There has been some debate on Twitter of late about the provinces. Perhaps sparked by an insightful piece in the Business Day by Carol Paton, who predicts that this year's big political debate will be provincial structures, it's an argument worth having. By STEPHEN GROOTES.

2012 is a year of many political leadership contests - Taiwan, Mexico, Russia, are just a few. Perhaps the most important and hardest to handicap may be the upcoming presidential race in France on 22 April. By J BROOKS SPECTOR.

Like most things in life, the Egyptian Revolution produced winners and losers. On the anniversary of its beginning, SIMON ALLISON looks at why the activists are introspective and the military is celebrating.

What was the idea behind the Daso poster showing a naked interracial couple that set the social media abuzz and, with the help of a few online news sites and radio stations, the public in general? It certainly got attention, but did it manage to make a meaningful contribution to race discourse? And what long term effect might this have on the DA, the parent body to Daso? By SIPHO HLONGWANE.

From time to time we see a politician in trouble. Being capitalist, but kind-hearted, we like to play Samaritan and stop to help. Sometimes we're successful, sometimes we're not. We can think of no person more in need of help right now than Julius Malema. But he's beyond our help. In fact, he's beyond anyone's help (apart from perhaps Jacob Zuma's, and we can't really see it coming right now). So instead, we thought we'd stop and have a kindly word with Fikile Mbalula. Because he's next in the firing line. By the ever-respectful STEPHEN GROOTES.

Kim Schmitz, aka Kim Dotcom, was until his arrest last week the kingpin of one of the largest piracy networks the Internet has yet seen. But the misdirected “libertarian” hacker group Anonymous supported him anyway. What does this have to do with the two pieces of anti-piracy legislation that have just been shelved by the United States Congress? And how can artists, writers and musicians make a living in the face of a populist call for online anarchy? By KEVIN BLOOM.

Angry Libyans can’t believe that four months after Gaddafi’s fall, so much of his autocratic system remains in place. Shouldn’t everything be different now? SIMON ALLISON argues unless Libyans are patient, they risk destroying their chances of a making a real difference.

Kenya just doesn’t seem to get it. Lost in the minutiae of military detail, a Kenyan army colonel claimed they were at the halfway point of their mission to rid Somalia of Al Shabaab. Have they learnt nothing from Afghanistan? Iraq? Vietnam? Weapons don’t win wars any more, and until Kenya and its African allies figure out a political solution, Al Shabaab isn’t going anywhere. By SIMON ALLISON.

After a tight-lipped meeting last week, Cabinet said it’s worried about a “lack of capacity” to meet job targets set by President Jacob Zuma. Understanding the situation might help. The South Africa Survey, an annual report released this week by the South African Institute of Race Relations, is a good place to start. By GREG NICOLSON.

Speaking at the opening session of the 18th African Union summit in Addis Ababa on Monday, AU commission chairman Jean Ping said the African Union had, over the past year, taken great steps in “defence of the spirit of democratisation” of Africa. By KHADIJA PATEL.

The week that was(n't) in beloved South Africa. Seriously. By JOHN VLISMAS & DUNCAN HARLING.

What’s happening with Cope these days? Don’t worry – it’s a rhetorical question. We don’t care either. We asked two former Cope members, Onkgopotse JJ Tabane and Philip Dexter, how they felt about the ship they have both leapt from. By SIPHO HLONGWANE.

There were fears that the Press Freedom Commission hearings, dubbed the "Listening to South Africa Campaign" would result in nothing more than a rehash of the Press Council public hearings that took place in 2011. At the very least, a greater diversity of voices seem to have come to the party. By JULIE REID.

Madagascar’s exiled president tried to go home on Saturday, only for his plane to be dramatically turned back to OR Tambo in mid-air. Bad news for Madagascar’s fragile peace process, and even worse news for SADC and South African diplomacy, which needs peace in Madagascar to vindicate its repeatedly failed softly-softly approach to conflict resolution. By SIMON ALLISON.

In 2011 iMaverick brought you strong coverage of South Africa’s delivery protests. As we prepare to get more pictures and stories from the frontline, we pause for a moment to ask, “What if?” By GREG NICOLSON.

Recent events have shown that the President Jacob Zuma-Gwede Mantashe strand of the ANC is beginning to feel quite confident. Whereas a year ago Zuma seemed to be afraid of saying "boo" to Lindiwe Mazibuko, now he's got rid of some of the corruption from his Cabinet, put Julius Malema under severe pressure and started to act against the hijacking of Limpopo. At the same time, we have to consider what's happening within the ANC’s top six national officials and last week's extraordinary public smack-down of ANC treasurer-general Mathews Phosa by Mantashe. No matter how you look at it, Zuma is once again the MacDaddy of our politics. By STEPHEN GROOTES.

