Johannesburg – South African Football Association (Safa) president Danny Jordaan and chief financial officer Gronie Hluyo are facing potential imprisonment for allegedly defying a High Court order to disclose documents related to a $10 million (then about R140 million) 2010 World Cup payment.
Private forensic investigator Bart Henderson filed a contempt of court application last week after Jordaan and Hluyo failed to attend a pre-trial conference on 30 October where they were ordered to hand over the documents. The documents relate to Henderson's allegations that the R140 million payment was a bribe.
Last month, the Pretoria High Court ordered Jordaan and Hluyo to deliver the documents to Henderson. They were also ordered to disclose bank statements detailing how more than R600 million from the 2010 Fifa Legacy Trust was disbursed and to whom.
The pre-trial conference was scheduled to take place at the Sandton offices of Henderson’s attorney, Leslie Sedibe – a former Safa CEO.
"We waited and waited at Sedibe’s offices, and they [Jordaan and Hluyo] were a no-show," Henderson stated.
Safa, Jordaan, and Hluyo’s legal team claimed that they were not ready for the pre-trial because their senior counsel, Norman Arendse, was occupied with Parliament’s ad hoc committee investigating allegations made by Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi. Arendse serves as the committee’s evidence leader.
Sedibe dismissed this excuse, arguing that Henderson was not litigating against Arendse but against Safa, accusing the pair of resorting to “obfuscation and dilatory tactics” to avoid accountability.
Henderson stated that Safa has ignored repeated requests to advance the matter since November last year, leading to this latest attempt to frustrate the process. "Our having to now file a contempt of a court application demonstrable of the contempt Safa, Jordaan and Hluyo have shown for well over a decade. A level of contempt that simply cannot be ignored, condoned or go unchallenged," Henderson said.
The contempt motion asks Judge AJ Minnaar to declare Safa, Jordaan, and Hluyo in contempt of Judge Minnaar’s 1 October order and to impose “a fine and a period of imprisonment, such as is deemed appropriate by this court”.
Henderson said the two had until the end of this week to file a notice of intention to oppose the contempt application and until 15 November to submit their answering affidavit.
Jordaan and Hluyo did not respond to requests for comment. Sedibe told City Press he was unavailable for comment due to a family bereavement and referred queries to his client.
The legal battle stems from Henderson’s June 2023 forensic report, Offsides, published on Change.org, questioning Safa’s governance and financial affairs. Henderson alleged the $10 million was a bribe paid to secure votes for South Africa’s successful World Cup bid. Jordaan, CEO of the 2010 World Cup organising committee, allegedly played a key role in facilitating the transfer. Hluyo, Safa’s chief financial officer since 2007, also allegedly played a central role.
In a 2015 indictment, the US Department of Justice alleged that, in 2004, former Caribbean football chief Jack Warner told former Concacaf general secretary Chuck Blazer that high-ranking officials of Fifa, the South African government, and the SA bid committee were prepared to arrange for the SA government to pay $10 million to the Caribbean Football Union to support the ‘African diaspora’. Safa allegedly transferred the money to Fifa, which channelled it to Warner, then a Fifa vice-president.
According to Henderson’s dossier, based on information contained in the US indictment, SA authorities claimed the payment was “support” for the “African diaspora legacy programme”, but the money was paid into an account controlled by Warner. Henderson alleged Warner received the payment as a reward for voting for SA’s bid and distributed portions to corrupt Fifa officials as thanks for supporting SA’s hosting rights.
Safa later sued Henderson for R4.5 million in defamation damages, saying his allegations “have eroded public trust in the association” and tarnished its reputation.
As plaintiffs, Jordaan (on his own behalf and on behalf of Safa) and Hluyo applied late last year to compel Henderson to disclose documents and recordings on which he based his allegations. Henderson filed a counter-application, asking the court to compel Jordaan and Hluyo to disclose certain documents and recordings, arguing they were central to proving his allegations and that he had been waiting two years for them. In June, he filed another application under the Promotion of Access to Information Act to compel disclosure.
The court order represents a major setback for Jordaan and Hluyo, who are now compelled to disclose information they have fought to keep secret.
"This case, to me, is nothing new. It’s just another classic example of an attempt at intimidation to silence a critic," Henderson said. The contempt application marks Henderson’s latest legal move in his bid to expose what he describes as poor corporate governance, mismanagement of funds, and seeming corruption within SA football administration.
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