It is that season once more when political parties start preparing for a general election and campaigns get underway. And, as has become the norm, in the year or so leading up to a general election, new political parties are popping up all over the place

In what might have been an act of cyber war, hackers broke into the Twitter account of the Associated Press (AP) on 23 April this year spreading a false report that saw close on $140 billion being wiped off the US stock market. Although losses were rapidly recovered, the incident exposed some disturbing vulnerabilities in the global financial system.

The racial profile of South Africa’s more wealthy has been changing faster on a number of fronts in favour of blacks in recent year than is generally perceived. The latest indicator, produced by the University of Cape Town’s Unilever Institute of Strategic Marketing (UISM), found that the spending power of the black middle class surpassed that of their white counterparts by R80 billion last year.

While the issues of slow job creation, unemployment and inequality have been targeted as areas of urgent focus by government, a just-released survey found that only 38% of the adult population are employed. So how well is government doing at rectifying the problem? 

The embarrassing spectacle of the wealthy and politically connected Gupta family being allowed to land a private aircraft with wedding guests at a key South African military air force base was a political disaster waiting to happen. And, it will happen again unless some fundamental attitudes and structural changes are made to the way the affairs of state have been run for some time now.

After a 10 month long series of investigations and articles by the Sunday Times that alleged that she had a hand in awarding lucrative contracts to her boyfriend, communications minister, Dina Pule, finally publicly defended herself. She launched a blistering counterattack on the journalists responsible for the investigation and articles, setting out a plot that would have left even William Shakespeare jealous and, probably, bedazzled by all the intrigue it suggested.

The Bulls produced their best performance of the Vodacom Super Rugby season by thumping the Hurricanes 48-14 on Saturday and moving confidently to the summit of the South African conference. Meanwhile, the Sharks crashed against the struggling Highlanders and the Stormers missed golden opportunities to beat the Blues on Friday.

In the absence of Jacques Kallis, South Africa will have to do a very delicate balancing act to select a team capable of reaching the playoffs in the Champions Trophy tournament in England in June. With Kallis out of the picture the Proteas might lack a stabilising factor at number three if one of the openers should fail.