On May 21, Africa’s “illicit financial flows” (IFF) looting was partially dissected by Nelson Mandela’s successor, Thabo Mbeki, in his urgent-sounding report to the African Union, Track it! Stop it! Get it! Mbeki’s bottom line: “Currently, Africa is estimated to be losing more than $50 billion annually in IFFs. But these estimates… often exclude some forms of IFFs that by nature are secret and cannot be properly estimated, such as proceeds of bribery and trafficking of drugs, people and firearms.” Or such as secret deals in minerals and oil; South Africa’s ruling party (under Mbeki’s leadership) made dodgy payments to shady characters in Nigeria, Texas and Saddam-era Iraq. Or tax giveaways by politicians; Mbeki’s 14 years as South Africa’s deputy president (1994-99) and president (1998-2008) witnessed the main corporate tax rate falling from 48% to 28%. Or exchange controls against capital outflows; Pretoria dropped its main exchange control – the financial rand – in 1995 and let the largest Johannesburg firms relocate to London in 1999, causing a massive increase in South Africa’s current account deficit due to ‘licit’ offshoring of profits. These are unmentionables in Mbeki’s report: some of last week’s revealing elite silences.
“Africa is estimated to be losing more than $50 billion annually in Illicit Financial Flows.”
On May 27, the US Justice Department and FBI alleged that the Zurich-based world soccer mafia known as FIFA exudes “corruption that is rampant, systemic and deep-rooted.” Yet two days later, world soccer dictator Sepp Blatter was re-elected head of the notoriously corrupt Zurich institution FIFA, which runs the World Cup. “Why would I step down? That would mean I recognize that I did wrong.” But on June 2, he did indeed promise to step down within the next nine months, as Justice Department pressure mounted enough to crack even Blatter’s arrogance. According to the New York Times’ explanation, “One high-ranking soccer official said Mr. Blatter had been advised by his legal counsel that continuing in his current position could make defending him against possible future prosecution more difficult.”
More than a decade ago, Blatter’s long-time FIFA ally, Jack Warner from Trinidad, allegedly demanded from Mbeki’s government a bribe of $10 million just before the May 2004 vote deciding the host country for the 2010 Soccer World Cup. The main competitor then was Morocco, whose kingdom apparently offered only $1 million to Warner, and hence was the loser by 14 to 10 votes. This is known because of testimony by a fellow bribee, Chuck Blazer, who controlled US soccer for many years, and who wanted $1 million from South Africa. Blazer, formerly a Warner crony but also recently prosecuted for soccer corruption, is being treated for terminal cancer in Manhattan and has turned state’s witness, along with Warner’s sons.
According to the Justice Department, after the 2004 vote, “the South Africans were unable to arrange for the payment to be made directly from government funds. Arrangements were thereafter made with FIFA officials to instead have the $10 million sent from FIFA – using funds that would otherwise have gone from FIFA to South Africa to support the World Cup.” The US agencies’ surveillance technology traced the $10 million to a slush fund benefiting Warner and his mates.