passed over to Warner directly as per the written instructions of Dr Oliphant to Fifa.

The people of South Africa had absolutely no knowledge about this massive transfer of funds. It was all done very secretly. A legacy project of that scale would have been trumpeted for all to hear. Nor did the Caribbean authorities ever acknowledge this largesse from South Africa in any way. Astonishingly, no South African political or football official was ever invited to the Caribbean for any official opening of any facility funded by the $10 million handed over by South Africa. As the BBC shows, the money went straight into the pocket of Jack Warner and South African football officials asked no questions and made no follow up. If the Diaspora Legacy programme was of such importance, why were no questions ever raised over eight long years about where the money went to? There is only one inference to be drawn: there was no legacy programme. It was a phantom.

It was an arranged payment that was meant to remain secret. The legacy issue was a post facto red herring. No football development occurred with that money. As Blazer admitted, the money was used to swing the vote South Africa’s way. The stream of evidence that is coming out will swamp all efforts at damage control. Only the truth will set SAFA and the government free.

Every day brings a new twist and turn. This is the time for those who served in the cabinet in late 2007 adduce proof that the matter was indeed discussed in the cabinet and that Danny Jordaan’s version has legitimacy? This should be simple to resolve.

South Africa wants answers as do all footballing nations of the world.

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