SEXWALE FOR PRESIDENT! The man we call Tokyo is ready to give old friend Blatter the chop at FIFA

JUST GOOD FRIENDS: Sepp Blatter and Tokyo Sexwale

MOSIMA GABRIEL SEXWALE. They call him Tokyo because he loved karate as a kid. And everyone's asking WHO is this reclusive South African millionaire thrust back in to the spotlight by his willingness to stand for FIFA president on February 26?

What was it he said yesterday? "The brand of FIFA is seriously damaged following various scandals. It needs to be restored."

Brave sentiments. Now 62, Sexwale has never been involved in professional football as a player or administrator, but that shouldn’t rule him out of contention against a diverse list of people who have thrown their names into the hat to replace the currently suspended Sepp Blatter.

Described by the Guardian in the UK as “ an apartheid-era political prisoner turned multimillionaire mining tycoon”, Tokyo is listed only as FIFA’s “anti-racism” advisor. His latest mission was to sort out the "normalisation" of football in Palestine and Israel... he has played no public part in footballing or sporting administration in South Africa.

Sexwale (it’s NOT pronounced Sex Whale, for Westerners who can’t click it’s more like Sesh Waa Lay) didn’t have much time for sport as a young man, he was too busy (like many of his generation) fighting South Africa’s inhuman political philosophy Apartheid (pronounced Aparthate).

He’s a struggle hero in his home country, which comes with its own unique pressures. Most famously of all, he was jailed on Robben Island alongside the father of the nation, Nelson Mandela. When Aparthate fell in 1994, Tokyo became the first democratic Premier of Gauteng, the province which grew out of the old Transvaal, incorporating the huge metropolis of Johannesburg and Pretoria, the financial hub of the mining nation.

SMILE PLEASE: Blatter, Sexwale and Valcke with
Nelson Mandela during the World Cup in 2010

Politically, Sexwale was once headed for the presidency, but his attempts to unseat South Africa’s second democratic president Thabo Mbeki failed as Jacob Zuma slipped in to the hot-seat after the ANC’s Polokwane conference in 2007.

From 2009 to 2013, Tokyo was Minister of Human Settlements but his time in the ruling African National Congress came to an end when he chose once more to invest his energy in to mining rather than politics - an astute decision given the corruption allegations which have raged around Zuma’s reign

Sexwale was born in Orlando West, the son of a clerk at a local hospital. He left Orlando West High in 1973, just four years short of the Soweto Uprising which, infamously, saw school children shot by a minority Apartheid government still clinging to power.

A follower of Steve Biko’s black consciousness movement, he was a leader in the South African Student Movement before fleeing the country as so many struggle exiles did, to join Umkhonto we Sizwe, (“Spear of the Nation”) to fight the white minority government. He completed a Certificate in Business Studies during his time in Swaziland, a small independent nation almost entirely surrounded by South Africa.

He also spent time in the old Soviet Union, training with their military, specialising in engineering. But when Sexwale returned to South Africa, he was arrested and imprisoned for 18 years for terrorism and conspiracy to overthrow the National Party government.

During his 13 years on Robben Island - the “Alcatraz” off Cape Town which was reserved for freedom fighters - he studied for a B Com degree before his release in 1990 under the Groote Schuur Agreement. He is recognised as an expert in the African mining industry, particularly in the diamond sector.

Tokyo struck up a relationship with local para-legal Judy van Vuuren while he was behind bars - they married soon after he was released. The African National Congress beckoned and Sexwale took over the PWV province, previously Transvaal, now Gauteng, after the elections. In 1998 he left politics to forge a career as a businessman but he was drawn back when Mbeki was replaced by Zuma… only to leave again. That he is successful is beyond doubt. He is President of South Africa’s Russian and Japanese business forums and is Honorary Consul General of Finland.

But his football connections are marked mainly by a strong relationship with the now disgraced Sepp Blatter. Sexwale, through the build-up to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, was often pictured with Blatter and his side-kick Jerome Valcke, he was the hand-holder, the smiling face of Africa's first EVER World Cup.

