The Press Council of South Africa (PCSA) is to undertake a complete review of its constitution in the wake of criticisms which have emerged in debate over the ANC’s planned media appeals tribunal, reports the Mail & Guardian.

“We are dealing with a system of self-regulation, not regulation from outside,” Thloloe said about the composition of the team which would undertake the review.

“It is self-regulation because … if any outside institution tells editors what to put [into the papers] or not, it is contrary to Section 16 of the constitution … it interferes with the freedom of the press.”

The team would report back to the council with its findings and recommendations in November.

It would review the PCSA’s constitution, the South African Press Code and complaints procedures, Thloloe said in a statement.

The review would be conducted by the council’s deputy chairperson Bewyn Petersen; the Star’s editor Moegsien Williams; University of the Witwatersrand journalism Professor Franz Kruger; and businessman and Press Appeals Panel (PAP) public representative Simon Mantel.

Also on the review team would be: businessman, former journalist and PAP press representative Peter Mann; and Sunday Times deputy managing editor and PAP press representative Susan Smuts.

Thloloe said any South African individual or organisation could contribute to the review by submitting suggestions on possible changes to the ombudsman’s office.

The constitution of the PCSA outlines its powers, jurisdiction, its aims and objectives and its membership.

Meanwhile, IPS writes that Reporters Without Borders ranks South Africa’s press as among the freest on the continent but its two proposed new measures are drawing unfavourable comparisons to repressive laws in Zimbabwe and Ethiopia.

Nigeria and Zimbabwe have their Official Secrets Acts. In Kenya, it’s called the Communications Bill.

And in South Africa, it would be called the Protection of Information Act (POI).

The POI gives broad powers to the government to classify almost any information involving an organ of state in the interests of national security. It prescribes penalties of up to 25 years in jail for those disclosing protected information, refusing to reveal their sources, or even attempting to uncover protected information.

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The Soccer World Cup has been a wonderful success story so far, organising committee CEO Danny Jordaan said during an interview on Talk Radio 702 on Tuesday.

“We are very happy we have delivered 50% of the matches, and we are now moving to a stage where teams will start going back home,” he said.

Some of the successes Jordaan pointed out included matches starting on time, games being broadcast to about 100 territories worldwide as required, a vibrant atmosphere on the streets, and stadiums being filled to capacity. He was “sitting comfortably” because the transport system to the games was satisfactory.

Asked about the empty seats during matches, Jordaan attributed this to some fans having possibly been delayed at airports and park-and-ride facilities.

“Out of 32 matches, only four had no-shows. We have had no-shows at concerts and even at churches … Unfortunately no-shows are part of the show.”

He acknowledged that over-the-counter ticket sales should have been introduced earlier for South Africans, as, unlike developed countries, many people didn’t have internet access.

Despite this, Jordaan said 50% of tickets were sold to South Africans and demand remained high.

Jordaan said South Africa could possibly have the second highest attendance in World Cup history.

The organising committee was up to date with its financial management and, as a registered company, accounted for every penny to Fifa.

Read more here.

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FIFA President Sepp Blatter has brought the World Cup to South Africa, and now he is seeking to portray himself as a benevolent champion of foreign aid. Is the president of football’s international governing body, FIFA, really interested in more than his own fame?

In recent years, the FIFA president’s appearances in Africa have been met with roaring applause. Zuma called the decision to hold the World Cup in South Africa a “vote of confidence from the international community.” In Europe, however, critics accuse Blatter of being an opportunist when it comes to the politics of sports. They say he is merely using his self-declared weakness for Africa — he has recently been calling it a “love story” — to curry favor among poorer member countries and thereby to secure votes from their football associations.

Blatter’s adversaries claim that the awarding of the World Cup to South Africa, which was originally planned for 2006 and, in 2004, with the help of an artful trick in the rules, finally approved for 2010, was merely the fulfilment of a campaign promise. The votes of the African associations brought Blatter into office in 1998. By supporting the idea of a temporary rotation among the continents hosting the World Cup, he managed to place the spectacle in Africa this year.

But is it really Africa he cares about, or just his own image?

FIFA devotes 0.7 percent of its revenues to social causes, and it has had its own development office since 2005. There are initiatives for Africa with cryptic names like “Healthy thanks to the 11″ and “The 11+,” which promote accident prevention and helping people protect themselves against diseases by suggesting that they “avoid alcohol” and “drink clean water.”

