What should have always been a defining moment for the democratic South Africa is now turning into a reminder of the ugly side of its transformation. First it was collusion between construction companies as they raced to get stadiums ready in time. The nation boasted that preparations were done and dusted three months ahead of deadline. But as we subsequently discovered, this came at a significant cost. Now comes the disgusting reality that had South African taxpayers not paid 10m to a crooked Caribbean soccer chief (for “development” – do me a favour) then the showpiece wouldn’t have come here in the first place. No matter how much the bribers try to insult our collective intelligence, it was obviously SA taxpayer’s money as that $10m was supposed to be injected into the pool used to pay for the cost of hosting the event. Here’s how the Financial Times of London sees things. At least we still have 1995. – Alec Hogg
By Andrew England in Johannesburg and Malcolm Moore in London
Vuvuzelas and votes When a frail Nelson Mandela, the iconic former South African president, was wheeled out in a golf buggy at a packed Johannesburg stadium for the closing ceremony of the 2010 World Cup, the roar from the crowd marked the culmination of what was deemed an overwhelming success forSouth Africa.
The nation had defied the naysayers who warned of poor organisation and fretted over the country’s high crime rate to host a tournament – the first in Africa – that earned global praise and unleashed a swell of national pride.
“We can all applaud Africa,” said Sepp Blatter, president of Fifa, said after the vote. “The victor is football, the victor is Africa.”
Mr Blatter had campaigned for an African World Cup four years earlier, chastising Fifa’s executive committee for not having vision when they awarded the competition to Germany, which held the tournament in 2006.
But now the corruption scandal engulfing Fifa threatens to tarnish the legacy as South Africa has been thrust into the centre of a storm over whether its football authorities paid a $10m bride in its bid to host the tournament.
A central element of the FBI investigation into corruption at Fifa – which led to the dawn arrest of seven senior Fifa officials last week – is what the US indictment describes as “2010 Fifa World Cup Vote Scheme.” Over five pages, the indictment outlines what it alleges was an example of bribes securing votes from Fifa officials for countries competing to host the World Cup.
In a robust defence of South Africa, Fikile Mbalula, the sports minister, has denied any brides were paid, describing the allegations as “an attack on our sovereignty”.
“We refuse to allow the reputation of our republic to be tarnished unduly without affording the republic and its citizens an opportunity to respond to any allegations made,” he said in a statement on Sunday. “We reject these falsehoods with the contempt they deserve.”
The tabular content relating to this article is not available to view. Apologies in advance for the inconvenience caused.
The US indictment into the 2010 World Cup bid alleges that Jack Warner, a former Fifa vice-president and ex-chief of Concacaf, football’s governing body for North and Central America and the Caribbean, was initially offered $1m in 2004 by Morocco, South Africa’s rival to host the tournament, in exchange for his vote. But subsequently Charles Blazer, the former general secretary of Concacaf, learned from Mr Warner that “high-ranking officials of Fifa, the South African government, and the South African bid committee, were prepared to arrange for the government of South Africa to pay $10m to ‘support the African diaspora’.”
Mr Blazer – who was allegedly paid $750,000 by Mr Warner – “understood the offer to be in exchange for World Cup votes,” the indictment alleges. Mr Warner, who is among those indicted, was arrested in Trinidad last week in connection with the US investigation.
The indictment describes how $10m was eventually paid in 2008 – not directly from South Africa but through Fifa using funds from the world governing body that were earmarked for South Africa to support its hosting of the tournament.
Separately, it alleges that Mr Warner directed a relative to fly to Paris to accept a briefcase containing stacks of $10,000 bundles in a hotel from a “high ranking South African bid committee official”.
The payment from Fifa on South Africa’s behalf is the smoking gun in the FBI’s case. The payment, the investigators argued, was authorised by an unnamed senior Fifa official, alleged proof that corruption was not confined to within football’s federations but reached back into Fifa headquarters.
Mr Blatter was quizzed on the payment on Saturday following his re-election but denied having authorised it. “Definitely that is not me,” he said. “I have no$10m.”
No South Africans have been named in the indictment or charged with any wrongdoing.
But Mr Mbalula did appear to acknowledge that $10m was paid to Concacaf when he said that his ministry’s position was not contradictory to that of Danny Jordaan, who led South Africa’s World Cup bid.
Mr Jordaan, who is one of the country’s most respected sport’s administrators, was quoted by a local newspaper on Sunday as saying the $10m was paid to a Concacaf football development fund. But he insisted it was not a bribe.
“How could we have paid a bribe (in 2008) for votes four years after we had won the bid (in 2004)?” the Sunday Independent, quoted him as saying.
The paper said that the South African Football Association was to receive $100m from Fifa for hosting the 2010 tournament. But it said Safa only received$80m, with $10m sent to Concacaf and $10m used to build Safa’s headquarters.
Mr Jordaan – who did not respond to phone calls from the Financial Times – is currently president of Safa.
Other high profile figures involved in South Africa’s World Cup bid include Tokyo Sexwale, a former cabinet minister and one of the country’s richest black businessmen, who was a member of the organising committee. He is reported to have played a key role in ensuring an ailing Mandela visited Trinidad in 2004.
The South African Sunday Times, meanwhile, reported that it had seen a letter from Safa to Fifa “instructing” the latter to pay $10m to the Caribbean football union, signed by Molefi Oliphant, then Safa’s president.
Mr Oliphant declined to comment, only telling the FT: “What you have read in the Sunday Times, take it as is.”
(c) 2015 The Financial Times Ltd.
