ANC MPs shot down a request that Danny Jordaan and Molefi Oliphant be summoned to account for the Fifa allegations.
|||Parliament - ANC MPs in the parliamentary portfolio committee on sport on Tuesday shot down a request from opposition parties that Danny Jordaan and Molefi Oliphant be summoned to account for allegations that South Africa paid a bribe to host the 2010 World Cup.
In a heated meeting of the committee, MPs from the Democratic Alliance (DA), National Freedom Party (NFP) and the United Democratic Movement (UDM) pushed for Molefi, the then SA Football Association (SAFA) president, and Jordaan, the current SAFA president, to be summoned to explain the payment of 10 million US dollars to the Caribbean football association Concacaf.
“They [2010 bid committee] are involved in a dirty public point scoring and they haven’t had the platform to take South Africans into their confidence and Parliament is that platform,” DA MP Solly Malatsi said in apparent reference to Oliphant telling the media he felt betrayed, claiming Jordaan had not disclosed the existence of a 2007 letter to Fifa asking that the US$10 mln be paid to Concacaf.
Mncedisi Filtane from the UDM supported the DA’s call, saying: “We have questions we need answers to. We are the last hope of the country in this matter…”
But ANC MPs said they would not support this move - insisting that sports minister Fikile Mbalula, notwithstanding the fact that he was not part of the 2010 bid committee, should be the one to account to Parliament.
MPs cited the US investigation into the bribery allegations, and the possibility that both Oliphant and Jordaan could be indicted as reason not to call them.
“This thing started in America and we’ve seen people arrested in Zurich. We have for all these years respected the sub judice thing. All of a sudden we want to break it,” said ANC MP Samuel Mmusi.
“I’m sorry I’m not going to be part of a group that will agree that Danny Jordaan and Molefi Oliphant be summoned to this committee. We are saying the first port of call must be the minister because that is the correct thing to do because we are not a banana republic.”
ANC MP Strike Ralegoma said since “the South African government is under attack”, Mbalula was the one that needed to answer MPs questions.
In the end, ANC MPs used their majority to push through a resolution that Mbalula be asked to appear before the committee on June 23. It was up to Mbalula to decide whether he would be bringing SAFA executives with him to brief the MPs.
ANA
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