His wife Bonny said: 'My husband wanted to report the cheating that went on over that soccer stadium and now where is he? He is dead.'

The wife of an official murdered by masked gunman as he was about to expose fraud at the 2010 South Africa World Cup has told how the corruption-mired tournament killed her husband.

South African politician Jimmy Mohlala was gunned down as he got ready for church – the day before he was due in court to give evidence of a multimillion pound World Cup stadium construction fraud.

The dad of four – one of three politicians linked to exposing World Cup fraud who died in mysterious circumstances – uncovered forged building contracts at the £80million Mbombela stadium.

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Tainted: The 2010 World Cup in South Africa was allegedly bought with millions of pounds worth of bribes to buy votes from Fifa delegates. Here shamed Fifa president poses with the trophy alongside former South Africa president Nelson Mandela

Jimmy Mohlala was murdered after he had uncovered forged contracts for the £80million Mbombela stadium, which staged just four games. He was going to give evidence in court the day before he was gunned down outside his home by masked hitmen

The 46,000-seater Mbombela stadium in Nelspruit was controversial because it cost £80million to build and staged just four games. As it neared completion, Jimmy Mohlala made allegation claims against a colleague at the Mbombela council. He had uncovered a fraudulent tax certificate was used to secure a tender for the stadium

His widow Bonny said his murder goes to show that the apparent culture of corruption cascades down from the top of Fifa right to the bottom.

And, far from just enriching a powerful few as is alleged by the recent spate of arrests of Fifa officials that ended in the dramatic resignation of its shamed president Sepp Blatter, it can have fatal consequences.

‘If you report corruption in South Africa you are going to die,’ Mrs Mohlala told MailOnline.

‘My husband wanted to report the cheating that went on over that soccer stadium and now where is he? He is dead.’

Recent claims that the entire bidding process of bringing the 2010 World Cup to South Africa – which began exactly five years ago on Thursday – was mired in corruption has only compounded Mrs Mohlala’s grief.

In the latest scandal to engulf world football’s governing body, it is alleged that millions of pounds worth of payments were made to secure votes for the tournament.

There were even claims Morocco had won the bidding process - but the result was fixed by Fifa in favour of South Africa.

Bonny went on: ‘Jimmy was trying to do the right thing in our community. But I see now that the process of that entire tournament was not just corrupt in this province or this country – but in the whole world.’

Mr Mohlala was the speaker of Mbombela council. A former teacher, he joined the African National Congress (ANC) when he was a teenager and became a politician when the post-apartheid municipalities were created in the mid-1990s.

As chairman of the council where the controversial 46,000-seater Mbombela stadium was being built, he was at the centre of the construction process.

Jimmy Mohalala, (pictured right) chairman of Mbombela council in Nelspruit was murdered in 2009 as he blew the whistle on contract corruption around the new Mbombela stadium World Cup venue. His son, Tshepiso, (pictured left) 19 at the time got a bullet in his right leg, but survived the attack

‘Jimmy was trying to do the right thing in our community. But I see now that the process of the World Cup was corrupt, not just in this province or this country – but in the whole world,’ said Jimmy Mohalala's widow Bonny

Manager of the Kaizer Chiefs, South Africa’s biggest football club, Bobby Motaung (pictured left) and multi-millionaire Herbert Theledi – directors of Lefika Emerging Equity – were accused of forging Revenue Service documents linked to the Mbombela stadium, 2010 World Cup venue

Famous for its black and white zebra-striped seats in a design to reflect its proximity to the Kruger National Park, the £80million stadium split opinion because it was being built in such a deprived community where locals are forced to queue at stand pipes for water - and share a communal toilet with neighbours.

The question was in an area of such hardship, should a multimillion pound state of the art sports facility be funded at all?

Mr Mohlala supported the project, convinced the tournament would bring not only hope to his impoverished community, but jobs and opportunities as well.

‘He was so excited that this amazing thing was going to happen in our city. He said it would be a great thing for the young people to experience – he said employment and businesses would be created from this stadium construction,’ his widow said.

But in 2008, as the stadium neared completion, he made allegation claims against a colleague at the Mbombela council.

Central to the claims was a deal under which provincial and municipal officials allegedly conspired to defraud the local Matsafeni community of the land on which the stadium is being built.

He had uncovered what he claimed was a fraudulent tax certificate used to secure a tender for the stadium.

His determination to reveal alleged tender irregularities led to a police investigation and the suspension of several top ANC officials in Mbombela, including municipal manager Jacob Dladla.

The ANC demanded that Mohlala resign, after he named several officials - all of them ruling party politicians - for having allegedly corrupted the stadium construction tendering process.

At the same time, the party made moves to reinstate politicians, such as Mr Dladla, who had been named in connection with the tender scandal.

Prosecutors claimed they had established a link between the World Cup stadium corruption and the murders of Mr Mohlala. More than 100 protestors outside court held placards demanding to know, ‘Who killed Jimmy?’ as the two men appeared

Former Fifa vice president Jack Warner is accused of receiving illegal payments to help ensure the World Cup went to South Africa

Shameless: Sepp Blatter is standing down as Fifa President as the FBI investigates whether bribes were paid in exchange for votes to win South Africa the 2010 World Cup

Despite repeated pressure from the ANC, he refused to step down. At the time of his death, he was the target of party disciplinary action.

He warned his wife their lives were in danger.

