Martin Kettle in New York When a songwriter is as good and as famous as Paul Simon then, from one way of looking at it, he has nothing left to prove for the rest of his life. But when, like Simon, you cut your first record at 16, are a superstar at 26, and have […]

yet Fusion energy and self-driving cars are just two of the possible spin-offs from space exploration, write Tim Radford and David Rowan In 1945, Arthur C Clarke wrote to Wireless World with a proposal for communications satellites in geostationary orbit, and it must have seemed like a fairy tale. In 1957 the Russians launched Sputnik […]

Zimbabweans have come to learn that mass action counts for more than policy. Iden Wetherell reports Zimbabwe’s beleaguered government this week responded to the crisis engulfing it by a familiar mix of bravado and brute force. But the steps it has belatedly taken only serve to expose a pattern of misrule where populist impulses substitute […]

Andrew Worsdale The first South African “movie” was produced in 1896, 10 years before Hollywood even kicked off the ground. Edgar Hyman simply filmed scenes of Johannesburg and President Kruger and showed the film at Oom Paul’s home in 1899. In 1916 Harold Shaw wrote and directed the first local epic De Voortrekkers. He was […]

Mail & Guardian reporter The South African National Editors Forum (Sanef) begins its launch conference outside Johannesburg today with the finger of President Nelson Mandela wagging over it. At the ANC’s conference in December, Mandela accused black editors of being the hand-maidens of white owners and newspapers in the main of a lack of balanced […]

Steve Morris: Rugby It is an inevitable consequence of the continuing struggle this nation is having with the concept of joining the rest of the world and allowing the free flow of ideas and innovations, that this would be mirrored in the South African obsession for sporting activity. It is also understandable that the triumphs […]

Angella Johnson Mouths gaping in shock, Bongani Ngubeni and Mpho Lebese stared at their faces on the front page of the newspaper. “Missing children: Muti-killings of 13 children feared”, screamed the headline. The boys, who live within metres of each other, were idly playing in the street, unaware that a massive police hunt had been […]

Charl Blignaut : Cultural sushi Oysters are not likely to be on the menu at Independent Newspapers functions after a typically off-the-cuff (read foot-in-mouth) remark from Gauteng Newspapers MD Deon du Plessis. The Big Boer, as he is affectionately known among staff, apparently suggested at an Independent meeting held to discuss the future of the […]

Fay Weldon explains why she believes that feminism has gone too far in the Nineties Perhaps feminism goes too far? Perhaps the pendulum has stuck and needs nudging back to a more moderate position? Our young men, it seems, are in a sorry state: under- achieving in educational matters, if we are to believe a […]

Lynda Gledhill At times this week it seemed as though the paint peeling off the walls was moving faster than justice inside the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court. There was nothing that could be done to stop the additional delays in court processes brought on by prosecutors’ refusal to work overtime. Defence attorneys, who at the beginning […]