DA wants to know what progress has been made into SAFA probe

16 March 2016 - 18:29 By TMG Digital

The Democratic Alliance says it will seek an urgent update from local law enforcement agencies on the progress of the investigation into charges it laid against former South African Football Association CEO Danny Jordaan and the body’s former president‚ Molefi Oliphant.Jordaan and Oliphant were implicated in the alleged FIFA scandal.The DA's request follows reports on Wednesday that FIFA had confirmed that South Africa had indeed paid a bribe of $10 million to the bid committee to have the 2010 Soccer World Cup held in South Africa.FIFA details how SA paid US$10 million 'bribe' to secure 2010 World Cup bid“These confirmatory reports point to incontrovertible evidence that this bribe took place‚” said DA spokesman on sport and recreation Solly Malatsi.FIFA demands World Cup bribe money be repaidThe charges the DA laid 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‚” said Malatsi.He added that South Africans and the rest of the world deserved to know who had made the decision to pay the $10m as a bribe and whether or not the government had been fully aware from the onset that the $10m transaction was a bribe masquerading as funds for the African Diaspora...

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