Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula is living on cloud cuckoo land when it comes to his views on the collapse of Tokyo Sexwale’s ambitious bid for ascendancy to the Fifa presidency.
The overzealous Mbalula, well-known in media circles as ‘Mr Razzmatazz’ for his not-so-well-thought-out blurry comments, cried foul when his erstwhile comrade’s bid for the top FIFA job crumbled before his very own eyes.
Mbalula, in his usual ranting style, claimed that his comrade’s desire to become Fifa president had been undone by the African continent’s ‘betrayal’, saying the outcome could have been different had Sexwale been given the full support and backing of Africa.
“First and foremost, as a South African, there was an expectation internally on his [Tokyo’s] campaign. But then they [other delegations] started badmouthing him because people probably had expectations of being paid.”
No Mr Mbalula, sir, if you so believed in ‘donating’ to Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf) in order to bring the 2010 Fifa World Cup to South Africa and the African soil for the very first time, what would have stopped the same ‘donations’ if you wanted to put a black face in Fifa for the very first time?
If you had so much money to ‘donate’ to Concacaf, why didn’t you do the same to maybe, Concacaf and others – again to ensure they supported Tokyo’s campaign and ultimately voted for your comrade.
Tokyo was not betrayed by anyone at all, Safa or Caf. We never nominated Tokyo and hence it goes without saying that we never betrayed him.
Maybe those like yourself who nominated him betrayed him. Tokyo just arrived on the scene as this monstrous football outsider who wanted to bulldoze everyone out of the way as the Fifa Messiah. He simply thought everyone would support and vote for him by virtue of the clout he carries with his tag of being a South African struggle icon and a political heavyweight that he thinks he is.
Some of those people in Safa and Caf have been in football all their lives and then there comes this outsider who thinks he can just jump them and nominate himself as a candidate and then later go back to them on his knees to beg for their endorsement.
Even in your own ‘burial club’ it doesn’t work like that. You get nominated first by your branch. If not, you then lobby for nomination and they will eventually nominate or decline your ambition. You don’t impose your candidacy on people and, when they don’t vote for you, you turn around and cry foul and say you were betrayed.
