Maria McCloy : In your ear How much local music do you want to listen to? The Independent Broadcasting Authority has decided that 20% of the music on radio must be South African. But the local music industry is baying for more and more, with some even suggesting a 50% local content quota. As of […]

Mail & Guardian reporters The Minister of Minerals and Energy, Penuell Maduna, this week vowed to resign if the Mail & Guardian could provide details of how he came to know about a $10 000 bribe. Maduna has denied any knowledge of how a leading oil trader gave $10 000 to Liberian Emanuel Shaw II […]

Gustav Thiel South Africa was among international environmental authorities converging on Kyoto, Japan, this week to decide the future regulation of global greenhouse emissions. But while the South African delegation is taking an environmentally conscious stand at the conference, South Africa is described as the most ill- prepared country in the world to face the […]

Is it true that a black face on the cover of a fashion magazine causes a 20% drop in sales? While many white South African models have made good overseas, we have yet to produce a black model to steal the limelight. But all that could be changing, writes Charl Blignaut You know that fashion […]

World Aids Day dawned this week on two different epidemics. Epidemic one, in the developed world, sees an Aids plague that has not spread as fast or as fiercely as first predicted. There are fewer people dying, fewer people catching Aids, fewer reported HIV infections. These reductions should be celebrated. Preventive health campaigns as well […]

Andrew Muchineripi : Boxing South African boxing is on its death bed and the only doctor capable of resuscitating the sick patient is Minister of Sport Steve Tshwete. Matters were brought to the attention of the public, officials and the government with the resignation of the Gauteng Provincial Boxing Commission lawyer Mandla Mbongwe. Mbongwe alleged […]

Until the day he died last week, Johannesburg was Dr Hastings Banda’s second African home. Timothy Walker traces his state visit to South Africa during the winter of 1971 Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda, who died on November 25 at the Garden City Clinic, was no stranger to Johannesburg. He first arrived on the Rand in […]

The TRC’s back-room fighter Ferial Haffajee Back-room boys become that way because they shy away from profiles like this one. Hanif Vally (42) is foremost among them. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s national legal officer doesn’t want to be profiled. “I’m not interested in that kind of thing,” he says. But his bounteous frame has […]

Andy Duffy The Department of Education is pushing for a hefty increase in government funding to poor students next year. At a meeting earlier this week, department officials surprised campus stakeholders with a proposal to raise the government’s funding to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme far above the R200-million pumped in for 1997. The […]

Andy Duffy The man who led the militant group People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) through 18 months of brutal conflict with Cape Flats gangsters has broken ranks with the organisation. Aslam Toefy, who quit as Pagad’s national co-ordinator last month, says it is time to stop marching on drug dealers’ houses and to start […]