Still dealing with the fallout from a contentious Africa Cup of Nations final, African soccer’s governing body has announced a raft of “changes and improvements” to its statutes and regulations.

The structural, legal and administrative reforms will help the Confederation of African Football regain trust in its impartiality and ensure that the scenes from the final in January are never repeated, CAF president Patrice Motsepe said after a meeting of its executive committee in Cairo on Sunday.

“I can stand here and say we’ve got the best referees, they are independent, they’re impartial. But if the ordinary football spectators on the continent and elsewhere think they are not so impartial, it’s not good for African football,” Motsepe said.

The outcome of the final is still in dispute after CAF stripped Senegal of the title two months after the match and awarded it to host nation Morocco. 

Senegal has appealed to the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport, and both countries claim to be the African champion pending the outcome. The Senegal team paraded the trophy in Paris on Saturday.

“We have to move away also from the perception that somehow our problems in Africa and our weaknesses in Africa are greater, bigger, more embarrassing, more extreme than the problems that happen in other parts of the world,” Motsepe said.

The South African businessman said CAF was working with FIFA to provide training for referees and VAR operators, and that it was imperative to pay them well to ensure integrity.

General secretary steps down

Earlier, Véron Mosengo-Omba announced he was stepping down after five years as CAF general secretary “to devote myself to more personal projects.”

The Swiss-Congolese official is a university friend of FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who followed him from UEFA to FIFA in 2016. Mosengo-Omba left FIFA to take over as CAF general secretary in 2021.

CAF announced in January 2025 that the Swiss Public Prosecutor’s Office had decided to stop investigations against Mosengo-Omba “as they found no facts or legal basis to initiate legal proceedings” after he faced allegations of financial wrongdoing.

“Now that I have been able to dispel the suspicions that some people have gone to great lengths to cast on me, I can retire with peace of mind and without constraint, leaving the CAF more prosperous than ever,” Mosengo-Omba said Sunday.

Samson Adamu from the Nigerian Football Federation was taking over as acting general secretary and sat to Motsepe’s left during their press conference.

“The vice presidents will lead the process and will report to me on the identification of a permanent general secretary,” Motsepe said. “And I’ve told Samson, whether he likes it or not, I’m going to put pressure on him also to apply for the position to be permanent.”

Morocco hosting WAFCON

Motsepe confirmed that the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations will go ahead in Morocco as initially planned. The tournament had been scheduled to take place in the kingdom from March 17 to April 3, but was pushed back at short notice to July 25 to August 16.

“There were circumstances that we had not foreseen,” Motsepe said after being pressed for the reasons for the postponement.

Preparations for 2027 Africa Cup, 28 teams

Motsepe said he will visit Kenya in May to see how preparations are going for the men’s 2027 Africa Cup, which Kenya is due to co-host with Tanzania and Uganda. He dismissed suggestions that the tournament could be moved to another country.

Motsepe also announced the expansion of the Africa Cup to include 28 teams, up from 24 at the 2025 edition.

Motsepe already announced in December that the Africa Cup will be held every four years from 2028.

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Business mogul Patrice Motsepe, a man so influential he probably has a chair reserved in every boardroom in Africa, was standing chatting to a delegate as the session got going.

As proceedings began, ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula could be heard calling for quiet so the programme could continue. Then, armed with nothing but his booming voice and trademark confidence, Mbalula spotted Motsepe.

With the authority of a school principal catching a learner out of uniform, he boomed: “Mr Motsepe, please sit down!” drawing laughter from the room.

It was a small, light-hearted moment between colleagues, but it landed just hours after EFF leader Julius Malema’s Thursday press briefing, where he claimed Mbalula would be the next ANC president.

“Mr Motsepe, please sit down!”

The words echoed through the hall. Delegates spotted the humour and, yes, Motsepe, the man who could buy a chair factory if he wanted, obeyed the command. The simple comic moment, although innocent, followed Malema’s claim.

No, there is no link, although in an effort to slightly deviate from serious politics, if we imagined Malema’s comment and attempted to link it to this one action, we would fill stadiums.

Malema said, “Fikile Mbalula is going to be president of the ANC if there is no serious intervention made to stop him. I warned you about this… if they allow him to do what he’s doing, he’s going to lead them.”

