Adi Eyal (@soapsudtycoon) is a data geek working towards creating an open data movement in South Africa. He came over from the data dark-side, collecting personal data for nefarious purposes. He now believes the data can be used to encourage public discourse in a country with an historically disengaged citizenry. He is a co-founder of the Open Data and Democracy Initiative, an organiser of HacksHackers Cape Town and a member of the Open Knowledge Foundation Cape Town chapter.

Alan Hudson is the policy director for transparency and accountability at ONE. He leads the organization’s efforts to empower people with the information they need to hold their governments to account, so that resources are used effectively to fight poverty and preventable diseases, rather than squandered and lost to corruption. Prior to joining ONE in 2011, Alan worked for the U.K.’s Department for International Development, the Overseas Development Institute, the U.K. Parliament and the University of Cambridge, where he also completed his Ph.D. on globalization and sovereignty.

A law graduate from the University of Cape Town and former clerk at the Constitutional Court, Alan Wallis is a human rights lawyer at the Southern Africa Litigation Centre, an NGO that promotes human rights and the rule of law in the region. Inspired by the law’s unique ability to find itself in the most unlikely, yet appropriate, settings Alan coordinates the Centre’s International Justice Programme.

Dubbed a "troublemaker" for his investigative work, Alex Eliseev is also an award-winning hard news journalist who has reported from Haiti, Japan and Libya. Currently an Eyewitness News reporter, he's worked for South Africa's top newspapers, including The Star and Sunday Times. To quench the thirst of his soul, he writes human-interest features. He also collects shirts with birds on them. 

Katherine Prudente and Alison Tilley from the Open Democracy Advice Centre, affiliated to the Right to Know Campaign.

Alita Steenkamp is a freelance journalist who lives with husband De Wet Potgieter in Centurion. Besides writing articles for a variety of Afrikaans magazines, Alita also has written the autobiographies of Hestrie Cloete Els, My pyn, my glorie, Mathys Roets, Steeds Mathys and Loui Fish, Walking in my Choos.  She currently is the guest coordinater for Rian van Heerden’s talk show on kykNET, Rian.

Andy Rice is a founding partner of Yellowwood Future Architects, a marketing strategy consultancy. In his other lives, he is the southern hemisphere's only supporter of Cambridge United Football Club, and was once upon a time the South African National Spoofing Champion. He has played football at Wembley and cricket at Lord's within the same weekend, but troubled the scorer on neither occasion. Things could only go up from here.

Anita Powell is very happy to be a Johannesburg-based journalist. But she also has travelled around in search of a good story: to Iraq, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Congo and to the great nation-state of Texas. She's in London walking the streets and covering the Games - specifically, her favorite sport of all time: boxing.

Ant thinks of the world and the people who live in it as a bear with a sore paw. She has a stick, covered in thorns and she’s poking the bear. When she’s not doing that, she’s watching cricket and longing for the days of the boring, boring Arsenal.

Anton Harber is the Caxton Professor of Journalism at Wits University and chair of the Freedom of Expression Institute.  He was a founding editor of the Mail & Guardian and an executive director of Kagiso Media. He co-edited the first two editions of The A–Z of South African Politics (Penguin, 1994/5), What is Left Unsaid: Reporting the South African HIV Epidemic (Jacana, 2010) and Troublemakers: The best of SA’s investigative journalism (Jacana, 2010). He was executive producer of the television series, Ordinary People and Hard Copy. Harber’s book Diepsloot was published by Jonathan Ball in May 2011.

Antony Altbeker worked for the Minister of Safety and Security and the National Treasury between 1994 and 2001, focusing on issues relating to crime and policing and on the criminal justice system. Since 2001, Antony has worked as a lecturer in public policy at a graduate school of the University of the Witwatersrand and has been a researcher at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation and the Institute for Security Studies. He is the author of three books, The Dirty Work of Democracy: A Year on the Streets with the SAPS (2005), A Country at War with Itself: South Africa's Crisis of Crime (2007) and Fruit of a Poisoned Tree: A True Story of Murder and the Miscarriage of Justice (2010). 

Ariane completed a BA in Politics, Philosophy and History, and a postgraduate LLB at UCT. During her time at UCT, Ariane took a keen interest in student activism and community outreach, and was an active member of Students for Law and Social Justice (SLSJ). Wishing to following her passion for public interest law and advocacy, Ariane joined SECTION27 in 2013 as one of the SLSJ Fellows, where she works on cases related to basic education.

Ashley is Durban-born actor and presenter, living in Joburg. He is probably better known for his initial gig as a continuity presenter on SABC3, which was followed by the Travel show Going Nowhere Slowly (on which his first book piggy-backed: Red Car Diaries.) He is also a stage and TV actor, and a commercial voice artist.

Aubrey Masango was born in Mamelodi, east of Pretoria. Educated at St Johns College in Johannesburg and later went  to the University of Pretoria to study to be a teacher. He was bored.