On Sunday, Human Rights Watch Director Ken Roth revealed the organisation’s annual report in Cairo. The 676-page report is an annual review of human rights practices around the globe and summarises major rights issues in more than 90 countries. As a reflection of the state of the world, it makes for depressing reading. By KHADIJA PATEL.

Revelations about his private life notwithstanding, Newt Gingrich steamrolled Mitt Romney and the rest of the suddenly diminished GOP hopefuls' field. The staunchly conservative southern state's Republicans, as well as the late certified results from Iowa that showed Rick Santorum had won, have injected a huge measure of uncertainty into the race that appeared settled just a few short days ago. By J BROOKS SPECTOR.

Here’s the good news: the worst movie of 2012 is now over and done with. Here’s the bad news: that it was ever made in the first place. By RICHARD POPLAK

Ever since the death of feudalism, the captains of capitalism have churned the wheels of spin to have us believe that free markets are free, globalisation is good, capitalism is fair and other fairy tales. Cambridge development economist Ha-Joon Chang says it’s high time we stopped drinking the pro-capitalist Kool-Aid. By MANDY DE WAAL.

At the height of the 2011 crisis in Côte d’Ivoire an estimated 200,000 men, women and children sought asylum in neighbouring states, while another million people were displaced within the country. Now, as rebuilding resumes, they’re making their way home. Among them, children who found themselves in refugee camps without their parents. By KHADIJA PATEL.

On Wednesday the National Council of Provinces ad hoc committee on the Protection of State Information Bill released its draft schedule for public hearings on the bill. With 40% of township residents blissfully unaware even of the existence of the bill, the committee has its work cut out to ensure hearings are factual and inclusive. By THERESA MALLINSON.

A high-profile panel assembled by the SA government to discuss the Sudans painted a bleak picture of that country’s present and future. The spectre of Somalia was raised, as was the imminent threat of widespread famine. It seems that South Sudan’s independence has been no panacea to the problems in the region, and there aren’t any leaders with the strength or vision to solve the remaining threats. By SIMON ALLISON.

He is the ANC’s treasurer general and a quiet businessman. That’s the simple answer. The more complex one is that this former premier of Mpumalanga is the model ANC man with deep struggle roots, who pottered about in the provinces and then rode the wave that washed Thabo Mbeki out to become one of the top six officials. Now, his uneasy alliance with Jacob Zuma is over. By SIPHO HLONGWANE.

The latest version of this Iranian-US confrontation has become virtually the only front-burner foreign policy issue in this year’s presidential election – at least as far as the Republican candidates in the political party primaries are concerned. The Iranians, the Israelis and the Americans must all be contemplating the uncertainties that would inevitably spin out of control from any sort of precipitate action. By J BROOKS SPECTOR.

The Africa Cup of Nations kicks off on Saturday, and tourists are descending on hosts Gabon and Equatorial Guinea by the handful. If you are one of the lucky few, here’s a handy travel guide you probably shouldn’t rely on completely. By SIMON ALLISON.

Finance minister Pravin Gordhan has cut through allegations that his Limpopo intervention was politically motivated and obstructed core services. Flanked by five Cabinet ministers, he faced media on Thursday in the province’s treasury, an institution that is, well, a basket case. By GREG NICOLSON.

SA's most respected minister chose Polokwane as a perfect setting to deliver the K.O. to Premier Cassel Mathale, his Cabinet, and, by proxy, to Julius Malema on Thursday. The force of his argument was powerful, the picture he painted stupefyingly, staggeringly painful. STEPHEN GROOTES was there.

Since time immemorial human conflict has, of necessity, involved sloughing off our “human-ness”. We call it “dehumanising” and, despite whatever lofty vain-glorious heights we imagine we have attained today, war is still dehumanising. Whether on stage or in real theatres of war, we relinquish an essential facet of being “human” when we have to kill or be killed. By J BROOKS SPECTOR.

Of course, they said the right things and said them nicely. They talked about African development, integration, security and sustainability. But what the heavyweight five-minister team that formally declared Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma’s candidature as chief of the African Union Commission was really doing was announcing South Africa’s ambitious plan to seize the leadership  of Africa’s future. By SIMON ALLISON.