Malema even used a marathon analogy.

“If it was a marathon, Mbalula is ahead. Paul [Mashatile] is trying to catch up… I don’t know how he will get there.”

And suddenly, the “sit down” moment could be seen as political prophecy.

If Mbalula could make Patrice Motsepe sit, what else could he do? Make Mashatile kneel? Convince Eskom to keep the lights on?

Perhaps even make politicians stop talking over each other?

The video of Mbalula telling Motsepe to sit down became a running joke in political circles.

It was proof that even in the serious world of politics, humour lurks in the smallest moments.

Delegates could well be thinking: “If Mbalula can make Motsepe sit, imagine what he’ll do when he’s president.”

Malema might have meant it as a warning, but the rest of us took it as comedy gold, because sometimes, politics is best understood not through policy documents or marathon speeches, but through the sheer hilarity of watching a billionaire sit down when commanded to do so.

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Morocco — which is building the world’s biggest soccer stadium to co-host the men’s World Cup in 2030 — has seen demonstrations this month in more than a dozen cities by young activists.

“Morocco is plan A, Morocco is plan B and Morocco is plan C,” Confederation of African Football (CAF) president Patrice Motsepe said at a news conference after its annual meeting, when asked about changing tournament plans.

Chants of “Stadiums are here, but where are the hospitals?” have been heard at protests driven by an online collective called Gen Z 212, named after the country’s dialing code.

They are protesting what they say is lack of opportunity and underfunded health and education systems, and were supported in social media posts by national team players, including Sofyan Amrabat and Yassine Bounou.

The north African nation hosts the four-week, 24-team Cup of Nations from Dec. 21 for CAF, whose president was asked Monday if plans or dates could change.

The north African nation hosts the four-week, 24-team Cup of Nations from Dec. 21 for CAF, whose president was asked Monday if plans or dates could change.

“We are absolutely confident that we will as CAF cooperate, work together with the government … and all the people of Morocco to host the most successful (Cup of Nations) in the history of this competition,” Motsepe said.

Motsepe’s first vice president at CAF is Fouzi Lekjaa, Morocco’s soccer leader and a financial adviser to the government, which is providing some of the projected $5 billion spending on projects related to the World Cup.

Morocco’s new stadiums

Morocco was picked by CAF two years ago to replace Guinea as host of the 2025 tournament and will use nine venues, including expanding a 75,000-seat venue now called Grade Stade de Tangier, and renovating Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat to 70,000 seats.

Morocco is building the 115,000-seat Hassan II Stadium in Casablanca, which it hopes will stage the final of the 2030 World Cup being co-hosted with Spain and Portugal.

The 48-team tournament will start with some games hosted by South American neighbors Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, the original World Cup host in 1930.

-AP

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Former uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) secretary-general Floyd Shivambu has announced a national consultation process to determine the potential formation of a new political movement.

And despite critiquing internal party politics, he has declared his unwavering respect for former MKP leader Jacob Zuma.

In a press briefing at the Mhulu Luxury Boutique Hotel in Midrand on Thursday, Shivambu sought to “clarify distortions” following his removal as secretary-general by the MKP leadership earlier in the month.

This followed a visit to the church of fugitive pastor and self-proclaimed prophet Shepherd Bushiri in Malawi over the Easter weekend.

“There was a fake report claiming I use money and magic to make people disappear. I reject it with contempt. These reports were manufactured by political scoundrels who misuse Zuma’s kindness to manipulate him,” he said.

He added that a second report accused him of planning to use Parliament as a platform to undermine MKP leadership, allegedly with funding from Stellenbosch elites.

Instead, Shivambu claimed that R7 million was being withdrawn from MK Party coffers every month without accountability.

“We raised it internally: stop what you are doing, because you are going to get the party deregistered as a political party. There is no sound reason for what has been happening,” he warned, suggesting that ongoing financial mismanagement threatened the party’s legal standing and long-term credibility.

Despite his demotion, he expressed deep respect for Zuma, stating that he learned more about “real politics” in six months at MKP than in 10 years with the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).

He emphasised that he has not resigned from the MKP and has no intention of doing so.

Shivambu insisted that he was not forming a breakaway party. Instead, he was launching a national consultation process to explore whether South Africans wanted a new political movement.

