If Sport and Recreation Minister Fikile Mbalula had any respect for the rights of South Africans, he should answer a series of “urgent questions” relating to the 2010 Soccer World Cup corruption allegations, the Democratic Alliance said on Wednesday.

“Yesterday, FIFA confirmed that the South African government, in agreement with the South African Football Association (Safa), requested that FIFA pay $10m to the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association (Concacaf),” sports and recreation spokesperson for the DA Solly Malatsi said in a statement.

“This was earmarked for their ‘Diaspora Legacy Programme’. The money was part of a fund originally intended for use by the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the 2010 World Cup.”

Malatsi said Mbalula should tell South Africa which members of government did then-Safa president Molefi Oliphant consult with before he instructed FIFA to pay the $10m to Concacaf.

Questions unanswered

The sports minister should also state which members of government, or Safa, gave instructions to authorise the transfer, why Concacaf was chosen over all other federations, what Concacaf did with the $10m, and whether the transfer was audited.

Further, if former LOC head and current Safa president Danny Jordaan, now also mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay, was the “ultimate authority” for the 2010 bid committee finances, surely he would have signed off on all major payments and transfers.

“Did he?” Malatsi asked.

“It is a fact that the 2010 World Cup will go down in history as one of our crowning achievements. It is, however, important to get to the bottom of the allegations on how the $10m, which could have been used for sport development in our country, was spent.”

Mbalula and members of the 2010 World Cup LOC are expected to brief media in relation to the allegations on Wednesday.

Safa letter

Meanwhile, a letter addressed to FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke surfaced, seemingly linking Valcke to the payment to the Diaspora Legacy Progamme.

On Tuesday, FIFA admitted that it had processed a $10m payment from South Africa to a disgraced football official, but denied that Valcke was involved.

The letter’s author, Oliphant, also requests that the Diaspora Legacy Progamme be administered and implemented by the president of Concacaf – who at the time was Jack Warner, the man at the centre of a US investigation into a number of corruption and bribery charges.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter, re-elected for another term only last week, suddenly announced his resignation from his position on Tuesday amid corruption allegations engulfing the world soccer body. News24