political home Chiara Carter The National Party in the Western Cape looks set to lose several key politicians to the Democratic Party. The big prize is former education MEC Martha Olckers, set to leave after first being deposed as a provincial Cabinet minister and now featuring low on the regional lists. A number of other […]

On the first day of Christmas the taxman sent to me an exhaustive tax inquiry. On the second day of Christmas my lawyer sent to me, two final demands and an exhaustive tax inquiry. On the third day of Christmas Woolworths sent to me, three maxed accounts, two final demands and an exhaustive tax inquiry. […]

Tangeni Amupadhi Nearly four months after Anna Dorothy Marabane’s husband shot her in front of two police officers, her family remains in the dark about what happened in the last few hours of her life. Her husband, Mokete Marabane, will appear on a murder charge in the Krugersdorp court next week. Family members hope many […]

axe Mungo Soggot and David Shapshak Wits University axed Ron Clarke, the palaeoanthropologist responsible for last week’s sensational fossil find in Sterkfontein, despite receiving several written pleas from eminent international scientists to keep him on. Three top fossil academics based in the United States have confirmed they attempted to persuade the university to reconsider its […]

for that `good feeling’ Peter Makurube In her neighbourhood, even a child can lead you to Margaret Singana’s home. The singer once known as Lady Africa has not been on stage in a long while, but the people of Zola still treat her with the deference of old. When disaster struck, Margaret Singana was at […]

Maya Jaggi: FIRST PERSON Carmen Legge is 35 years old. She is a successful insurance broker, she has long red hair, she owns a BMW, she has her own flat. And she has a boyfriend who “wants it four times a day”. In short she has everything that Bridget Jones, protagonist in Helen Fielding’s book […]

Fiona Macleod A deal being hammered out with the southern Kalahari Bushmen will entitle them to jointly own and manage more than 1 000km2 of the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park in the Northern Cape. It will also add about 500km2 on to the park. If the deal goes through – and there are indications it […]

David Shapshak Spending It In science fiction, functional technology has long been integrated into mainstream culture as fashion. Technology has often been reinvented as fashion, witness what Bang & Olafsson have done for the dour hi-fi or Apple’s iMac for the home personal computer. The cellphone, that once distinctive sign of a yuppie, is going […]

Friday night: Shaun de Waal Last Friday the charming Brad Holmes opened his Melville jazz club, the Bassline, in the late afternoon for the Mail & Guardian’s annual Christmas staff party. This was an informal bash – the Mail had only pocket money left after the office-warming of our new building earlier in the year. […]

Tangeni Amupadhi A band of robbers and kill-ers is terrorising African immigrants in Johannesburg in what appears to be a systematic elimination of the foreign nationals. The latest casualty was Djo Ongonga Okamba from Brazzaville, the capital of Congo. He was shot dead last week, days before he was to leave for his home town. […]