Though Danny Jordaan, the SAFA president who now also doubles as the ANC’s Mayor of Port Elizabeth, has backed him for the FIFA job, neither have addressed the controversies which stir in the background. From his attempts to unseat Mbeki to his involvement in business deals in the north of the continent to his public rift with wife Judy, Sexwale is not quite the squeaky clean leader required by FIFA post-Blatter.

What was it Jordaan said when "approving" Sexwale's candidacy yesterday? "We've endorsed him unanimously because we are comfortable Tokyo's history, credibility, life experience will help resurrect the essential sport of the African continent, the ONLY sport played by all 54 nations on our continent"

Personally, I'd have gone for former Leeds United and Bafana Bafana icon Lucas Radebe if SAFA are going to back somebody for a top football job without an experience at SAFA. Radebe is squeaky-clean, he owns no $70m islands, he does not do business with questionable regimes up north.

Still, Tokyo's rivals for the hottest seat in football are hardly glowing paragons of virtue. Michel Platini, the former France midfielder, has the footballing credentials but is tainted by payments made to him by Blatter.

Another Frenchman, Jérôme Champagne, is former deputy general secretary of FIFA who has long dabbled in footballing politics while Jordan’s Prince Ali bin al-Hussein is known only for his run against Blatter in May. A fourth candidate, David Nakhid, a former Trinidad & Tobago midfielder, is marked by his connections to Jack Warner’s controversial CONCACAF administration.

Sexwale says: "Issa Hayatou (the life-long CAF president and caretaker boss at FIFA until Blatter is unsuspended) has invited me to come to Cairo on October 28. I will put forward my proposals for reforms in FIFA. The mantle of president is heavy."

Still, with Liberia’s Musa Bility out of the running, Sexwale is sure to pull most, if not all, of Africa’s 54 votes, not bad in an electorate of 209.

And the German FA have gone public with their support. Platini is discredited and currently suspended, leaving many European nations looking for a mast to nail their colours too. Bahrain's Sheikh Salman Bing Al-Khalifa may enter the race too, the Asia Football Confederation president may attract European votes too despite human rights issues.

But Sexwale was in jail with Madiba. He has a great name. He's so rich, corruption may not be worth the bother. Why not Sexwale?

The shocking truth about CAF: Danny Jordaan on how the French-speaking nations have left South Africa powerless

The man who SHOULD run CAF: Danny Jordaan and Nelson Mandela

DANNY JORDAAN returned home from his abject electoral defeat in Morocco last month deeply disturbed by what he saw at the Confederation of African Football elections in Marrakesh – and bitterly regretting he represents a nation labelled “English-speaking”.

Jordaan, shockingly beaten to a four-year term on the CAF executive by the mysterious Madagascar FA President known only as Ahmad, has every reason to feel aggrieved.

Jordaan is a former SAFA CEO who successfully organised Africa’s first World Cup in South Africa in 2010. He is close to FIFA president Sepp Blatter and has a “great working relationship” with spokesman Jerome Valcke.

Born in Port Elizabeth, he has a strong record as an anti-apartheid activist who was banned and harried by the Apartheid regime. He also played provincial cricket and football before moving in to administration where he led the Cape Town Olympic bid before moving in to SAFA’s highest ranks.

And this bloke Ahmad? FIFA admit they have “no further information” about the man. Not even his full name. There is simply nothing about the Madagascar FA he runs ANYWHERE. But I can tell you that, under his guidance, Madgascar are currently 188^th in the FIFA world rankings, their lowest ever, after losing to Equatorial Guinea in the 2014 World Cup preliminary qualifiers. They are also 47^th out of the 54 African nations, just behind Swaziland. Hardly a powerhouse, hardly a great recommendation for Ahmad.

Danny and I go back quite a way. He’s told me some of his apartheid stories and any suggestion he is not the perfect man to run CAF is laughable. I launched in with: Defeat against Madagascar?! He shrugged: “We had an agreement the position on the CAF executive wouldn’t go to one of the islands, but it did. COSAFA is mostly English and Portuguese speaking but now we have two French speaking representatives.

"When I got to Marrakesh, Michael Platini (the famous Frenchman who covets Blatter’s hot seat as head of FIFA) had been there two days. He was there for another day after I left.