The World Cup has to be a success, at least for Blatter, who has announced that he will run for reelection in 2011, which would be his fourth term. But if tourists attending this year’s World Cup become the victims of violent crime, no one will be interested in centers for hope and signature campaigns anymore. In fact, some might be asking how the poorest neighborhoods have actually benefited from the World Cup.

Read more here.

A sudden wind of confidence blowing through the Bafana Bafana camp makes a transformation from chumps to champs increasingly possible.

South Africa’s national side go into Friday’s opening match of the World Cup against Mexico at Soccer City alive with a hope that some six months ago did not exist.

While coach Carlos Alberto Parreira has warned in recent days that the team has achieved nothing yet, a run of 12 unbeaten games in pre-tournament warm-ups speaks of a dramatic transformation.

With the rare taste of victory has also come a sudden, and overwhelming, burst of patriotic fervour, reflected all across the country. While this unusual passion might rest too heavily on the shoulders of the relatively young South African side, they seem rather to have found further motivation from its growing intensity — even to the extent of revelling in all the attention, which is understandable after years of being considered a laughing stock and the butt of endless jokes.

Bafana will not be the first host nation to overcome years of mediocrity and surpass expectations at the World Cup. The Germans were in a similar situation four years ago and ended up finishing third, riding a tidal wave of nationalistic sentiment.

There is little chance of South Africa going that far, but there is much more hope that they will at least avoid the spectre of becoming the first host nation not to make it past the first round. Six months ago the prospect of Mexico, Uruguay and France in the opening round served to write off their chances.

Now the talk is not of whether the home side might be able to pick up a face-saving point here and there, but rather whether they can finish first in the group. This confidence emanates primarily from the players, who have, over a week of interviews, expressed a high level of genuine confidence in their ability to win on Friday and go on to reach the knockout stage.

Read more here.

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The road to the 2010 World Cup hasn’t been easy for footballing favorites such as France or Italy. But most of all, it hasn’t been easy for the host country, South Africa, which has been plagued with doubts regarding its organizational abilities and its overall planning of the biggest sporting event in the world. Recent scandals regarding construction contracts, poor crowd control, and FIFA’s dirty dealings have tainted what is traditionally a joyous and highly anticipated event for the billions of football fans around the world.

Yet, despite the recent (and multiple) doubts raised regarding South Africa’s planning of the 2010 World Cup, some die-hard fans have not lost focus on what the event has long-signified for many across the globe: international unity, fun, and some good ol’ fashioned flag waving.

Bjorn Heidenstrom, 41, set out from his home in Oslo, Norway 10 months ago with a mission to bike from Scandinavia down to Cape Town, South Africa. His goal: to raise awareness for the 45 million refugees spread throughout the world. Documenting his painfully long journey across 35 countries on his blog, The Shirt 2010,  Heidenstrom has collected shirts from amateur and professional football teams with the ultimate goal of sewing them together to make the world’s biggest football shirt.

I often sleep in a tent in strange places…To save money and to come in touch with the real world…. A sofa or a Shower cold [sic] be nice now and then…If you open your door then I will open the world for you! This symbol (”the shirt 2010″) will get the biggest attention during the World Cup 2010.

Sasa Jovic, 39, has walked the distance across 3 continents with another goal: to make it to South Africa in time for Serbia’s opening match against Ghana on June 13th. He has crossed the 16,000 km distance carrying a Serbian flag and his city’s crest all the while receiving text messages from friends back home encouraging his progress: “They tell me to ‘run, Sasa, run, otherwise you’ll miss the game!’”

Another Scandinavian is also trekking down from Northern Europe. Swede Sven Borg, 60, departed Lapaja in Swedish Lapland pushing only a ragtag cart with his possessions along. He sleeps in the open, carries no maps or compass, and covers 20 km a day. He left home in April 2009 and plans to be back by October 2012.

