
There will not be another Maria McCloy
Those who loved her remember a woman who gave everything — to her art, to her city, and to every person lucky enough to have her in their corner
SUNDAY, 24 MAY 2026, 21:19

Those who loved her remember a woman who gave everything — to her art, to her city, and to every person lucky enough to have her in their corner

Friends, creatives and a city in mourning gathered to celebrate the woman who helped shape how Johannesburg saw itself after 1994.

As the 14th annual Kingsmead Book Fair returns to Johannesburg, the beloved literary gathering once again creates space for difficult conversations, thoughtful reflection and the simple pleasure of sitting with stories in an age defined by distraction

With a new album on the horizon and sold-out shows across the globe, Bongeziwe Mabandla is stepping into the artist he was always becoming

A powerful and emotionally layered theatrical work revisits the 1976 Soweto Uprising through testimony, memory, contradiction and unresolved generational grief


The demographic case is equally striking. More than 60% of Africans are under 25. By 2050, one in three people aged 15 to 24 anywhere on Earth will be African. A continent this young is not a problem to be managed. It is a generation to be partnered with

The French president’s visit to Nairobi was a spectacular flop that exposed the tension between African agency and Western entitlement

Africa Day is generally marked as a day for celebration, a day to rejoice at the steps taken by previous generations to fight against and eliminate the effects of colonialism, slavery, land dispossession and to chart a new course for a prosperous Africa.
The most pressing issue for South Africa is improving trade relations between Pretoria and Washington, says new SA ambassador to the US, Roelf Meyer.

Kruger National Park’s 100-year milestone reflects both South Africa’s conservation history and SANParks’ efforts to shift from exclusionary “fortress conservation” to community partnerships and local economic development

Working on Fire seeks to halt the award of the national wildfire management contract to Tefla, while the department and Tefla oppose the urgent relief

The policy must be remodelled to become broad-based, helping make community organisations and social enterprises its core beneficiaries rather than political elites and their connections

Budgets are rewritten in Washington and Brussels rather than in Harare, Accra or Nairobi

Our simple argument is that the Second Scramble for Africa shouldn’t happen on our watch when we have so much at our disposal to avert this age-old plunder. It is a shameful indictment on the collective leadership of the continent that Africa continues to bleed resources through such blatant thievery as illicit financial flows, which currently stands billions of US dollars

SA citizens are not xenophobic for demanding lawful migration, secure borders and fair access to limited opportunities

What has prevented most African countries from performing as well as Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam in economic modernisation is connected with the continent’s ‘soft Westernisation’, focused mainly on appearance

Twenty-five years after Nepad, there is an urgency to act on what its founding fathers envisaged for the continent’s renewal

Citizens are paying far more for electricity despite using less of it, as rising tariffs, fixed monthly charges and municipal costs reshape household bills and intensify affordability pressures

Nations that escaped colonial domination find themselves surrendering economic sovereignty to creditors, ratings agencies and technocrats miles away. This is remote-controlled neocolonialism without the geography