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Five talking points from Fikile Mbalula’s Wednesday press conference

Five talking points from Fikile Mbalula’s Wednesday press conference

At a press conference on Wednesday, South Africa’s Minister of Sport and Recreation hardly offered any new insight into South Africa’s alleged involvement in the ongoing FIFA corruption scandal, but when you pick through the bile, there are a few key points to note. By ANTOINETTE MULLER.

If you were hoping to learn anything new from Fikile Mbalula’s press conference regarding South Africa’s alleged involvement in a bribery scandal, you would have been massively disappointed on Wednesday. Members of the 2010 Soccer World Cup local organising committee were supposed to present too, but withdrew at the last minute. When Mbalula arrived to address the press, he simply said: The LOC has been disbanded, it has served its purpose.

While that might be true, it should not exempt the LOC from answering questions, and the fact that they were originally scheduled to appear only raises more eyebrows. And then there is the tantalising irony of the venue of the press conference. Held at SAFA house, a venue build with development fund money, the press conference about allegedly laundered development fund money did not reveal anything new. Reading too much into things is a foolish idea, and breaking it all down into digestible chunks is probably the best way forward. So, here are the key talking points from Wednesday’s press conference.

Mbalula & Co. are holding strong in their denial

Everyone in South Africa is holding firm that they did not pay a bribe and there is really no surprise in that. While it is now clear that $10 million did exchange hands, South African officials insist that it was all done above board. It could very well be the implicated South African official’s get out of jail card because if there is no evidence of the conversations between Jack Warner or Chuck Blazer and the South Africans which proves that the money was transferred in exchange for votes, they can plead ignorance. It will be the Warners’ (Jack and his two sons) against theirs.

Mbalula & Co. are good at pretending they don’t know how laundering works

“A bribe is like a ghost. It’s untouchable, you’ll never find it.” This is perhaps the most salient quote coming from Mbalula to date. While Mbalula plays the fool and insists he knows nothing about a bribe, laundering money is a different story. Mbalula often appears to think that laundering money involves fabric softener and washing powder, but that quote suggests he is not as slow to cotton on as he makes himself out to be.

Nobody knows anything more about the ‘Diaspora Legacy Programme’

A clip has emerged of Thabo Mbeki talking about this ‘Diaspora Legacy Programme’ dating back to 2011. This Programme is, we can assume, the programme ‘run’ by Jack Warner and through which the money was laundered. South Africa had specifically requested this money be transferred to this programme and administered by Warner.

Although there is very little mention of this programme anywhere else prior to the last few days, it does seem to suggest that South Africa knew exactly where they were sending the funds. They insist that the idea behind sending the funds specifically to the Caribbean and not elsewhere in Africa is that they wanted the 2010 World Cup to be an “African World Cup” benefiting Africans from “all over the world”. The fact that these funds were specifically sent to Trinidad and Tobago where Jack Warner was in charge is a mere coincidence.

South African officials also insist that the fact that not more was made of the Legacy Programme almost four years ago is because “the media did not find it newsworthy”.

South Africa thought Jack Warner was seen as a good egg

Jack Warner’s record is a very dubious one and while all his filth only started to come out around 2011, South Africa thought all was fine and dandy when they sent him the money in the first place. But here is the key question: if South Africa is so against corruption and is all for a clean sport, why were questions not asked about how Warner spent the funds?

South Africa said that they had no idea of what he did with the money or where it went. Even more importantly, when the news of Warner’s dubious dealings first became apparent in 2011, why did they not investigate how the funds were spent?

The Oliphant in the room

“It was the decision of the South African government and SAFA. The main actor in the play? Molefi Oliphant.” That’s what Mbalula said when he was asked whose decision it was to create this so-called ‘Diaspora Legacy Programme’. A letter emerged on Tuesday, written by Oliphant, instructing the transferring of these funds to Warner and Oliphant has been dropped smack bang in the middle of the whole saga. When or if he is going to give his side of the story remains to be seen. DM

Photo: South Africa’s Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula, addressing the media during a press conference at SAFA House, Johannesburg, South Africa, 03 June 2015. EPA/SHIRAAZ MOHAMED

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