Meanwhile, the 32 year old Andre Grady from Newcastle, England, is also aiming to reach South Africa in time for the England-Algeria match on June 18th. With no money to purchase a flight, he has publicized his long trek on his blog, mymagicthumb.com, always nourishing the hope that someone will give him a lift to his destination:

Wake up in Ouagadougou, the only city in Africa with a name like an 80s pop group.
The plan is to travel as quickly as possible to Accra, meet Merrick, then hit the docks to see whether The Thumb can blag a ride on a boat/ ship/ pedalo to Angola.
There are more cows about, fewer donkeys, and plenty of encouragement from the people I speak to about the chances of getting a lift.

The trek southwards to the World Cup hasn’t come without tragedy, though. Dutchman Henk Witjs, 60, didn’t make it across the waters of Lake Malawi with his expedition of oranjes. His adventurers-in-arms will wear a black armband during the World Cup to remember his passing.

More here.

Fifa president Sepp Blatter and his colleagues are guaranteed huge benefits — including the unrestricted movement of foreign currency into and out of South Africa during the World Cup and a 20% discount on their accommodation costs — through agreements the government signed with the football body.

The Mail & Guardian’s legal battle to obtain information relating to World Cup tenders has resulted in the newspaper obtaining a copy of the 17 guarantees the government has given Fifa.

Previously released in vague terms into the public domain, the guarantees signed by relevant Cabinet ministers in 2004 ensure that:
Fifa, its subsidiaries, the Fifa delegation (that is, anyone who Fifa says is part of its entourage) and the host broadcaster, the SABC, will be treated as “tax exempt persons/entities”;

Fifa subsidiary Match, which has links to Blatter’s nephew Philippe and is responsible for World Cup ticketing and official accommodation and hospitality packages, will not pay any taxes or levies on sales except VAT;

The government will provide police escorts for the Fifa delegation, participating teams and referees. “The precise number and types will be finalised … in accordance with Fifa’s instructions”;

The import and export of all foreign currencies to and from South Africa in relation to the World Cup will be allowed without any restrictions, as well as the exchange and re-conversion of these currencies into a hard currency;

Hotel prices for the Fifa delegation, representatives of Fifa’s commercial affiliates, the broadcaster and accredited media will be frozen as of January 1 2010 and will be 20% less than the frozen rate;

Police officers and other peace officials will be provided to enforce the protection of the marketing rights, broadcast rights, marks and other intellectual property rights of Fifa and its commercial partners;

The government will “indemnify Fifa and defend and hold it harmless against all proceedings, claims and related costs (including professional adviser fees) which may be incurred or suffered by or threatened by others”; and

The government will guarantee “the availability of a comprehensive medical service” for the World Cup.
Such agreements meant the state “is no longer calling the shots”, said Sophie Nakueira, a University of Cape Town academic researching the impact of global mega-events on governance and human rights.

“The traditional notion of national sovereignty is irrelevant when bodies like Fifa, the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank use governments to advance their own objects, which in Fifa’s case is to further its profits,” Nakueira told the M&G.
She also red-flagged municipal bylaws instituted for the World Cup, including the demarcation of exclusive Fifa zones around the stadiums — these “inhibited the freedom of movement”, she said.

And laws that “disallowed camping or living in a public space” were attempts “to criminalise the poor”, Nakueira said.

Read more here.

Israel never “negotiated the exchange” of nuclear weapons with South Africa, President Shimon Peres said on Monday, denying a report that he personally offered missiles to the apartheid regime in 1975.

The report, published by the Guardian, quoted minutes from a series of top secret meetings in which Peres, who was then defence minister, allegedly offered his then South African counterpart PW Botha warheads “in three different sizes”.

If the minutes were proven to be authentic, it would be the first documentary evidence of Israel’s possession of nuclear weapons — a fact which is widely accepted but which the Jewish state has neither confirmed nor denied.

The allegation prompted a strongly worded response from Peres’s office.

“There exists no basis in reality for the claims published this morning by the Guardian that in 1975 Israel negotiated with South Africa the exchange of nuclear weapons,” it said.

“Israel has never negotiated the exchange of nuclear weapons with South Africa. There exists no Israeli document or Israeli signature on a document that such negotiations took place,” it said.

The paper, it said, had written the piece based on “selective interpretation of South African documents and not on concrete facts”.

The South African documents, which are dated March 31 1975 and marked “Top Secret”, show Peres’s offer was made in response to Botha’s request for Israel to supply them with warheads.

Read more here.

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South Africa is “more than ready” for the Soccer World Cup, President Jacob Zuma said on Tuesday, reports the Mail & Guardian.

