FIFA Corruption:  DA to seek update on progress of police investigation

16 March 2016

The DA notes with concern reports that FIFA (International Federation of Association Football) has confirmed that South Africa did indeed pay a bribe of $10 million to the bid committee to have the 2010 Soccer World Cup held in South Africa. These confirmatory reports point to incontrovertible evidence that this bribe took place.

The DA will therefore be seeking an urgent report from South African law enforcement as to the progress of the investigation into FIFA President, Danny Jordaan, and then President of SAFA, Molefi Oliphant, who were implicated in the FIFA scandal. The charges laid by the DA against Jordaan and Oliphant include fraud as well as corruption under Section 3 of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act, 2004.

Given the seriousness of this we are hopeful that domestic law enforcement will finally act in this regard and provide a progress report on these charges. To date they have shown little interest in holding the relevant authorities to account that is why we will also be submitting parliamentary questions in pursuance of the full truth in this regard.

This is the first time that FIFA has gone on record categorising as a bribe the $10m that SAFA instructed the global football body to redirect to CONCACAF for the mysterious African Diaspora programme as a bribe since the US attorney general announced its investigation into FIFA executives.

South Africans and the rest of the world deserve to know who made the decision to pay the $10m as a bribe and whether or not government fully aware from the onset that the $10m transaction was a bribe masquerading as funds for the African Diaspora.

Statement issued by Solly Malatsi MP, DA Shadow Minister of Sports and Recreation, 16 March 2016