By Bill Archer, Big Soccer correspondent:
By all accounts, Jimmy Mohlala was that rarest of creatures, an honest man.
As Speaker of the Mbombela local municipality, and a former executive within the South African Football Association and member of the World Cup organizing committee, he built a reputation as someone who was outside the influence of the rampant political corruption which is the norm in most of South Africa and the ruling ANC, of which he was a member.
Unfortunately, standing up for the little guy and crusading for the truth only goes so far when you run up against the combined power of big money and national politics when they’re on an all-out greed run.
Like, for example, the 2010 World Cup.
That’s the opening, which then explores the corruption Jimmy was exposing
Under South Africa’s “Land Redistribution Act”, large tracts were given (or given back) to tribes and clans who could show historical ownership rights. The site for the Nelspruit Stadium was given to a clan who in turn hired the Matsafeni Trust to manage it.
But when that site was chosen for the stadium, a trust administrator sold 6000 acres of land he didn’t own to the municipality for one Rand, or about eleven cents US. It was later revealed that the administrator is a business partner with the Mayor and another local politician. Imagine that.
It appears that there is little being done to address the issue. The Mail & Guardian explored the corruption issues a year ago but no changes have taken place, other then Jimmy’s murder. A murder the local police are refusing to tie to Jimmy’s efforts to expose the corruption.
A reminder that our beautiful game is simply a money game. Like South Africa’s efforts to eradicate the shacklands that might affect tourism during the games.
I didn’t think I could get more cynical but these stories are exposing significant tragedies. The final result of 130 years of fighting. And how about this latest example of Blatter and Warner and their fifadoms.
