South Africa, Australia and New Zealand might be celebrating southern Hemisphere domination, but the scores were too close for comfort during the weekend. The gap between the top teams of the north and the south might not be as big as is generally perceived.

You may leave home as an innocent citizen but return a murderer. And all you did was take your eye off the road for a moment. Far-fetched? Not if we can take seriously what the Minister of Transport, Sibusiso Ndebele, has recently been saying.

President Jacob Zuma appears to be on an upward curve in terms of mobilising support for re-election as president of the ruling ANC. Its national congress takes place in December. While Zuma had previously established solid ground among trade union allies of the ANC, he also scored important victories within the ANC last week.

To this day, the name Tommy, as a generic reference to an enlisted British soldier, has retained its link to the historical heroic figure Tommy Atkins. The Tom of the expression to be an Uncle Tom, is less auspicious. Over time, he has gained much in common with South Africa’s own impimpi. For that, Uncle Tom can blame Hollywood.

The radical campaign for the nationalisation of land without compensation in South Africa has intensified considerably over recent weeks. That this happens despite Julius Malema, the once firebrand president of the ANC Youth League (ANCYL), having been removed from the political scene, should come as no surprise.

The tension between the International Criminal Court (ICC) and Africa, has been intensified by the African Union (AU) Commission. The commission informed Malawi that the country will no longer host the 9-16 July 2012 AU Summit. The issue is the attendance of Sudanese president, Omar Hassan Ahmad Al-Bashir.

Pitso Mosimane’s successor will be given eight matches in which to show his mettle as coach of Bafana Bafana on the road to recovery prior to the Afcon Cup in 2013, hosted by South Africa. Four coaches on the shortlist to replace Mosimane, Gordon Igesund, Gavin Hunt, Ephraim Shakes Mashaba and Neil Tovey, were interviewed by the South African Football Association (SAFA) on Thursday last week.