Shuttleworth Trip cancellation article

Here is another web link about the Shuttleworth ISS visit cancellation.

It makes interesting reading. There appears to be some confusion regarding the state of negotiations.
This smells to me that somebody (guess who) is working
behind the scenes trying to screw things up. Or
can you come up with a better explanation of what this
article says ?

http://www.bday.co.za/bday/content/direct/1,3523,943004-6078-0,00.html