Growing up and listening to the stories of the old folks about the days of the Anglo Boer War, or the South African War as my English-speaking friends prefer to call it, I just assumed that the name “Tommy” for a British soldier hailed from that historical event. I was wrong. Not only does the name go further back, but Tommy actually has a surname.

The fact that the firebrand leader of the ANC Youth League, Julius Malema, has effectively disappeared from the South African political scene does not mean that the efforts to establish nationalisation of property without compensation is something of the past. The National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa (NUMSA) has stepped into the fray with the protective clause 25 of the Constitution firmly in their sights.

Heyneke Meyer’s first squad as Springbok coach is characterised by notable omissions rather than the nine new caps or the fifteen members of the 2011 Rugby World squad. There is no Heinrich Brussow, no Gio Aplon, no Juan de Jongh and no Fourie du Preez in the squad announced on Saturday for the test series against England.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) based in The Hague in the Netherlands, is ten years old this year. Not only has it been ten difficult years to get the ICC accepted by the global family of nations but it is still an institution that evokes conflicting emotions.

The ongoing South African debate about the practicalities of the constitutionally enshrined principle of the separation of between parliament, the executive and the judiciary is set to be tested in the Constitutional Court. It could take the debate to another level.

The sacking of Pitso Mosimane as Bafana Bafana coach has been on the cards for some time but it was also inevitable after the South African national soccer team only managed to salvage a 1-1 draw against the 138^th ranked Ethiopia in Phokeng on Sunday in the 2014 World Cup qualifier.