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As a clear indication that the global financial system is on the verge of another major crisis or even collapse, the financial leaders of the world’s top economies were involved in a blame game at a meeting in Poland this past weekend. In the mea time a debate on what a future dispensation should look like has also started.

As unity within the National Transitional Council (NTC), formed between the diverse elements of the rebel force in the Libyan civil conflict is increasingly proving fragile, as reports mount about Africans suffering racist ill-treatment at the hands of the rebels and as hopes of peace returning to this oil-rich North African country in the near future fast fading, South Africa and the African Union (AU) stance on the situation might just be proven the morally and strategically correct one. 

While corruption and self-enrichment by the politically connected has perhaps become endemic throughout South Africa, few if any other regions arguably suffer this social cancer more severely than the northern province of Limpopo, highlighted by an internal ANC-power struggle.

While the debate about possible nationalisation of the mining industry has become  highly emotional and extremely polarised in South Africa, three recent international reports show that resource nationalism has become the number-one threat to the industry globally. It might even hamper overall financial global recovery, one of the reports warns.

He will probably be best remembered in history for the gate-suffix that he gave to the English language (and wider) in the wake of the Watergate scandal. What should, however not be forgotten by world leaders is to what extent the globe’s financial crisis can be traced back to goldgate, also known as the Nixon-shock.

Two subjects very much in the news in recent times got me very much thinking about the proverb that has it that chickens always come home to roost ­– not only about the origin of this expression, but also to what extent proverbs sometimes truly captures eternal wisdom.

The African Ministerial Conference on Climate-Smart Agriculture concluded with the adoption of the Johannesburg Communiqué, which underscores the need to put climate-smart agriculture high on the political agenda. In a communiqué it called for climate-smart agriculture to sustainably increase agricultural productivity and build resilience to environmental pressures by helping farmers adapt to climate change while reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

For many organisations that are looking to cut costs, changes in technology offer an excellent opportunity to reduce IT spend while delivering greater value to the business. One such change is “cloud computing”, which Gartner, the world's leading information technology research and advisory company, defines as “a style of computing where scalable and elastic IT capabilities are provided as a service to multiple customers using Internet technologies,” writes Alan Low.

Amakhosi, or Kaizer Chiefs, have opened a one-point gap at the top of the South African Absa Premiership log after beating their arch enemies, Orlando Pirates. Just a week after succumbing to their bogey side, in the final of the MTN8-competition, Chiefs won 2-1 against the Buccaneers at the same venue, and now are the early trendsetters in the competition with 12 points after five matches.

With some eight million members and close to R2 trillion of assets under management, South Africa’s retirement fund trustees are probably the most influential group of investors in the country ­­– and probably the most fortunate too, as the regulators have provided them with some solid guidelines to avoid the behavioural pitfalls that most investors fall foul of, writes Rob Macdonald.

South Africa produced arguably one of their finest-ever Rugby World Cup performances on Saturday and it was endorsed by the Fijian captain, Deacon Manu, who told journalists it was a fantastic Springbok side and one superior to its predecessor against which he played in 2007. This time round he was a hapless observer in the 3-49 loss to the Springboks.

Winston Churchill’s famous words following the Allied victory in 1942 at El Alamein in Libya -- “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginnin” -- came to mind while following the dramatic  developments of the recent Global Week of Action organised by pro-democratic forces in Swaziland.