Jordaan, Khoza 'make peace'
2010-06-26 21:41
South African 2010 Fifa World Cup Local Organising Committee (LOC)
chairperson Irvin Khoza and chief executive Danny Jordaan appear to have kissed
and made up in the wake of an article which appeared in the Mail&Guardian
yesterday.
The two were quite reconciliatory in their responses to City
Press.
Jordaan said he did not want to comment on the article because he
was dealing with the newspaper concerned. “All I can say is that I have worked
with Khoza and Molefi Oliphant (the former Safa president) for the past 16 years
and I am very happy with what we have achieved.
“I am happy that we have had a very successful World Cup so
far.”
Jordaan said there was no tension between him and Khoza and they
had been together in a meeting earlier in the day.
Dominic Ntsele, spokesperson for Khoza, who was also mentioned in
the article, concurred with Jordaan about the meeting.
“I can tell you on record, as Khoza has instructed me to say that
he met with Jordaan this morning. After the usual emergency meeting they had a
one-on-one to discuss the article and Jordaan told him that he had never made
the utterances attributed to him in the article. Khoza decided to take him at
his word,” Ntsele said.
Asked for comment, as his name had been mentioned in a quote
attributed to Jordaan that the article was part of a “malicious and twisted”
campaign by Khoza and Ntsele to tarnish his name, Ntsele said: “As somebody who
grew up reading the Bible, my take is that if it is true that Jordaan said that,
he must have been under severe pressure or must have been very upset because the
statement ‘I’m not my brother’s keeper’ was made when somebody had been
killed.”
In a related Mail & Guardian article published in March, Ntsele
was quoted as saying: “The person who has been peddling his (Irvin Khoza’s) name
is Dennis Mumble. He was the person who was merchandising this story to every
journalist who wanted to hear. He is Danny Jordaan’s brother-in-law and he was
doing it for Danny Jordaan.”
Immediately after publication of the story, Ntsele was quick to
accuse journalists of publishing stories allegedly fabricated by Mumble.