Fifa president defiant as European soccer’s governing body calls for an investigation Dan Rookwood Fifa president Sepp Blatter today faced calls for an investigation into bribery allegations surrounding his 1998 election. Blatter’s supporters have been accused of offering cash incentives to the heads of national associations during his successful presidential campaign. The 65-year-old was elected […]

Michel Muller The conservative faction of the Democratic Alliance in the Eastern Cape took it in the teeth this week when DA MPL Athol Trollip was elected provincial party leader. Trollip’s agenda is to expand the party in traditionally African areas and bring more blacks into DA structures. His victory at the DA’s inaugural congress […]

SOCCER Ntuthuko Maphumulo Thi month will determine which clubs are the pretenders and which the contenders for the league title and relegation. Although the Premier Soccer League (PSL) is scheduled to be wrapped up only at the end of April, the next few weeks will shape the destiny of the crown. The four contenders so […]

We can all prepare for the death of Scopa comment Andrew Feinstein The resignation of Gavin Woods as chairperson of Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) is a massive blow to the credibility of the committee and to the cause of vigorous parliamentary oversight and accountability. Woods is a man of great substance, with […]

On November 30 the Telecommunications Amendment Act was promulgated. Chris Yelland explores some of the issues with Icasa’s Wojtek Skowronski and Siyabonga Madyibi What’s the Act provision on number portability and carrier pre-selection? What will change and when? Number portability refers to the ability of consumers to retain their numbers if they switch from one […]

Alan Henry Sunday’s Australian grand prix sees the start of a new season and a new career. As Michael Schumacher and Formula One’s other heavyweights reacquaint themselves with Melbourne’s Albert Park track, Allan McNish will enter the pits, ease himself into a Toyota and breathe in the unique atmosphere for the first time. It will […]

The African National Congress has reacted furiously to a Newsweek report saying Thabo Mbeki’s presidency is unravelling over HIV/Aids, branding it “a badly written movie script camouflaged as analysis”, aimed at destabilising the ANC, its leadership and the government, writes Drew Forrest. In its cover story this week the influential American weekly said Mbeki was […]

I had the misfortune to share part of last week in Sweden with our great and good President, Mr Thabo Mbeki, who was in Stockholm visiting with all his centre-left cronies. I say misfortune, because, despite the fact that I had initially felt proud that our president was hobnobbing with the likes of Lionel Jospin, […]

Jaspreet Kindra In a move clearly directed at next month’s alliance summit, President Thabo Mbeki fired a salvo at the Left this week by hotly defending the government’s adoption of the growth, employment and redistribution (Gear) strategy. The alliance indaba, which takes place in the same month as the broader growth summit, will thrash out […]

The Unisa controversy rumbles on with a court application to have the vice-chancellor’s recent appointment declared invalid David Macfarlane First the inauguration, then the court action. Shortly after donning his new academic robes, Unisa vice-chancellor Barney Pityana faces high court action that seeks to have his appointment declared invalid. And ongoing power struggles at the […]