The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) is considering whether to charge SAFA president Danny Jordaan and chief financial officer Grone Hloyo with financial misdemeanours related to SAFA’s alleged funds.
“After some hesitation from Mr. Jordan, he ended up complying” on May 10 this year and gave a statement of warning to the Hawks after a directive from the NPA to do so in June 2022, NPA spokesperson Mthunzi Mahaga told Scorpio.
Having previously denied all relevant allegations, Jordan’s colleagues expect him to have denied all allegations against him.
Hloyo, through his merged EFG attorneys, declined on August 4, 2022 to provide a statement of caution, which he has hesitated since he was directed to do so in October 2020.
“Because of the lack of compliance, the NPA is still assessing whether to charge it,” Mahaga said.
Safa National Executive Committee member, Malisela Moka, has filed a criminal complaint against Safa National Executive Committee member, Malisela Moka, Safa Audit and Risk Committee, and former Safa CEO Dennis Mumble.
Hloyo, as Safa’s CFO, is the one who supposedly pushed the “pay” button and is drawn as being under Jordaan’s influence.
Jordan and Al-Safa have become synonymous over the past two decades. He was recognized as the CEO who brought home the 2010 FIFA World Cup, and he was celebrated. Related to this success, however, is the thorny issue of whether Safa paid a $10 million bribe to complete the awarding of the World Cup to South Africa, and Jordan’s central role in that scheme. In 2013, Jordan was elected president of the association, a position he has remained in as the longest-serving in Al-Safa’s history.
Since then, his leadership style—described by some current and former colleagues as that of a tyrannical, power-hungry man acting without integrity and often outside his authority and in violation of a set of Safa systems—has earned him many enemies.
It should be noted that most members of the National Elections Commission fully support Jordan. In particular, his enemies say, because Jordan blatantly “buys” the NEC with fees, expensive cars and flights, and financial support — and Safa always foots the bill, of course. Stacking the accusations is former ANC lawmaker Jennifer Ferguson, who in 2018 charged Jordan with rape after she alleged he did it in a hotel room more than two decades earlier.
On Friday, an exasperated Jordan also arranged a farce press conference — no questions were allowed and Jordan himself gathered off the field — to announce civil and criminal proceedings against criminal investigator Bart Henderson, author of an embarrassing-sounding report alleging possible material wrongdoing at Safa, with Jordan present in the middle. (The announcement leaves the person with a chuckle and a wish that, somehow, he will actually be taken to court for a judge to rule on. First, Jordan seems to have forgotten he’s going to tie himself up in a devastating discovery process. Second, if controversy is up, would Marcus Giusti now be able to sue? PwC over the embarrassing Steinhoff report? Bill for Jordan’s legal escapades.)
Read more at The Daily Maverick: The Football Association Slams Corruption Allegations Against Danny Jordan – Plans To Take Legal Action
However, the symptoms of a bad attachment cannot be hidden for very long. Chillingly, the Motsepe Foundation had to broker peace between Banyana Banyana and Safa management hours before the team was due to leave New Zealand and the FIFA Women’s World Cup. The drama, of course, was about the money – something Safa doesn’t have and the Baniana players deserve. So Motsepes opened their wallet. Read this sunday at City Press by Timothy Molobi is well worth a look.
There seems to be no end to Jordan’s yellow cards. Through their lawyer, Lesidi Mphahlele, Jordan and Hoyo declined to comment on a range of questions.
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The criminal complaints signed by Mooka, Nhlapo, and Mumble relate primarily to five incidents.
The first two complaints relate to the alleged looting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup Heritage Fund, to purchase a run-down family entertainment park known as the Fun Valley Pleasure Resort in south Johannesburg. It was earmarked for development as the National Technical Center for Safa, and the idea was to establish a center for research, development, and training related to football.
According to written statements, in September 2014, Jordaan “unilaterally” secured a grant of R87.7 million from the Legacy Trust that was earmarked for the purchase and upgrade of the Fun Valley property. The sale was registered a year later. Having looked at the planning of technical spending paperwork, Nhlapo further suggests that around 5.2 million rand in the meantime appears to have been lost without proper explanation.
The Fun Valley price negotiations themselves seem very questionable. According to Mucha, Jordan and former FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke visited landlord Godfrey Cohen and agreed a deal. R65 million. (Valcke is currently fighting allegations of bribery related to media rights at the World Cup in the Court of Appeal of the Swiss Federal Criminal Court. He has since been banned from all football-related activities until 2032 by the FIFA Ethics Committee for violating the Code of Ethics in connection with the case relating to allegations of bribery in FIFA. FIFA World Cup 2010.)
Jordan then allegedly ordered Mumble and Hoyu to seal the deal. When tasked with appraising the property, Mumble and Hluyo were informed that Fun Valley was already worth between 30 million and 35 million rand. In Mumble’s version, this means that Jordan struck a deal whereby Saffa would pay about double the value of the property.
Why the valuation of the property was done after the agreement was made, why Mumble and Hluyo as CEO and CFO didn’t do the deal there, and then why Jordaan was involved at all in operational matters, is unclear. Mumble didn’t react to Scorpio’s questions about his and Jordan’s behavior, though he’d complained bitterly about Jordaan under oath and on record before. In mid-2015, the first FinVale payments were recorded in Safa accounts. The struggling FA just got poorer.
The third complaint against Jordan relates to the much-discussed $10 million “bribery” to close the 2010 FIFA World Cup award. The South Africans consistently allege that the $10 million was “support” for the CAF’s African Diaspora Heritage Programme. and the Caribbean (CONCACAF). However, the money was paid into a bank account controlled by Jack Warner, former FIFA vice-president and CONCACAF president. Despite many protests, Jordan is said to have played a central role in the saga. amaBhungane wrote about it below:
2010 World Cup $10m ‘bribe’: South Africa ruled out even as $201m returned to FIFA
In May 2015, the US Attorney General issued indictments against 14 soccer officials for wire fraud, racketeering and money laundering. The indictment named two “unaccused South African co-conspirators”. So Jordan’s attorneys appropriately tapped a dime a line – the basis for the third criminal complaint. Mooka and Mumble argue that the whole escapade with the local and international lawyers that Jordan consulted cost Safa north of R10 million. According to Mumble, the lion’s share of about R4 million was paid to an American law firm for Jordaan’s personal defense in the case. The argument here is that the legal bill was in his favour, not Safa’s pocket.
In the fourth and fifth complaints, Mumble and Mocha alleged that Jordan again used Safa’s money for his own needs without the approval of Safa’s management. According to Mumble, Jordaan unilaterally appointed the reputable company Grit Communications and instructed Safa to pay just over a million rand. This was in exchange for PR services to soften his image after former ANC MP Jennifer Ferguson in 2017 accused Jordan of raping her more than two decades earlier and later charged the police.
Safa also billed Badger security services of R40,250 in October 2018 for risk assessments and bodyguards – apparently to protect Jordan at Safa’s heated election conference in May of that year. Mumble said this contradicted the facts.
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Safa’s disagreements, always with Jordan in the middle of the drama, are as old as Jordan’s nearly three decades at the association – first as CEO, and since 2013 as president. Jordan has a habit of fighting with his deputy who, in turn, continually accuse him of dictatorial tendencies and of ruling by an “ocracy” (mob rule or the masses while intimidating the legitimate authorities).
The main issue in all battles is, of course, the Safa’s money.
The administration of Jordan and Al-Safa has, in the past, denied any wrongdoing. DM
In this series entitled “Yellow Cards in Safa”, Scorpio highlights some of the many problems in association football.
