The debate about how, when and whether publishers should charge for the content they provide is reaching fever pitch. Facing some hard economic realities, an increasing number of publishers are looking to monetise their properties by putting walls around some or all of their content and charging for it. Meanwhile, media mogul Rupert Murdoch has taken aim at aggregators who leverage off other publications' content, calling them freeloaders. It is clear that the business models for publishing on the Web have yet to be settled and that the question of who exactly will pay for the production of professional content will be with us for some time to come, writes Richard Mullins of Acceleration.

As the world’s developed economies battle to come to grips with a deluge of economic problems and challenges - from the lingering impact of the 2008/2009 financial crisis, a sovereign debt crisis, ageing populations, a fast changing energy resource environment to the risks associated with cavalier exploitation of resources so horrifyingly illustrated by the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico – Africa may just be on the verge of a (for the continent, unprecedented) economic renaissance. Some political risks remain for potential investors, but they are not necessarily more daunting than the risks elsewhere.

Is the world indeed experiencing a financial crisis, or are the troubling times in which financial markets continually have found themselves since 2008 a mere symptom of the real crisis – a moral crisis? A recent article asserted that “the American business world that has emerged from the financial crisis is rife with unapologetic amorality”. And in South Africa, the fired chief executive officer of a government-owned utility company - who in that position earned an annual salary twice that of the president of the country - claims "the benefits due to him in terms of (his)… contract" are worth a massive R85 million.

The now almost two-month long and ongoing BP oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is turning out to be much more than merely an environmental disaster. It is messing up diplomatic relationships between Britain and the United States, pitting the interests of ordinary American citizens and businesses against those of pensioners in the UK, and causing jitters in British financial markets. In the meantime, experts are warning that it may become Christmas before the gushing oil well is capped.

The battle for the heart and soul of the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) continues - with wider repercussions for the ruling African National Congress as a whole. Last week, the “disbanded” provincial executive of the Eastern Cape ANCYL gave notice that it would challenge the decision by the ANCYL’s national working committee, led by national president Julius Malema, to disband the structure. In the interim, it can be expected that the ANCYL will use this week’s commemoration of the 1976 student uprising on Youth Day to punt one of Malema’s more controversial campaigns.  

The standards and rigour of the syllabi and examinations of the new National Senior Certificate (NSC) are favourable in overall comparability to the United Kingdom's GCE AS (Advanced Subsidiary) Levels, according to a benchmarking study of the NSC commissioned by the Independent Examinations Board (IEB) and undertaken by the UK’s National Agency (NARIC) responsible for providing information and advice about vocational, academic and professional skills and qualifications from all over the world. 

Effective governance, state administration and the provision of public services could be paralysed in a month’s time if up to 1.3 million public servants go on strike. The odds of strike action increased dramatically last Friday when unions affiliated to the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the Independent Labour Caucus (ILC), together representing 14 unions, declared a dispute with the state over stalled wage negotiations.

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Various meetings between the South African government and foreign heads of state visiting the country for the Fifa Soccer World Cup have again demonstrated the South Africa’s differentiated foreign relations priorities.

While President Jacob Zuma welcomed and addressed a group of heads of state at an official reception in Sandton last Friday, the day of the official start of World Cup 2010, it was the meetings that Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe had on the margins of the tournament on Saturday with United States Vice President Joseph Biden and Bolivian President Evo Morales that are of particular interest.

“You are the weakest link, goodbye.” This memorable sound bite, ‘authored’ by Fiona Coyne, provided television watchers with a bit of humour - and certain contestants in the game with some heartbreaking memories. But the weakest links of another kind have been on display during the past weekend’s international rugby matches. And the northern hemisphere’s lack of intensity and speed were the most brutally exposed aspects of some of those matches.

A change in game plan for Bafana Bafana when they encounter Uruguay on Wednesday, but no Plan B for the vuvuzela seems to be on the cards during the next 48 hours of a pulsating Soccer World Cup in South Africa. In the meantime, none other than United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon, who was among the dignitaries at the opening ceremony last Friday, said the opening stages had been a triumph for the whole of Africa.