Bonny recalled, ‘Jimmy was secretive about his work, so he didn’t tell me anything in detail, but he said that corrupt people wanted to kill him. He said we must not go out in the car at night as it would be too dangerous.’

As it turned out, his execution took place in broad daylight at his home in Kanyamazane, Nelspruit, some 40 kilometres from the stadium.

He and his son Tshepiso, 19, were confronted by two men in balaclavas as they prepared to go to church.

When they ran inside to escape, the pair were shot through the door at close range.

He was killed outright and Tshepiso was hit in the leg.

The following day, he was due to give evidence about how he had uncovered forged documents used to win lucrative building contracts.

‘If it was not for that soccer tournament, my husband would still be alive,’ Mrs Mohlala said, ‘I can’t even look at that stadium, my husband lost his life for that place, for those World Cup matches.’

Some days later, she claims she was driven to a remote spot by police who then tortured her into confessing to ordering her husband’s killing, although she was never charged.

‘I think they were hiding something, or protecting important people. They needed me to confess to killing him. They took me and my son, separated us, beat us, shocked us with electric wires and put plastic bags on our heads. In the end, I said I wanted to go to the police station to confess, because I feared they would kill us,’ she recalled.

In January 2010, a year after his murder, a second politician Sammy Mpatlanyane, 45, was assassinated, shot dead in his bed.

Following his killing, three supposed ‘hit lists’ were sent to newspapers in South Africa.

On them were the names of targets who stood in the way of access to World Cup tenders.

The Sunday Times quoted a repentant assassin from Mozambique – which borders South Africa not far from Nelspruit – who claimed he was hired by top-level politicians and businessmen to kill their adversaries.

After the council was in effect put into receivership, an independent audit called for legal action against Mr Dladla as well as stadium project management company Lefika Emerging Equity and the main stadium contractor, Basil Read.

Secretary General Jerome Valke is accused of knowing about the payment after a letter emerged which was addressed to Valke from South African FA president Molefi Oliphant

This letter dated March 2008 to Jerome Valcke details the $10million (£6.5million) payment made by the South Africa FA to the Diaspora Legacy Programme to be administered by the Concacaf president

It has since emerged, as a result of an investigation by the South African Revenue Services, that Lefika fraudulently obtained a tax clearance certificate to win the stadium tender and bought a luxury car for a municipal official, and that the company was overpaid by the council to the tune of more than £2.7m.

In August 2012 Kaizer Chiefs soccer boss Bobby Motaung and businessman Herbert Theledi, both Lefika directors, were accused of forging Revenue Service documents.

Prosecutor Patrick Nkuna told the court he had established a link between the World Cup stadium corruption and the murders of Mr Mohlala and Mr Mpatlanyane.

The men were granted bail, but never prosecuted.

More than 100 protestors outside court held placards demanding to know, ‘Who killed Jimmy?’ as the two men appeared.

Mr Theledi was represented by Kenny Oldwage, who defended Oscar Pistorius at his murder trial last year.

Now the case looks unlikely to end in a trial.

The prosecutor involved in the case has been investigated and disciplined over his handling another case.

Mr Mohlala’s daughter Tshidi, 32, who works at the council where her father was chairman – is bitter and angry that his killers haven’t been brought to justice.

‘We don’t have the money to hire good lawyers or our own investigators to find out why he died, or who ordered it. We will never have justice,’ she told MailOnline.

The mysterious assassination of Mr Mohlala is just the tip of the iceberg of widespread corruption that has spread like a cancer through Fifa during Sepp Blatter’s tarnished 17-year reign, according to Tshidi.

Blatter dramatically resigned last week after FBI officers raided the luxury Baur du Lac hotel in Zurich and arrested seven Fifa officials.

The far-reaching US-led investigation is centred on the payment of bribes 'totalling more than £96 million linked to commercial deals dating back to the 1990s for football tournaments in the United States and Latin America.

In a separate investigation the Swiss Federal Office of Justice has opened criminal proceedings in connection with the award of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups on allegations of 'criminal mismanagement and money laundering.'

A £6.5 million bribe allegedly paid by the South Africa FA in return for Fifa delegates’ votes, is a big part of the probe.

Chuck Blazer, the American whistleblower and former Fifa ExCo member, said that he and others took bribes totalling that amount for South Africa to host the 2010 World Cup.

Secretary General Jerome Valke is accused of knowing about the payment after a letter emerged which was addressed to Valke from South African FA president Molefi Oliphant.

In the letter, Mr Oliphant asked for the money to be withheld from World Cup funds and paid instead to former Fifa vice president Jack Warner to support football in the Caribbean.

Warner was also president of CONCACAF until his suspension and eventual resignation in 2011.

The bombshell letter for the first time linked Blatter to Fifa corruption.

It forced the disgraced outgoing Fifa boss to admit he had ‘information’ about South Africa's bribe - but said he had no ‘involvement’ in it.

The inducement to secure the tournament was sent from Fifa to an account controlled by Warner following a request from the South African FA to Valcke

Tshidi told MailOnline: ‘I started to read about the widespread corruption at FIFA and the arrests, but it just hurts me.

‘How much suffering has this World Cup brought to people’s lives? My father was a good, honest man who believed this tournament would be a great thing for our community and our country – that it would help the youth he cared about.

‘When he found out that all the wealth that was supposed to come to our community was not being shared fairly, he wanted to fight it.

'He wanted it to be done by the book, in the right way. But in the end that stadium, that World Cup only helped those in our country who were the most greedy. What good did it do for anyone else?



