As Mozambique’s capital of Maputo and the city of Matola are experiencing violent riots because of rocketing prices of food and other key consumer goods, a report released in late August by Friends of the Earth Europe (FOEE) warns that Africa is at risk of its agricultural land being grabbed by developed and other countries “with minimal benefit for local communities and national economies”.

Reports last week of teachers preventing children from not only preparing with prelim exams for probably their most important platform to launch themselves as productive, well-adjusted participants into the life of adulthood, but even tearing up and burning the papers of those who showed determination to make a success of their life, was extremely unsettling for many. We seem to have lost something as a nation.

The cost of the drawn-out South African public service strike to the economy runs at somewhere between R300-R350 million per day. Departments will have to find collectively an additional R1.5 billion if the latest offer to the unions is accepted. The total impact of the entire 7.5% wage offer on the state’s salary bill will be R6.5 billion. But all of this is but a small part of the real total costs.

Truth is the first casualty of war. This old adage certainly rings true for South Africa at present as the country finds itself in the grip of a war of perceptions, speculation, claims and contradictions, as well as a vicious contest for power and spoils. A confusing and increasingly complex situation has evolved which for now is focused on two events – the public-sector strike and the forthcoming national general council (NGC) of the African National Congress (ANC).

Africa has a quarter of the world's arable land but produces only a tenth of our food. On the eve of a pan-African conference on food security, Lindiwe Sibanda asks how African farmers can turn things round, and what questions and answers you have when facing the huge challenges of maintaining and increasing Africa's food production?

Call them legends of the fall, if you want. A year after their annus mirabilis, the Springbok team plummeted to number three in the world, conceded a record 22 tries in six matches and lost five out of six Vodacom Tri-Nations matches with only the World Cup in their trophy cabinet -- and looking unlikely to hang on to that.

At best it was started because of extremely bad intelligence and at worst on the back of a big fat and cynical lie. Now, seven and a half years later, as American combat troops are claimed to be returning home, the question remains: what was actually achieved by the war in Iraq, which cost more than 100 000 lives – mostly civilian – and at least some $751 billion?

In our last two issues, Leadership Intelligence Bulletin explored the escalating use of private military and security companies (PMSC’s) in international war and peace-keeping operations and why they continue to become more popular. Contracting PMSC’s does, however, carry certain risks which we place under the spotlight in this last of our three-part series.

 “Worth a read?” is not your ordinary book review; it is a meta-review. In other words, it provides an overview of the opinions contained in a variety of book reviews published in the media at large. This week we take a look at  “Googled: The end of the world as we know it”, written by Ken Auletta and released in South Africa in March 2010.

If Hollywood were considering a remake of Sex, Lies and Videotape, there is some disturbing new material that would offer a perfect opportunity to write a sequel, but then they would have to be prepared to do some filming in the Asian subcontinent and interview a few bookmakers on cricket tests.

During the public service strike there was one very clever poster displayed on our TV-screens. In fact it was so clever that it was really a pity that the teacher who had her face framed by a hole in the middle of the poster was not in her class teaching. The poster did, however aptly describe how many of us also felt about the strike by then.

With the co-operation of the The LR Management Group, we can now bring you the leadership training tool 50 Lessons, which is a powerful force in the world of corporate learning. 50 Lessons is the worlds premier multimedia business resource, offering more than 1 000 personal and authentic video lessons from internationally respected business leaders. It can assist you to increase the utilisation and return on investment of your learning programmes immediately!