Ferial Haffajee : Design of the week Kudos this week to the Beyond Awareness Campaign for taking an international symbol and making it local. A community development project called Ilala Weavers in Empangeni, KwaZulu-Natal, has taken the international symbol of the fight against Aids – the red ribbon – and recast it as a Zulu […]

Luke Harding Debbie Rowe, Michael Jackson’s wife, is expecting the birth of a girl in February, a year after that of their first child, Prince Michael Jackson Jr. The daughter’s name, she said, would contain the names Michael, Paris (where she was conceived), Katherine (Michael Jackson’s mother), and, of course, Jackson. Together with two nannies […]

Mail & Guardian reporter This week Telkom went to court to try to win control over the provision of infrastructure for the Internet, a move that could put some Internet service providers out of business. Telkom currently rents bandwidth to service providers, who – in terms of Telkom’s claimed monopoly of Internet service provision – […]

Barney Spender : Rugby Four down and now just Scotland to go which, with all due respect to the Murrayfield faithful, ought to be at the Italian end of the difficulty scale. The Scots were well beaten by Australia a fortnight ago and are struggling with injuries to key players. Lions heroes Tom Smith and […]

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 […]

years Kurt Shillinger and Peta Thornycroft The state has had sufficient evidence for nine years to charge Winnie Madikizela- Mandela with kidnapping Soweto youth Lolo Sono. Michael Seakamela, the former driver who took the badly beaten boy in the company of Madikizela-Mandela to his parent’s home, made a statement about the alleged kidnapping shortly after […]

Wally Mbhele The African National Congress Women’s League is headed for a major showdown this weekend, that could split the organisation, over the nomination of their president, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, for the ANC deputy presidency. It appears that a statement issued to the media claiming that the ANC national working committee’s, and the KwaZulu-Natal region of […]

Mungo Soggot The state oil company was hit with two key resignations this week as the saga surrounding Emanuel Shaw II’s R3-million appointment raged on. Finance chief Sarel Cilliers tendered his resignation and was asked to leave the Central Energy Fund’s Sandton headquarters – a day after Gordon Sibiya, director general of the Department of […]

Madeleine Wackernagel : Taking Stock When Alec Erwin presented his document on competition policy to the trade and industry chamber of Nedlac last week, the only surprise was in the timing. After three years of broken promises, one had almost given up on it. As if to make up for its tardiness, the policy is […]

Anton Harber : A Second Look Anyone concerned with the issues of good governance should take note of last week’s departure from office of the Director General of the Department of Welfare, Leila Patel. Patel finished work last Friday with little media attention. But when a director general with a solid reputation departs prematurely from […]