Ferial Haffajee A Pretoria branch of the Democratic Party is known as the armed wing of the party – or Umkhonto weDP – because its members have so much firepower. Among the diverse membership of the Centurion branch are former generals, colonels navy officers of the old South African Defence Force and 12 members of […]

Miles Keylock : Live in Cape Town Many fans of the present South African music explosion could be forgiven for wondering why a bunch of ageing gothic rockers like No Friends of Harry decided to reform for a final farewell tour of South Africa. I mean, after all, there are so many totally awesome new […]

Alex Sudheim : On show in Durban The residents of Emalendeni hostels are always hungry. The 90 physically-disabled children and youths living in the low, bleak buildings on the outskirts of Durban’s Umlazi township no longer receive food aid from the government, and survive on the 10 loaves of bread a day donated by a […]

Mail &Guardian reporter Spatial Development Initiatives (SDI’s) have created 518 investment opportunities valued at R115,4 billion – with the potential to create 118 000 new jobs – across South Africa. By June this year, 144 of these projects, with an investment value of around R31- billion and the potential to create more than 32 000 […]

More disillusioned MPs are expected to defect to the Democratic Party, writes Howard Barrell As the Democratic Party increasingly assumes the mantle of unofficial leader of the opposition in Parliament from the ailing National Party, a number of MPs from other opposition parties are expected to jump ship in coming weeks. Only the timing of […]

Chiara Carter The Pan Africanist Congress is spelt “Pat” in several townships and platteland towns in the Western Cape. PAC MP Patricia de Lille’s involvement in bread-and-butter issues is helping the party make inroads into coloured communities in the Western Cape – and attract a handful of white members. This weekend the PAC will launch […]

The voyeurist counsel Mail & Guardian reporter There is a certain irony in the fact that the independent prosecutor who reportedly sings hymns on his morning jog and keeps a calendar with daily scripture verses at home should be the author of the United States’s latest publishing sensation. The 440-page report produced by Kenneth Starr […]

A small church is reuniting the uprooted residents of Kofifi, writes Peter Makurube When former residents of Sophiatown talk about their beloved Kofifi, they overdose on nostalgia. They’ve forgotten nothing – the music, the gangsters and the community spirit. However, the story of Sophiatown would not be complete without mentioning the tiny church on Ray […]

David Conn : English Soccer English football has been transformed so rapidly in the last few years, from a game millions paid cheaply to watch on ramshackle terracing, to an activity which can make 100-million for one man like Martin Edwards, that it is difficult at times to make articulate sense of isolated developments. So […]

ballet It will soon be Brazil’s second most popular sport … and it’s not entirely dissimilar to the first. Alex Bellos heads for Rio’s beaches to uncover the burgeoning cult of futevolei One of the most romantic myths about Rio de Janeiro is that its famous beaches are full of barefoot urchins dazzling passers-by with […]