Tell a Tale

SUDAN’S information minister has said that Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has flown out of South Africa, defying a high court order which banned him from leaving the country until an application calling for his arrest had been heard. “Yes, he has left,” Information Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman confirmed to Al Jazeera, saying that South Africa had always agreed not to arrest the president while he was in the country for the African Union summit. Osman said President Bashir’s plane was due to land back in Khartoum at about 6:30pm local time (15:30 GMT). The South African state broadcaster, SABC, first reported at about 10:15 GMT yesterday that the plane had flown out of the Waterkloof air force base, on the outskirts of Pretoria. The lawyer appearing on behalf of the South African government, however, told the high court in Pretoria that President Bashir was not on the list of passengers in the Sudanese plane that left Waterkloof base. Earlier, Sudanese I...

The highest levels of South African government approved a $10 million dollar payment that US investigators suspect was a bribe to get the 2010 World Cup, media reports said Friday. Then president Thabo Mbeki and foreign minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma approved the payment which the authorities again insisted Friday was for a legitimate development project in the Caribbean. The new revelations emerged as FIFA remained at the eye of a corruption storm after seven FIFA officials were arrested last week and its president Sepp Blatter resigned. The South African payment in 2008 was made through FIFA and went to an account controlled by Jack Warner, a disgraced former FIFA vice president from the Caribbean wanted by US authorities for accepting bribes. US investigators suspect the South African payment was a bribe to get three FIFA executive votes for its World Cup bid. South African authorities say the $10 million payment was an honest donation to support football among the “Afr...

Johannesburg - South Africa's organized crime unit is conducting a preliminary investigation into bribery allegations surrounding the 2010 World Cup bid after being provided with documents by an opposition political party. The unit's spokesman, Hangwani Mulaudzi, says a file has been opened and the unit will decide whether the information calls for a full investigation. Mulaudzi would not describe the documents the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation received from the Freedom Front Plus political party. Mulaudzi says the unit has "investigators looking into the matter." Former FIFA executive committee member Chuck Blazer said in court documents unsealed Wednesday in the United states that he and other top officials at FIFA took bribes connected to South Africa's successful bid to host the 2010 World Cup. South Africa's government denies it paid bribes. From News24