Department: Sort and Recreation South Africa
5 June 2015
Today's Media24 headline: "Mbeki decided to donate the $10m to FIFA - Mbalula" (see here) is a distortion of what I told the Media24 in an interview I had with them.
I reiterated what I said during Wednesday's press briefing, which was that former President Thabo Mbeki had, on previous occasions, publicly made reference to South Africa's contribution to soccer development to other parts of the African Continent and the Diaspora in the context of the 2010 Soccer World Cup. Some of this information is available electronically, for instance on YouTube and articles on the internet.
Subsequent to the interview, News24 contacted me for a response to two former Cabinet ministers, Ronnie Kasrils and Terror Lekota both of whom allegedly stated that cabinet never approved any financial contribution to the Diaspora.
I responded that both former Ministers should be aware that their view is politically reactionary. I also questioned Why 'Red Ronny' feels the need to do imperialism's bidding.