Khoza: SA football’s dynamo

The history of South African football is being rewritten everyday as new events unfold. In every bit of the chronology of the development of the game in that country in the postapartheid era, there is a name that one simply cannot leave out. It is the name Irvin Khoza. This is the man who has played a truly leading role in the remarkable rise of South Africa football, whose climax will be their hosting of the 2010 Fifa World Cup finals - a first by an African country. Khoza (57), nicknamed "Iron Duke" or "The Princess of Darkness" proudly wears several hats within the administration of the game in the Rainbow Nation.

He is the chairman of the South African organising committee of the 2010 World Cup, chairman of the South African Premier Soccer League and vice president of the South African Football Association. He is also owner of glamour South African Premiership side Orlando Pirates. Khoza has used his football profile to continue amassing a private fortune, which tax assessors value at more than US$10 million. But his biggest triumph has been leading the successful bid to win the right to stage the 2010 World Cup. A successful businessman, Khoza's rise to the top has, however, not been without incident. He was investigated in 2002 for non-payment of tax and has had to deal with cases of insurance fraud and charges of drug-dealing, but his connections with powerful politicians in the country have ensured that whenever he appeared heading for the grave, he was able to negotiate his way out of trouble.

Khoza has twice been found guilty of insurance fraud in his own country. He was fined in 1979 and 1981 for trying to profit from a fictitious life policy and he was also fined in Zambia for his connections with an alleged drug smuggling operation. Revenue officials took a year to separate his personal liabilities from those of Orlando Pirates and other businesses and he settled a claim of 7,2 million rand. Three years ago, he had to pay US$1 million in back taxes, interests and penalties to the South African revenue services after being arrested for tax evasion. Charges of possession of an unlicensed weapon were dropped however after he was arrested at Johannesburg airport on his return from the 2002 World Cup finals in Japan and Korea. Yet he was an entrepreneur of some standing even before he started climbing the South African football ladder.

Born in Alexandra, the black township in Johannesburg, on 27 January 1948, Khoza was involved in football administration while still a high school student in Soweto. He is also a former student at South Africa's famous Fort Hare University but did not complete his course, allegedly expelled for anti-apartheid activities. Khoza says business must learn from the mistakes of the past. "We've got to work hard in sport to make an impact in business, I certainly have and it is fulfilling to see that Orlando Pirates can commercially run itself," Khoza said In 1980, Khoza was appointed as secretary of Orlando Pirates, a team that his uncle once managed, but he was kicked out of the club after a year for reasons that have never been made clear. He returned after a decade in triumph - having made his fortune in property deals - to take charge of the bankrupt club.

Since then, he has built Pirates into a moneyspinning empire while benefiting from the sale of some of the club's star players to overseas teams. Those sales also led to problems when tax investigations showed Khoza had put the proceeds of the 1996 sales of Mark Fish and Helman Mkhalele to clubs in Europe into a trust account rather than that of the club. An affidavit by former Bafana Bafana coach Jomo Sono, who owned a share in the players, told of the huge profit the pair made from the sales. Khoza's biggest triumph in this eventful journey has been leading the successful bid to win the right to stage the 2010 World Cup. He managed to use his close relationship with senior government officials to persuade President Thabo Mbeki and former president Nelson Mandela to play a high-profile role in the campaign. Khoza's overall contribution to the development of football in the country, therefore, is unmatched. He has consigned to the grave the days when South African clubs were impoverished outfits and players lived on handouts.

He has built his club Orlando Pirates into one of South Africa's most recognisable brands, which he has built into the number two commercial sports brand behind the Springboks - the national rugby team adored by corporate South Africa. His negotiating skills have also brought millions of rands to South African soccer, helping develop one of the continent's most competitive leagues and laying the groundwork for the country's successful bid to host the 2010 soccer World Cup. Sport has not gained from the government's Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) policy that seeks to redress the ills of apartheid by handing blacks a bigger role in the economy. Leaders in the field have developed their own initiatives, but are still hoping sport can benefit from empowerment deals. "We have not been involved in any of the deals. But we have to find in-roads, we are talking to government, we are talking to business, there must be a way in which sport becomes part of the package to empower blacks," Khoza, told Reuters recently. The economy is still firmly controlled by whites 11 years after democratic elections that brought Nelson Mandela to power.

Although soccer clubs and their players have not been visible in BEE deals, they have blossomed in the past decade thanks to growing interest from corporate South Africa, better management, and sales to European sides, analysts say. Khoza rescued Orlando Pirates from the brink of collapse in the early 1990s. He negotiated a lucrative sponsorship deal with cell phone operator Vodacom and began a brand merchandising campaign modelled on UK premier league clubs Manchester United and Chelsea that have turned his club into a 500 million rand a year (US$82 million) business. "We've had to show Africa that sport can be a successful business, it's no longer just a social thing," said Khoza, a tough soccer administrator. Pirates and their main rivals Kaizer Chiefs in January teamed up with the huge Zionist Christian Church to sell mobile phone cards at matches and religious services for Vodacom. Brand manager Zodwa Khoza, Irvin Khoza's daughter, said they had met their 10-year target in six months but offered no financial details. Khoza surprised his colleagues at the South African Football Association in 1997 when he told them it was time to bid to host the World Cup - a global sporting showpiece.

He put his own cash into the campaign for a year before corporate South Africa warmed up to the idea, resulting in a gallant but failed effort to bring the 2006 World Cup to the country once considered a pariah because of apartheid. Disappointment was quickly forgotten when South Africa was awarded the 2010 event, which Fifa says will raise billions of rands in tourism earnings, television rights and gate takings. Commentators say the World Cup will leave a legacy of new soccer stadiums in a country where the sport has often relied on rugby or cricket facilities, as well as training venues and improved roads and rail systems. Orlando Pirates run an academy to nurture young talent, some of them orphans rescued from abject poverty. Their choir is a major feature at national events in South Africa.

"Through the World Cup, through Orlando Pirates, we are giving back to our communities, growing the disadvantaged, helping share the spoils of the economy," Zodwa Khoza said. Cricket and rugby are still largely managed by whites, but blacks have grabbed a foothold in soccer clubs, reflecting the sport's widespread popularity in the black population. Kaizer Chiefs owner Kaizer Motaung, and former national team coach Jomo Sono who owns Jomo Cosmos Football Club both once played for Orlando Pirates. While they may not always agree with Khoza it is at his club they learned to commercialise the sport.

Motaung and Sono, considered two of the best soccer players ever produced by South Africa, are multi-millionaires with vast and diverse business interests. Khoza, who was a township soccer official at the age of 14, was a major shareholder in black-led downstream oil company Exel, which was bought by petrochemicals firm Sasol. The venture brought him a small bundle of cash and he is negotiating other deals in energy, real estate including a shopping complex in the township of Soweto, construction and tourism. A game reserve he is developing will open before the 2010 World Cup "so some of my friends can go there and relax". Khoza is indeed a giant in African football and his influence is being felt throughout the continent and the rest of the world is can only applaud.