2010 approaches apace and with it South Africa seems to be one of the most exciting places on Earth. Every time I am away for a couple of days, it astounds me how much the country can change. Last week I was in rural KwaZulu-Natal, on the scene of the historic Battle of Spionkop (read that hyperlink, it is very interesting), out of the office for a mere two days...not counting the weekend.

In that time, all hell broke loose at Eskom, Leonard Chuene seems to be getting his comeuppance, those in charge of the police are reportedly engaged in a serious spat, Trevor Manuel's position of influence has apparently come under fire. And Jackie Selebi slips inexorably into what appears to be an inextricable situation. Shew.

The political climate in the country appears to be taking a turn for the...how does one put this...substantially more interesting. There is a lot of wrangling and behind the scenes dogfighting going on. All of which may seem somewhat disconcerting, but it provides endless fodder for the absolutely hilarious ZAnews. Watch it now if you haven't already.

Speaking of which, some weeks back I asked Helen Zille, via Twitter, what she thought of ZANews. I didn't get a reply. Unfortunately.

More on the political climate with some news which is just in. Apparently government is looking to take a hard line on bloggers critical of the South African situation. Now, while here at Shine 2010 we throw our support behind our country, we have to stress that we cannot support such action. While we obviously see the efforts of people like Albert Oosthuizen in a poor light, freedom of thought and speech is a constitutional right...so long as it isn't hate speech. I'd go out on a limb here and say that perhaps government should look at clamping down on certain members of the various Youth Leagues of the country, which seem to be engaged in some sort of silly competition to see who can make the most ridiculously inflammatory and outrageous statements....