adminSOUTH AFRICA’s main opposition party has filed papers seeking a police investigation into bribery allegations against two chief organisers of the 2010 football World Cup. The Democratic Alliance (DA) complaint has been made against Danny Jordaan and Molefi Oliphant, who led the bid. It alleges that $10m (£6.4) was paid in exchange for winning the right to host the tournament – the first in Africa. The South African government and football officials deny paying a bribe.
They say the money was paid but it was for football projects in Trinidad.
Jordaan says he has never been involved in bribery. Cape Town police are now obliged to investigate the complaint, the BBC’s Milton Nkosi in Johannesburg reports.
Yesterday, DA spokesman Solly Malatsi said the papers were filed at a police station in Cape Town to “initiate a criminal investigation into the allegation”.
The claims made “against Jordaan and Oliphant include fraud as well as corruption under Section 3 of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act,” he said.
A police spokesman confirmed that a complaint of fraud had been received.
The DA alleges that Jordaan, the head of South Africa’s bidding committee in 2007, and Oliphant, the president of the South African Football Association (Safa) at the time, instructed officials from world football governing body Fifa to authorise the payment of $10m to Concacaf (North‚ Central American and Caribbean Association Football).
Earlier this year, US investigators alleged that much of the $10m ended up in the pockets of former Fifa Vice-President Jack Warner.
Warner – who denies any wrongdoing – has been indicted by US authorities on charges of bribery and racketeering.
Jordaan is currently the president of Safa, and mayor of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape province.— BBC Sport
Online Reporter