Staff Reporter

January: President Zuma is inaugurated at the Union Buildings. He announces that the buildings will henceforth be called the Fikile Mbalula Buildings after the spirited campaign put up by the Youth League leader. Later in the month Schabir Shaik is appointed the Minister of Finance (Deputy: Brett Kebble); Mo Shaik is Minister of Intelligence; Yunus Shaik becomes the Minister of Justice … The <i>M&G</i> provides its month-by-month forecast.

As we move from tsunami relief to rebuilding, it is equally critical that we work to break the cycle of poverty and create a better, more hopeful future for the peoples of the region and not recreate the circumstances that made them vulnerable to the disaster. The enormous effect of this tragedy is one of many reminders that we are all linked together by forces that are both visible and invisible.

Last week, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) took the toughest decision we’ve ever had to in our five-year history: the national council voted to lift the suspension on participating in elections and entered the race under protest. Making tough choices is part and parcel of politics, but it did not come without soul-searching, writes MDC secretary general Welshman Ncube.

African National Congress Youth League president Fikile Mbalula was stung into action this week after the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> raised concerns that politics and big business make uneasy bedfellows. Here we bring you Mbalula’s full reply to the <i>M&G</i>.

When 14-year-old Joyce Gwabasa went to the police station near her home on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast, to report a street fight, she had no idea that the two officers whom she trusted to deal with the crime would attempt to rape her. KwaZulu-Natal’s safety and security minister has admitted that nine police stations in the Durban area have "bad, bad police officers working there".

"I’ve been waiting years to say this in a public place — would you mind if I nibbled at Uranus? Or if you’re phobic, maybe I could just eat your Mars? Before you get huffy and indignant, some chocolate-makers decided that what the world needed was a fully edible party pack of all the planets of the solar system, made out of chocolate." This, and more, from Ian Fraser’s goodie bag.

HIV/Aids is a serious subject, and is not usually much fun. But this time it was. In this remote spot of southern Côte d’Ivoire, it was as if the circus had come to town. Under the banner of the Aids lexicon project, a team of specialists were here to introduce local language equivalents for words like "Aids" and "contraceptives" to promote a better understanding of the virus among the country’s rural population.

I suppose we should continue to be afraid – very afraid. The British-American-sponsored version of democracy, that is free and fair elections across Iraq, is being celebrated with jubilation and gusto across the world through CNN, the independent international news network rivalled only by al-Jazeera. The question is, which one of these networks brings more balance to what we are receiving through the testimony of our eyes.

Presidents Thabo Mbeki, Hosni Mubarak and Olusegun Obasanjo have steered clear of the controversy over Nigerian academic Dayo Oluyemi-Kusa’s assertion that South Africa and Egypt were not black enough to represent the continent on the United Nations Security Council. "The president would never get involved in commenting on something like this," said Mbeki’s spokesperson.

This is the time of year when the recurring issues of academic and financial exclusions at higher education institutions surface. This has seen some students given access and others not; and where difficult choices are made between equally pressing priorities. All this has to be done while the playing fields remain uneven.

Security guards and reporters trailing French President Jacques Chirac on his first visit to Senegal in a decade fell prey to the army of pickpockets operating in the capital, Dakar, members of the press corps said on Thursday. At least two members of the presidential security detail were relieved of personal effects.