Johannesburg // A South African football official on Sunday admitted the country had paid out $10 million dollars in 2008 but denied that it was in any way a bribe to Fifa for the 2010 World Cup.
“How could we have paid a bribe for votes four years after we had won the bid?” president of the South African Football Association (SAFA) Danny Jordaan told South Africa’s Sunday Independent.
“I haven’t paid a bribe or taken a bribe from anybody in my life. We don’t know who is mentioned there (in the indictment),” he added.
A US indictment says that in 2008 a Fifa official authorised the payment of $10 million -- an alleged bribe from South Africa for the World Cup -- through a Fifa account to former Fifa vice president Jack Warner.
According to the indictment bundles of cash in a briefcase were earlier allegedly handed over at a Paris hotel as a bribe by a “high-ranking South African bid committee official”. The cash was later handed over to Warner.
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Jordaan, who was president of the 2010 Local Organising Committee, said the $10 million payment was made to the confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf).
The payment, he said, was South Africa’s contribution towards Concacaf’s football development fund. Warner was Concacaf’s president at the time.
Minister of Sport Fikile Mbalula, who had already criticised US authorities for acting without consulting with South Africa, on Sunday angrily refuted the allegations.
“We frown upon any insinuations made in the indictment by the US authorities that suggest that the government of South Africa or any of its citizens have been involved in any wrongdoing without substantiating the allegations, let alone naming the alleged co-conspirators,” he said in a statement.
“We refuse to allow the reputation of our republic to be tarnished unduly without affording the republic and its citizens an opportunity to respond to any allegations made. We view this as an attack on our sovereignty,” added the minister.
Thabo Mbeki, who was president when South Africa won the bid in 2004, becoming the first African country to host the event, has also denied that a bribe had been paid by his government.
“I am not aware of anybody who solicited a bribe from the government for the purpose of our country being awarded the right to host the World Cup,” he said in statement earlier this week, adding “no public money was ever used to pay a bribe.”
He said his government would “never have paid any bribe even if it were solicited.”
Jordaan, who was president of the 2010 Local Organising Committee, said the $10 million payment was made to the confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf).
The payment, he said, was South Africa’s contribution towards Concacaf’s football development fund. Warner was Concacaf’s president at the time.
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It's up to you to go green
Nils El Accad, chief executive and owner of Organic Foods and Café, says going green is about “lifestyle and attitude” rather than a “money change”; people need to plan ahead to fill water bottles in advance and take their own bags to the supermarket, he says.
“People always want someone else to do the work; it doesn’t work like that,” he adds. “The first step: you have to consciously make that decision and change.”
When he gets a takeaway, says Mr El Accad, he takes his own glass jars instead of accepting disposable aluminium containers, paper napkins and plastic tubs, cutlery and bags from restaurants.
He also plants his own crops and herbs at home and at the Sheikh Zayed store, from basil and rosemary to beans, squashes and papayas. “If you’re going to water anything, better it be tomatoes and cucumbers, something edible, than grass,” he says.
“All this throwaway plastic - cups, bottles, forks - has to go first,” says Mr El Accad, who has banned all disposable straws, whether plastic or even paper, from the café chain.
One of the latest changes he has implemented at his stores is to offer refills of liquid laundry detergent, to save plastic. The two brands Organic Foods stocks, Organic Larder and Sonnett, are both “triple-certified - you could eat the product”.
The Organic Larder detergent will soon be delivered in 200-litre metal oil drums before being decanted into 20-litre containers in-store.
Customers can refill their bottles at least 30 times before they start to degrade, he says. Organic Larder costs Dh35.75 for one litre and Dh62 for 2.75 litres and refills will cost 15 to 20 per cent less, Mr El Accad says.
But while there are savings to be had, going green tends to come with upfront costs and extra work and planning. Are we ready to refill bottles rather than throw them away? “You have to change,” says Mr El Accad. “I can only make it available.”
Keep it fun and engaging
Stuart Ritchie, director of wealth advice at AES International, says children cannot learn something overnight, so it helps to have a fun routine that keeps them engaged and interested.
“I explain to my daughter that the money I draw from an ATM or the money on my bank card doesn’t just magically appear – it’s money I have earned from my job. I show her how this works by giving her little chores around the house so she can earn pocket money,” says Mr Ritchie.
His daughter is allowed to spend half of her pocket money, while the other half goes into a bank account. When this money hits a certain milestone, Mr Ritchie rewards his daughter with a small lump sum.
He also recommends books that teach the importance of money management for children, such as The Squirrel Manifesto by Ric Edelman and Jean Edelman.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
Emergency
Director: Kangana Ranaut
Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry
Rating: 2/5
