Sechaba ka’Nkosi Embattled Gauteng MEC for Safety and Security Jessie Duarte came out this week with guns blazing in a bid to clear her name from what she calls a “smear campaign” against her. In an exclusive four-hour interview with the Mail & Guardian at her Johannesburg home, Duarte said while she was willing to […]

Dr Nina Simone is not a woman to mess with. Her first love was classical piano, but she was forced into jazz and soul. Forty years on, her music is as potent a political weapon as ever. Michael Bracewell spoke to the diva Back in 1987, when the regenerated town centres of boom-economy Britain could […]

The IBA is keeping a close rein on Voice of Soweto, writes Maria McCloy The community radio station Voice of Soweto is pulling out the stops to comply with orders set down by the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA). Voice of Soweto is currently broadcasting on a temporary 30-day licence after a tussle with the IBA […]

Madeleine Wackernagel : Taking Stock One subject has dominated the financial news in the past six months – the Asian crisis. The coverage has been phenomenal, with every economist and his neighbour wading into the debate, dissecting the causes, prescribing solutions. Not all the analysis has been correct, and much of it has been emotive. […]

Tom Quoin : Architecture As we recover from the season of ritual ceremony, let’s glance at one of the ways we celebrate what stands all about us – buildings. It’s heartening to realise that even in Egoli – the tense, unbending Jo’burg – some architects have thought to include relief carvings or sculpted castings in […]

Monica Hilton-Barber : Slice of life The golden glow of goodwill between different South Africans may have dimmed and the initial dream of racial integration become more distant since the initial euphoria following the elections four years ago. But the rainbow is still bright and beautiful in many parts of the country. Number 23 Van […]

Andrew Higgins As banks wobble and crash across Asia, a sparkling, futuristic structure is rising on the Avenue of Eternal Peace in Beijing. It is a grandiose declaration of confidence by China’s biggest commercial bank. But the edifice stands on unsteady foundations. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC)is, by any reckoning, a wreck. […]

Maria McCloy The multi-media revolution hit Khayelitsha in July 1997. That’s when a colourful tower came up, built by Rainbow Nation Community Towers Project. It’s a tower with a difference and it broadcasts programmes as varied as soccer matches, news, the DStv music show Channel O, SABC and M-Net as well as educational videos and […]

East dust Winnie Mandela The year is still in nappies but already we at the Mail & Guardian arts desk have spotted the most likely candidate to lift our coveted annual Winnie Madikizela-Mandela Award for Multiple Comebacks from poppet Wendy Oldfield. Yup, Jani Allan is back. Again. While Eugene Terre’blanche sank like a very large […]

John Grobler Muckraking for fun and profit As a newspaperman for some 40 years, Windhoek Observer editor Hannes Smith is no stranger to controversy or to charges of contempt of court – he has had more of those laid against him than he cares to remember. Controversy has always been the middle name of his […]