Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian

David Smith Author

latest news & developments
The productions of playwright and director Athol Fugard have profoundly transformed South African theatre.
ARTICLE

FROM THE ARCHIVES | Athol Fugard: All is not, and never will be, lost

As SA’s most decorated playwright, takes to the stage for the last time, he explains why he will never lose his optimism for the country’s future.

  • David Smith
8 min read
Brutal: The United States backed former Chad strongman Hissène Habré, despite the fact that he ordered the deaths, imprisonment and torture of tens of thousands of people in the country. (Aliou Mbaye/Reuters)
DAVID SMITH AUTHOR

Dictator brought to justice

A superb book unravels the story of how a Senegalese court jailed a former Chad president for life

  • Staff Reporter
5 min read
Protesters staked out the clinic of Walter Palmer
CECIL

Zim won’t take Zuma’s Cecil jibe lying down

President Jacob Zuma’s "undiplomatic" reaction to the death of Cecil the Lion at US hunter Walter Palmer’s hand fails to amuse in Zimbabwe.

  • David Smith
4 min read
Kumi Naidoo, a leading voice for climate justice advocating for a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty and fair finance, has been calling for governments to act on the ‘moral failure’ of continued fossil fuel expansion (Photo supplied)
DAVID SMITH AUTHOR

Greenpeace head Kumi Naidoo saddened at spying revelations

Greenpeace’s Kumi Naidoo has expressed “sadness, hurt and deep disappointment” that government may have been spying on him.

  • David Smith
6 min read
People hold candles during an evening of remembrance to mark one year since the start of the recent conflict in South Sudan.
DAVID SMITH AUTHOR

South Sudan’s fallen named on anniversary of civil war

A group of civil society volunteers has spent months collecting and verifying names of the victims to give the tragedy a human face.

  • David Smith
3 min read
Siphokazi Mdlankomo hopes other domestic workers will see her success as an inspiration.
DAVID SMITH AUTHOR

Masterchef contestant turns up the heat on housework

Domestic worker Siphokazi Mdlankomo has stolen the show on Masterchef SA, but her sisters are still all but forgotten.

  • David Smith
4 min read
The TAC applied successfully to the Constitutional Court for the state to provide antiretrovirals for free to people living with HIV and Aids
ANTIRETROVIRALS

Funding crunch threatens TAC

Aids is not over, says Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, but donors are pulling out of South Africa because it is a middle-income country.

  • David Smith
6 min read
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and Chinese President Xi Jinping pose at a signing ceremony in Beijing.
DAVID SMITH AUTHOR

Mugabe wins at Beijing bingo

Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe appears to have achieved his goal of extracting more cash from China.

  • David Smith
4 min read
Meriam Ibrahim with her husband Daniel Wani
APOSTASY

Sudan: Meriam Ibrahim ‘safe and well’ in US embassy

The Christian woman whose apostasy death sentence was overturned is doing well after the US embassy in Khartoum gave the family refuge.

  • David Smith
3 min read
The platinum mining strike has been ongoing for 18 weeks.
DAVID SMITH AUTHOR

Drones offered to SA mines to ‘prevent another Marikana’

Desert Wolf, maker of the Skunk Riot Control Copter, says its machine is "designed to control unruly crowds". But labour activists are condemning it.

  • David Smith
4 min read
Rwandans demonstrate in Paris in 2011 against Paul Kagame’s crackdown on press freedom. He now faces renewed criticism for harassing journalists.
DAVID SMITH AUTHOR

Kagame trolls burn their bridges

Government staff in Rwanda appear to be using fake accounts to harass journalists on Twitter.

  • David Smith
3 min read
Policemen stand guard at a burnt-out truck after an attack by Boko Haram on Monday.
BOKO HARAM

Boko Haram lashes out

Officials and eyewitnesses recount the militant Muslim fundamentalist group’s audacious attack on a military base, which left many killed and injured.

  • David Smith
3 min read
Britain’s former prime Minister Tony Blair and former president Thabo Mbeki during a press conference inside Downing Street in 2006.
DAVID SMITH AUTHOR

Mbeki: Blair plotted military intervention to remove Mugabe

Former SA president Thabo Mbeki says his country was asked by the UK for help with a military plan to remove Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe.

  • David Smith
5 min read
Somali soldiers.. (AU)
AL SHABAB

Al-Shabab’s hold on Somalia rules out a purely military solution

Young people in Somalia have known only war and little prospect of getting a job.

  • David Smith
14 min read
DAVID SMITH AUTHOR

Zimbabwe government’s U-turn on white farmers

A group of 78 dispossessed white farmers claim victory and intend to pursue full compensation.

  • David Smith
3 min read