Zuma was speaking at the opening of the newly constructed central terminal building at OR Tambo International Airport.

“You can see when we say we are ready, it is not just rhetoric .We mean what we say.”

He said that as the airport’s name changed from the Johannesburg International Airport to the OR Tambo International Airport in 2006, “so did its form and size”.

A transport action plan was developed in 2005 in preparation for the World Cup, as part of which R20-billion was put into expanding airports countrywide.

“… Now we are seeing the results,” said Zuma.

He said the tournament’s economic spin-offs and the impact on job creation had already been “remarkable”.

As a result, R4,9-billion would be added to the country’s gross domestic product in 2010.

“And it is also important to note that the infrastructure we have created will be a lasting legacy for South Africa.”

However, with racial tensions rising over the past few weeks, it’s not South Africa’s infrastructure that has World Cup fans worried.

Concerns about violence and racial tension in the crime-plagued country have re-emerged after the murder of right-wing AWB leader Eugene Terre’Blanche.

The killing of Terre’Blanche, allegedly hacked to death after a wage dispute on his farm, has focused new attention on violent crime and race tensions in South Africa after his supporters initially vowed revenge — which they later retracted.

“It’s not going to happen,” local organising committee chief Danny Jordaan said on Thursday.

The government hopes the tournament gives a boost to the country’s image, luring foreign tourists and investment. It is also counting on the event to build national unity in a country that still bears the scars of apartheid 16 years after the end of the apartheid regime.

South Africa has in recent months seen scores of violent protests over shoddy public services in poor neighbourhoods, and violence over a new bus network to overhaul long-neglected public transport ahead of the tournament.

Read more here.

For the Italian national team on the road for the World Cup in South Africa, there might be another opponent than those on the field. In fact according to Cbs, there would be the long shadow of terrorism looming over the World Cup.

According to a statement on the extremist Mushtaqun Lel Jannah site, the Maghreb terrorist group affiliated with Al Qaeda, the group threatened to attack the World Cup in South Africa. The terrorist’s prime targets are the USA. and England, but even France, Germany and Italy: “All countries that fight a crusade against Islam.” The threat also has a warning directed at Fifa president Joseph Blatter: “All the safety controls and the X-ray machines that the USA will send to South Africa won’t be able to stop us.” The answer of the South African Minister for Safety arrived quickly: “We’ll ensure the safety of the millions of tourists arriving in South Africa by checking all of our territory.”

Nonetheless, this threat issued against Western nations concluded in a frightening way: “How nice it would be during the game between USA and England (Rustenburg June 12^th) in a stadium full of people, if at a certain time a big explosion would destroy everything causing hundreds of deaths.”

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An address from Afrikaans singer Steve Hofmeyr had everyone on their feet at slain AWB leader Eugene Terre’Blanche’s funeral on Friday.

Addressing the packed church just before the service ended, in both English and Afrikaans, Hofmeyr said: “If you understand the hate speech of [ANC Youth League president Julius] Malema, you must understand why I cannot enter a stadium named after Peter “kill the boer” Makgoba,” to loud applause.

The minister was more diplomatic in his sermon, noting that “Eugene wasn’t an angel, but God doesn’t save angels”.

But his scripture-filled talk was a small reprieve from the tense and politicised atmosphere of the gathering.

Hundreds of mourners packed out the Afrikaanse Protestantse Kerk in Ventersdorp,.

Others from the community started arriving as early as 9am with camping chairs. The manicured lawns outside the squat brick building were a mixture of people dressed in their Sunday best and AWB members in khaki and camouflage uniforms.

A small selection of the gathered press, including black journalists, was allowed inside the avowedly whites-only church after uncertainty earlier whether any people of colour would be admitted.

Police officials were scattered across the town, while police helicopters circled overhead after fears of violent racial clashes.

But despite dire reports of race wars in the international press, no black locals made their way to the church. Trade union Cosatu was reported to have met with township residents in a bid to keep them from the funeral and prevent rising tensions.

Extremist AWB leader Terre’Blanche was beaten to death in his home, allegedly by two of his workers over a wage dispute. Terre’Blanche was notorious as the voice of right-wing Afrikaners and was convicted in the past of assaulting his black workers.

Read more here.