In the wake of Tuesday’s march to Cosatu House, the issue of violence against DA marchers seemed to overshadow any other concerns. But by Thursday it was back to business as normal for the DA as they announced their intention to push harder than ever for the youth wage subsidy. By REBECCA DAVIS.

A story published by the Sunday Times in October last year may have been planted by friends of beleaguered crime intelligence chief Richard Mdluli. The paper has denied that the journalists who wrote the story took money to write the story. By SIPHO HLONGWANE.

The Democratic Alliance’s march on Cosatu House has by many been seen as a turning point for SA politics. Supporters from both sides were injured and the DA has laid criminal charges. Why did it go through with the march despite the risks? It was a win-win, says GREG NICOLSON.

Richard Mdluli, the violent clashes between Cosatu and the Democratic Alliance, the proposed youth wage subsidy and a possible second term for Jacob Zuma all came up during a business breakfast meeting with the president in Bloemfontein. Pity, then, that these issues were not interrogated and most of South Africa missed it. By RANJENI MUNUSAMY.

After three weeks of absorbing body blows, the government has revealed it plans to appeal the landmark e-tolling court judgment. ALEX ELISEEV wonders who will end up holding their gloved fist raised.

This Saturday, hearts will be aflutter as Orlando Pirates and Moroka Swallows battle for the Absa Premiership crown in KwaZulu-Natal. Pirates are playing away to Golden Arrows while Swallows fight it out against Maritzburg United. So far, it’s advantage, Pirates. But that means nothing when it comes to finals. KHADIJA PATEL and GREG NICHOLSON visited the Rosebank taxi rank to talk idiski.

As the rand heads south – again – CHRIS GIBBONS argues that any debate over strong vs weak should have been settled long ago.

True to its word, the Democratic Alliance has laid criminal charges against Cosatu leaders following the violence that marred Tuesday’s march. According to the DA, this is a fight over the rules of engagement. Cosatu says this is more nebulous politicking. The ANC says nothing. What’s going on? By SIPHO HLONGWANE.

A round-up of today's sport news.

A round-up of today's news in South Africa.

If you can avoid the rocks, marching is an essential pastime for all South Africans, writes musical comedian DEEP FRIED MAN, who is not averse to the occasional toyi-toyi himself.

Real cricket finally returns to our screens when England and West Indies lock horns in the first Test at Lord’s on Thursday. ANT SIMS looks ahead to what awaits the visitors and... there’s nothing but bad news.

A round-up of today's sport news.

A round-up of today's news in South Africa.

A pro-democracy group will now ask a judge to strip the controversial policeman of his duties until all allegations around him are tested. ALEX ELISEEV sees “people power” at play, and how we landed up here.

A day of sticks, stones and broken bones as seen by our photo-reporters.

Texas Congressman Ron Paul announced on Monday that he has now ended active campaigning for the presidency against Mitt Romney,  the only other Republican Party candidate left in the campaign. But Paul vowed he would fight on with his so-called “delegate strategy”. J BROOKS SPECTOR looks deeper into the reasons why.

This week, leaders of the Persian Gulf gathered in Riyadh to discuss a Saudi-led initiative to create a union of gulf states, rumoured to be modelled on the European Union. Onlookers expected the announcement of an immediate union between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Instead, the meeting concluded with the Saudis conceding to the other members’ pleas for more time. By KHADIJA PATEL.

Many people were surprised on Tuesday that the Democratic Alliance’s march to Cosatu House was dominated by black people rather than the party’s traditional constituency of liberal white people. It is a sign that race politics in South Africa is changing, a phenomenon which the ruling ANC appears not to be responsive to. By RANJENI MUNUSAMY.

Now that the dust has settled in Braamfontein and the blue tide has retreated back over the bridge, we wonder what exactly the point of all of that was. Who won? The DA’s march to the vicinity of Cosatu House says a lot about just how dysfunctional our politics have become. It’s also a sign that things can’t continue like this. By SIPHO HLONGWANE.

The subsidy ought to be debated on its merits and how it will affect the labour market, the unemployed and the economy. But much like other policy debates have unfolded in this country, it has been politicised, polarised and locked into thoughtless ideological corners. OSIAME MOLEFE attempts to have a calm look at the proposal.

The Democratic Alliance marched to Cosatu House in Johannesburg on Tuesday to  promote the youth wage bill. There were plenty of flying bricks and words of war, but not much was said about the bill. By GREG NICOLSON.

It’s been a bad week for business, not that there have been too many good weeks for business of late. Disaster at JP Morgan; disaster at Yahoo; another crappy internet “start up” hits the toilet. Can’t wait for that Facebook IPO? Perhaps you require a status update. By RICHARD POPLAK.

First a Palestinian minister announced that a deal had been reached with Israel to end a weeks-long hunger strike by hundreds of prisoners. Then, various activists countered assertions of the reported deal, claiming the Palestinian Authority actually did not represent the hunger strikers and had no right to make such announcements on their behalf. The only certainty is that there is a crisis in the Palestinian leadership. By KHADIJA PATEL.

A round-up of the sport news stories of the day.

A round-up of the news stories of the day.

It was always going to be easy for Julius Malema to draw a big crowd for his first media briefing since being expelled from the ANC. And he did some of his best work: talking tough on Richard Mdluli and the whole “I just can’t wait to be king” bombshell. But the real test, as ALEX ELISEEV writes, is whether he can keep the country’s attention.

