South Africa's Sports and Recreation Minister Fikile Mbalula on Thursday dismissed allegations that the government paid bribes to host the Soccer World Cup 2010.
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This came after South Africa has been sucked in the FIFA scandal which led to the arrest of seven people in Switzerland on Wednesday.
It had been alleged that South Africa paid 120 million rand (about 10 million US dollars) in kickbacks for hosting the event.
Mbalula said his department is yet to receive a copy of the allegations from the United States and promised to do everything in its powers to unearth any shenanigans.
"South Africa's Department of Sports and Recreation hereby indicates that all funding by government was transferred via the National Treasury to the national Department of Sports and Recreation and that no such amount was paid by the department Sport and Recreation and the government of SA to any individual," he said.
"Our financial records and books for the 2010/2011 financial year for the period of the 2010 World Cup have been audited by the Auditor General of SA and no such amount has been found in our books," he told reporters in Johannesburg on Thursday.
When contacted for comment by Xinhua, the South African Football Association' s (SAFA's) spokesperson Dominic Chimhavi declined to say further rather than saying: "I' m not aware of anybody being investigated at the association" .
All financial records were audited and there is no record of fraudulent payments for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Mbalula said.
"We have noted with keen interest the allegations from the attorney general of the US, and we will follow on their investigation. We will approach the Department of International Relations and Co-operation to request through the diplomatic channels existing between the two countries, the copy of the indictment, to establish the basis on which the allegations are being made, as this has the potential of tarnishing the name and people of our country globally and put into question the competence of our nation of organising major events," said the minister.
On Wednesday, US officials revealed in an indictment alleging 14 senior soccer officials and marketing executives engaged in a 151-million-dollar and 24-year bribery scheme surrounding the promotion of world tournaments.
On Thursday, the US justice department arrested seven people in Switzerland and banned nine officials named by the US Department of Justice in their indictments on corruption charges.
Meanwhile, South Africans and soccer fans took to the social media to vent their anger in reaction to the allegations. Some of the soccer fans said they were not surprised that SA was mentioned in the FIFA indictment.
Ludo Gideon, a football fan, tweeted: "In Danny Jordaan's cv it is stated that he brought the football world cup to SA. Can he still say that starting from tonight?"
Jordaan, President of SAFA, recently was appointed as mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality on Thursday, causing an outcry from the public.
Jordaan has refused to be drawn into the allegations of bribing.
He assured that the FIFA allegations are not a setback and he is not willing to comment on the saga without consulting with SAFA.
