While all the fuss around 2010 has been on the Soccer World Cup, there are a whole lot of other things to look forward to which will make this year just as, if not more exciting, than last year.
In April, I would love to see labour minister Membathisi Mdladlana actually introduce labour laws, which are not favourable for outsourcing, sub-contracting and all those other activities which could fall under the umbrella of labour broking.
The minister has invited a Constitutional Court challenge against whatever decision he takes. Over the years, government has taken a battering whenever it's been dragged to the highest court in the land - and I don't think it would be any different this time.
Maybe then we would hear something from minister Rob Davies on exactly what the Department of Trade and Industry is going to do. After all, if your department has invested over a billion rand, opened an entire division dedicated to business process outsourcing, flaunted the sector as a key to economic growth and continues to bankroll BPO efforts - you cannot afford to keep quiet forever.
While watching Cosatu block roads, toss rubbish bins and claim to bring the country to a halt as taxis and busses whiz past them in the Johannesburg CBD would be fun to watch - what I would find infinitely more entertaining is a little wrestling between ministers.
Road woes
With promises by the Gauteng government to make our lives more interesting with the formal introduction of the infamous Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences Act nationally, and the electronic number plates for Johannesburg and Tshwane motorists - the year is undoubtedly only going to get more challenging.
The minister has invited a Constitutional Court challenge against whatever decision he takes.
Audra Mahlong, journalist, ITWeb
The first step would obviously have to be sticking to a set deadline, something both projects have had great trouble doing for some time now. But let's say we believe what government has to say just this once and these projects do go ahead on schedule, I can already imagine the mess that awaits most of us.
If metro police chiefs say the project isn't ready to be imposed on the rest of us, I don't see how this is all going to go smoothly at all. Web sites have been hacked and there have been constant criticisms of the legal processes, but the Department of Transport is sticking to its time sheets - 2010 it is.
Forget issues with postal processes, electronic versus physical enforcements, securing and verifying basic driver information and the training of authorised officers. The flawed system is coming our way and for now all we have to look forward to are system crashes, winding queues at traffic departments and even more backlogs in our court system.
Busting citizens
Our justice system will feature prominently in 2010 headlines as the police are looking to create a DNA database, which is bound to fill the year with drama.
There are bigger problems in the police force that need to be resolved before a DNA database of such scale can be introduced, and the drama is bound to come from the force fumbling around and trying to get things right.
After realising that they actually don't have the money or the skills to make sure DNA data is secure, they're now looking at getting access to Home Affairs databases.
So soon they'll have access to everyone's info - not just the criminals. While they say it will be limited and only used for investigations, the combination of the disorganisation of our police and Home Affairs together, doesn't fill me with any hope.
DNA profiling does allow for quick identification of serial crimes, earlier arrests, valuable intelligence, exoneration of innocent suspects and identification of bodies. But the reality is that, if you're dealing with a police force so incompetent in certain areas that officers couldn't solve a case even if the crime is committed right in front of them, the legislation is useless and the database rather dangerous.
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