“We’re going to meet traditional leaders, religious figures, prominent South Africans like Patrice Motsepe and citizens from every province,” he said.

The ultimate goal was to listen to the people of the country.

“If the people say do not form a party, we will humbly accept that. But if they say yes, we will create a party built on principle, not cults, families, or tribal identities,” he said.

Shivambu was critical of existing political alternatives.

“I will never return to the ANC, it collaborates with the white establishment. And I won’t rejoin the EFF, it has become a cult. No self-respecting activist should go back to either,” he said.

Shivambu also took the opportunity to honour the spirit of 16 June, Youth Day, stressing that the struggle of African people was far from over.

He portrayed himself as “a servant of the people”, committed to principle over political convenience.

When asked whether he regretted leaving the EFF, he replied that he never wanted to destabilise the party, which was why he left. He also said he had never attended a factional meeting in his life.

Asked about MKP potentially expelling him, Shivambu said: “Let them. I do not beg for political membership. I will continue the work with or without a title. Without a position, my voice will be amplified.”

Next week, his team will unveil the leadership structure of the consultation process and outline its national itinerary.

“This is not about me. It’s about whether South Africa needs a new political vision, and if so, what it must look like,” he said.

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ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula has warned the organisation that if it does not stop its obsession with the succession debate, other than regrouping to win the local government elections, it faces a disastrous 2029 national elections.

Addressing the Chris Hani 9th regional elections in the Eastern Cape on Friday, Mbalula said that ANC members did not seem to realise the mess the party was in following its humiliating defeat in the 2024 elections.

He added that instead of members being preoccupied with building ANC branches to secure a decisive victory in the local polls next year, they were busy talking about the party’s 2027 national conference and who should lead it.

Mbalula said the local government election results would clearly define what would happen in 2029 and party members should be channeling their energy into that.

“Why are comrades obsessed with who must lead in the next conference in 2027? When we are in a muddy place like this. Who doesn’t see and appreciate the moment we are in as an organisation? Comrades are just refusing the disaster that is facing us.

“They just want us to talk about the (2027) leadership contest when we said we must wait and will have enough time to talk about it in the organisation. And that is what is important to all of as an organisation in the ANC at the present moment. If we don’t do that, we will be faster out of power than expected,” warned Mbalula.

The secretary-general further warned that there was a tendency of branches to live for elective conferences and they voted for people because they had money and not their capability to lead the organisation and the country.

He said in recent times the name of billionaire and Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club owner Patrice Motsepe was being bandied about to be the next ANC leader.

He added that he was not even sure if Motsepe was an ANC member in good standing, but admitted that the businessman did donate to the party handsomely.

“Now they are talking about people whom we don’t know if they have branches. They are saying they are going to be leaders of the ANC because they have money. ANC is not like running a football club and all of that. You work for it. This is not like (Mamelodi) Sundowns or (Orlando) Pirates.

“To those people who are always saying we want Motsepe, we want Motsepe, I don’t even know if he is a member of the ANC. Yes, his money we eat it, he donates from time to time,” he said.

Mbalula said that if Motsepe was interested, he must raise his hand and show himself within the ANC structures because those who were campaigning were irritating “like raw meat in your throat”.

He said ANC members should be disciplined and stay focused on rebuilding the party and gaining the trust of the masses so they could win the local government elections.

“Every Sunday Motsepe is touted, touted by who? And when? We said to you wait and be disciplined. Those who want to eat people’s monies, they must go and eat them far away. We are not going to be led by money here,” said Mbalula.

He also raised concerns about the alliance partners, the SACP and Cosatu, saying they appeared to be set on leaving the alliance.

Mbalula warned that this would further cost the ANC at the polls if the SACP went ahead and contested for state power.

Mbalula said it appeared that the horse had already bolted and the alliance partners were going around in circles. SACP candidates were contesting by-elections despite an agreement that this resolution would be discussed by Tripartite Alliance.

Mbalula said the ANC had warned its partners that the move would cost the party at the polls, but they had argued that socialism could only be represented by the SACP.

“We have never understood that the SACP has actually defined itself outside the National Development Revolution, including about socialism. That socialism will be realised through the part of NDR. Where it was redefined, we don’t know,” he said.

He reiterated that the ANC had agreed to a reconfiguration and the alliance partners just needed to find each other.  

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