Cricket fans will have to wait for another 12 months. That is a long time to live with the cruelty of abysmal decisions, highlighted by several TV-replays, without the privilege of using the Umpire Decision Referral System (UDRS). Its absence in the second cricket test at Kingsmead in Durban greatly irked South Africa, as three incorrect decisions played a significant role in India’s 87-run victory against the Proteas.

Ernie Els finished 2010 as arguably South Africa’s top earner in sport, by pocketing $21.5 million, while Louis Oosthuizen walked away with the most cherished silver ware, winning the British Open. But which South African individuals or teams will be the recipients of the greatest prizes in sport in 2011? The ultimate silverware is up for grabs, as the Cricket World Cup on the Indian subcontinent and the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand will be contested.

South Africa starts off 2011 with a considerably enhanced international diplomatic profile and it could become a memorable year on this front which will cement its position as the leading power on the African continent. There is also the promise of concluding it on a high as host of a major international conference at the end of the year.

At a book table of an informal trader in Cape Town’s Claremont I recently came across a “Booke of Cookery” produced by America’s first First Lady, Martha Washington. What caught my eye when leafing through this tiny book of only eight by ten centimetres and made me buy it, was a recipe under the heading To Make an Humble Pie.

Accelerating service delivery to cover backlogs and meet the needs of a growing local population and thousands of immigrants, involving all the major stakeholders in the municipal processes and facilitating a transparent and more accountable local government will, in most municipalities throughout the country, be the greatest immediate challenges facing whichever party wins the local election in 2011. 

South Africa’s labour scene could become a major battle ground early in the new year, with only five weeks to go for comments on intended sweeping amendments to four key labour laws announced at the end of the final cabinet meeting of 2010. While organised labour has threatened the mother of all disputes, labour brokers mooted the possibility of a Constitutional Court battle.

As 2010 was drawing to a close Foreign Policy (FP) magazine published a list of the 16 most worrisome spots in the world to watch for the possible scenes of what it called next yea’s wars. With seven or nearly 44% on the list under the heading The 16 brewing conflicts to watch for in 2011 Africa tops the continental league. Three African countries count under the first 10.

While it remains impossible to predict with any hope of certainty where technological development will take the world in the medium- to long-term future, it seems pretty sure that we will have to accept that the concept of cyberwar is here to stay and sure to intensify in the immediate years ahead.

A busy political year was launched this last Saturday with the African National Congress  national executive committee’s traditional annual January 8 statement. It is likely to be a year of high political intensity accompanying the upcoming general municipal elections and some controversy surrounding some of the draft bills already on the legislative programme.

This past Saturday the president of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress  once again delivered the annual January 8 statement on behalf of the party’s highest organ between national conferences, the national executive committee (NEC). In recent years this statement, timed to coincide with the organisation’s anniversary, has increasingly been regarded as providing insight into the ruling party’s plans for the year ahead, and into the matters that may be raised by its leader when he changes his hat as head of state to deliver his own state-of-the-nation address when he opens Parliament in February.

If President Jacob Zuma and his cabinet could persuade and assist local and provincial governments to fully and properly spend their annual budgets, it would go a long way towards meeting government’s promises and targets for job creation.

The Wikileaks documents may not produce any world-changing revelations, but every day they are adding to the steady, gradual erosion of people's belief in the US government's good intentions, which is necessary to overcome a lifetime of indoctrination. Many more individuals over the years would have been standing in front of the White House if they had had access to the plethora of information that floods people today; which is not to say that we would have succeeded in stopping any of the wars; that's a question of to what extent the United States is a democracy, writes William Blum in an article for Information Clearing House.

“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 look at The Gun: The AK-47 and the Evolution of War, written by CJ Chivers and published in December 2010.

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!