“I don’t think you must personalise it. Any South African would be seen as a threat to the President. People know when they come to South Africa they will have the environment and infrastructure to play under the best conditions.

“They appreciate that. But it is the other interests, the ones which cannot be balanced with the real interests of football.

“In the north, it’s worse. The French dominate. It sets a precedent. It’s not fair representation. It’s a question of leadership. It doesn’t make sense. These are issues we have to discuss.

The Francophone nations: from Wikimedia.org

“When you look at Southern Africa, the election outcome goes against the agreement we had. It is only in the interests of those who want to pursue a particular path for football in Africa and at FIFA. Those are things I don’t want to talk about.

“South Africa’s role is appreciated, we mustn’t think we’re not wanted on the continent. We must simply understand it’s all about the next CAF president, the next FIFA president.“

“Platini had it all wrapped up. He stands for the French-speaking nations, that is his powerbase. Now 83 percent of the CAF executive is Francophone.

“Just ask Nigeria. Their guy lost to Moucharafou Anjorin from Benin who had just come out of jail after six months. But he’s loyal to Issa Hayatou and the “big five” French speaking nations in CAF.”

It was Anjorin who lashed out at English FA Chairman David Bernstein at the 2011 FIFA elective congress in Zurich when the English asked for a postponement before Blatter’s re-election.

Anjorin was jailed for several months last year amid allegations of “financial impropriety over missing sponsorship funds” but had no problem getting onto the CAF executive ahead of Nigeria, crowned the 

African Cup of Nations champions in South Africa a month before.

Then there’s war-torn Mali's Amadou Diakite, whose ban from "all football activities" ended on October 20th 2012. He bounced back with an incredible 35 out of a possible 54 votes to take his four-year term on the executive.

Jordaan admits: “All English-speaking candidates lost, Platini and Hayatou saw to that. I have to look beyond Hayatou – I think some were worried if I got on the excutive, I might be the next president, and I’m not French!

“I spoke to David Dein from England. The truth is the English, who invented the game and run the best-watched league in the world, now have NO SAY AT ALL over what happens in football.

“Platini is ensuring the influence of the English-speaking nations is non-existent. And South Africa is paying the price for that.

“The only way out of it I can see is for the Commonwealth to become a footballing body. To act as a voting bloc at FIFA. Perhaps then our voice will be heard. That would united the English-speaking nations. But right now the Commonwealth countries do not deal with football and the sport doesn’t feature in the Commonwealth Games.

“CAF elections, sadly, have nothing to do with the good of football. They are for power and money. That is the truth.

"Morocco is history now. But change is coming in FIFA and CAF, I'm confident that we will have a excuitive member in CAF by 2015."

South Africa’s only representative at CAF executive level is former school teacher and SAFA official Molefi Oliphant, a co-opted member who rarely raises his head above the parapet.

Jordaan is not alone in his discontent, Safa executive member Buti Lerefolo, in Marrakesh as an observer, said: “It was not only South Africa, but Nigeria was also marginalised. We were sabotaged. Africa did not vote for us and all we could hear were whispers that South Africa has a lot of money.”

A dossier suggesting South Africa post-World Cup corruption re-emerged in Morocco and after initially coming out in support of their man, SAFA president Kirsten Nematandani issued a brown-nosed statement saying: “We have no doubt they will take our confederation to new heights and we look forward to working with the Caf executive committee to improve the sport on the continent.

"We are grateful for the support shown by our sister federations for SA's candidate."

Confused? So am I. Jordaan says: “The Arabic countries have too much power, the Francophile nations hold sway. Something has to be done.

“Our job is to help develop the game, the under 15, the referees, the facilities. That’s where my heart lies. We have to get away from these political discussions.

“The challenges are backing Bafana, backing the game in Africa. We must distinguish between what is real and what is done for political purposes.

“To have documents that are faceless and nameless, designed to smear people? That must stop. Let’s go face-to-face. Give reasons, this dossier – it’s an insult to call it that – is not right. For the good of this country, we don’t want the world to sit back and shake their heads.

“We must retain our integrity. We have global support.”

A shorter version of this story will appear as my Neal and Pray story in www.thenewage.co.za on Tuesday.