You know the story and its underlying message: slow and steady wins the race. You probably don’t know the story of African economic under-development and Western economic growth, which is not quite as exciting. But the message, as outlined in a new IMF report, is similar – and it’s good news for the sluggish but increasingly stable African economies. By SIMON ALLISON.

A war of words has broken out between trade and industry minister Rob Davies and national consumer commissioner Mamedupi Mohlala-Mulaudzi. She says she’s been unfairly dismissed. He doesn’t agree, and the DA has joined the fray. By OSIAME MOLEFE.

When FW De Klerk agreed to do his friends at the South African Gold Coin Exchange a favour and cut the ribbon on their 30th Scoin shop, you can be sure he wasn’t betting on being at the centre of a media storm that had erupted four days previously. REBECCA DAVIS probably wouldn’t have been there otherwise.

It promises to be a most unusual face-off: on Tuesday, the Democratic Alliance Youth is going to march to Cosatu House in Johannesburg to pressure the union federation to drop its opposition to the youth wage subsidy. The language in the run-up to the showdown has not been calm. Things could turn ugly. By SIPHO HLONGWANE.

The charismatic politician-turned-businessman-turned-politician is having another go at the ANC presidency. He made a series of fatal blunders the last time around, which resulted in an abrupt climb-down from his soapbox. As the “Anyone But Zuma” campaign takes flight, it would perhaps be wise for him and his backers to avoid making the same mistakes again. By RANJENI MUNUSAMY.

The week that was(n't) in beloved South Africa. Seriously. By JOHN VLISMAS & DUNCAN HARLING.

To mark Mother’s Day this year, GREG NICOLSON took to the streets of Johannesburg to speak to mothers, daughters and sisters about their position in South Africa: rights, opportunities, and the role they play in the country’s development and democracy.

This is a story of a maritime lawyer who dropped his legal practice to turn a local church into a theatre and dinner space, armed only with passion and dedication. To some it was a move of maverick bravery, to others, it signalled serious trouble ahead. Welcome to the Kalk Bay Theatre, unrestrained and revelatory brainchild of Simon Cooper. By EMILY GAMBADE.

A round-up of South Africa's news today.

Zille won't resign over tender.

Horst Faas, 1933 – 2012. By GREG MARINOVICH.

Kickstarter, the website which allows artists, designers and inventors to crowd-source funding for their projects, seems to be coming of age. In the past few weeks, two major cultural figures have taken to the site to raise money in order to bypass record labels and film studios. By REBECCA DAVIS.

African journalists are very familiar with the “big stick” – the unmistakable threat of violence that haunts their work. To help them get around this problem, and other difficulties dogging the progress of the media in Africa, a new prize looks to encourage innovations that can revolutionise the African media landscape – and organisers have brought out the much less familiar “big wallet” to do just that. By SIMON ALLISON.

After years of letting his views on same-sex marriage evolve, Barack Obama announced his personal acceptance of such unions in a quickly-arranged interview on US national television. And the moment his announcement broke, Republican – as well as Democratic – political strategists began to speculate how this astonishing moment might affect the 2012 presidential election. J. BROOKS SPECTOR contemplates how it all may play out.

Could its skipper have sailed 'SAS Sanral' on a different course and avoided the Titanic-like disaster that is unfolding? CHRIS GIBBONS investigates.

Sometimes we watch a sporting activity undertaken by spoiled multimillionaires and think: what does this say about real life? What’s the take-home, the lesson, the quid pro quo? To make sense of the 2011/2012 season of the Barclays Premier League, it seems we must lift the veils of history. But history, for its part, is playing coy. By a nonplussed RICHARD POPLAK.

Despite a ban on discussions around ANC succession until October, the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal was unable to contain its “unshaken” support for Jacob Zuma’s re-election at the party’s national conference in Mangaung. The province so loves its homegrown president that it took four days and 2,000 delegates to say so, and it is coming up with innovative ways keep things the same. By RANJENI MUNUSAMY.

The ANC has been working frenetically to label the Democratic Alliance “an apartheid-era party of whites for whites”, a smart yet underhanded strategy to keep the DA from the prized black vote. The Democratic Alliance has not only been doing far too little to dispel this, it’s been at times fuelling it. This should change if the party’s young Turks have their say. By OSIAME MOLEFE.

ANC makes major changes to Secrecy Bill.

He might have taken the most defining photograph of the struggle against apartheid, but this 78-year-old prefers to live in the village of his youth. There is no running water there. Sickness and diseases are a constant threat. Life has not turned out the way Sam hoped. By KARYN MAUGHAN.

Vanity Fair. The reportage and features are still among the best in the world, but the editor is making more than his allotted share of mistakes where the covers are concerned. For one thing, the faces are almost always white, for another, the lies are starting to creep through. By KEVIN BLOOM.

Next week is Fairtrade Coffee Week in South Africa. While this global movement for ethical supply chains and fair prices for farmers has long been gaining traction overseas, it seems that awareness among South African consumers still has a way to go. By REBECCA DAVIS.

Africa and the ICC have an intense and complicated relationship. The African Union would like to change this and have Africa take responsibility for enforcing its own justice, and it’s meeting to do exactly this. But don’t expect the ICC to go anywhere yet. By SIMON ALLISON.