Lizeka Mda If there were still “Whites Only” signs in South Africa, most people would be outraged. Yet practically the whole physical environment in the country says “Able-bodied only” as it deliberately shuts out a fair percentage of the population. Disabled South Africans are denied a full life because they have minimal access to education, […]

Angella Johnson They faced each other like gladiators in the truth commission arena; two battle- scarred adversaries in a fight to decide if the killers of Communist Party leader Chris Hani should be granted amnesty and walk free. The verbal sparring between civil rights advocate George Bizos and the formidable racist grand dame Gaye Derby-Lewis […]

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 […]

Marion Hnsel’s adaptation of Damon Galgut’s The Quarry is being filmed with a precision and organisation that local film- makers could learn from, writes Andrew Worsdale I always have a problem reporting on movie shoots, apart from being envious; everyone keeps telling you good things, you look in vain for some kind of scandal and […]

FRIDAY, 5.00PM: The ongoing bearish sentiment on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, compounded by the continuing crash of the gold price and disappointing economic data, saw 2% wiped off the all share index on Friday, while the gold index followed bullion’s woe’s to lose 3%. At the close the all gold index had fallen 20,7 points […]

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 […]