The ruling African National Congress on Tuesday rejected a motion to summon South African Football Association President, Danny Jordaan, and his predecessor, Molefi Oliphant.
Both were to be summoned to account to the Portfolio Committee on Sports and Recreation sitting in Cape Town on the 2010 World Cup bribery allegations.
The Committee instead resolved to call Sports Minister, Fikile Mbalula, to provide answers on the biggest corruption scandal to rock the football world.
The official opposition Democratic Alliance welcomed the chance to seek answers from the Minister, saying the individuals implicated in authorising the payment from FIFA to CONCACAF are in a far better place to provide the answers the South African public are seeking.
Last week, two letters directly implicating these men emerged.
The letters instructed FIFA to redirect $10 million to former FIFA Vice-President Jack Warner’s CONCACAF account.
However, US prosecutors and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have not yet named the South African officials implicated in the recent bribery allegations.
“The insistence of ANC members of the committee that they cannot call Jordaan, Oliphant and others because of the sub judice rule is laughable,” said DA MP, Solly Malatsi.
Mbalula last week insisted that the funds were earmarked as a donation to support the building of a football venue for people of African descent in the Caribbean.
“It was an approved programme and we can’t understand why this is now interpreted as a bribe,” an Mbalula said.
In other developments, South Africa’s Hawks elite crime-fighting unit has launched a preliminary investigation into the allegations.
PANA/NAN.