He decided to get out of the corporate rat-race in 2009 because he did not like the person he was becoming in the BEE scene, seeing it as pretentious and unsustainable.

These days, Aubrey is a talk show host on Talk Radio 702 and 567 Cape talk. His  regular show “Talk with Aubrey” is on a Sunday evening at 23h00 to Monday morning at 01h00.

Azad Essa is a journalist and the author of “Zuma's Bastard” (Two Dogs Books).

Basil van Rooyen has spent a lifetime in the book industry, the first half working for multi-national publishing companies and the second running his own companies, focusing on non-fiction and educational books. He has been chair of PASA (the South African Publishing Association) a couple of times and his book Get Your Book Published in 30 (Relatively) Easy Steps: A Hands-on Guide for South African Authors was published in a fourth version by Penguin last year. These days he runs his book publishing from Plettenberg Bay although the company offices are in Johannesburg.

Boniswa Pezisa is the Chairperson of The Loerie Awards.

Brkic is the founder and editor of The Daily Maverick.

He has edited magazines on business and politics, technology, and wildlife. He has also published fiction and non-fiction books, most of them in Serbian. Though he has never pretended to be a reporter, his wide knowledge of politics (especially in America), combined with his experiences in a disintegrating Yugoslavia, gives him an unusual outlook on events in South Africa.

Despite the vowel-poor surname, he tells anyone who asks that he hails from Hyde Park, Johannesburg, having spent most of his adult life in South Africa.

Recent columns:

Brendah works for a management consultancy during the day, you know, one of those companies that no-one really knows what they do. Before she defected and went uber-corporate she worked for UpperCase Media and the Mail & Guardian and now does her writing on a freelance basis. She has dreams of being the change Zimbabwe needs. And did we mention she is female? Black female?

Brendan Love is Chairman of a Swiss-based group engaged in the precious metals and natural resources industries. A passionate Afro-optimist. A lover of fine art, history, politics and the free market. He divides his time between Johannesburg, South Africa and Geneva, Switzerland.

Brett stumbled into a career as an advertising copywriter while fleeing a career in law. After 8 years in the business he was appointed Executive Creative Director of Draftfcb, the largest advertising agency in South Africa. Under his leadership, Draftfcb won more awards than ever before in its 80-year history, including South Africa’s first ever Cannes Grand Prix in 2006. After a two-year sojourn he rejoined Draftfcb as Chief Creative Officer for South Africa in 2009. In 2011, Draftfcb Johannesburg won both Financial Mail’s and Finweek’s Agency of the Year and The Sunday Times Branding Agency of the Year in 2012. But it’s all basically an elaborate ruse to support his writing habit.

Cameron Arendse (@cameronarendse) was born in Cape Town in 1987 and matriculated from Rocklands Senior Secondary. After high school he attended the University of Cape Town graduating with a Bachelor of Social Science with majors in Politics, Industrial Sociology and Social Anthropology. At UCT he became President of UCT RAG, the student fundraising arm to SHAWCO where he led the organization to raise R1.3 million during his tenure. In a mission to find himself, he worked in fashion often traveling around Southern Africa producing high level fashion events. As a surprise, his travels opened him up to the current state of our nation, that's when he joined the DA working as Media Officer in Parliament. He is currently Spokesperson to DA Leader Helen Zille

Jill of all trades but really, mistress of none, Carien loved her job as political journalist so much that she decided to get married to it. For now, in any case. She’s a party animal and you’ll often find her at gatherings of the ANC, SACP, Cosatu, and the DA, amongst others. Loving children greatly, she also runs after the ANC Youth League a lot of the time. More often though, you’ll find her just running aimlessly, and she has earned herself the title of Comrade by partaking in the annual jog between Durban and Pietermaritzburg.

After spending her student days at political rallies, campus newspapers, and in lecture halls, and after an extended overseas working holiday, Carien started newspaper reporting in 2003, pissing off (the issue of female dogs apply here) and even pleasing some of her subjects. Then the age of enlightenment dawned on her, too, and in 2011 she crossed the floor to work for the Daily Maverick full-time.

Her ultimate ambition in life is to become a travelling chocolate writer of international fame.

Chris Gibbons is a veteran journalist, who anchors the award-winning The Midday Report on TalkRadio 702 and 567 Cape Talk. He also presents a morning business report on Radio Algoa and edits the quarterly magazine, Directorship, for the IoDSA.

Scottish-South African investment analyst Chris Gilmour has had a varied career in the financial world. After leaving Scottish & Newcastle Breweries in 1982, he came to SA, where he worked as an investment analyst for the dear departed Max Pollak & Freemantle, at the time one of the largest and most prestigious stockbroking firms on the JSE. During the next sixteen years he worked for many other stockbroking firms, latterly with Merrill Lynch. He has also worked on the buy side, as an institutional investment manager in Cape Town. Prior to joining Absa Investments in August 2007, he worked as an honest journalist with Financial Mail for over four years. He holds a B.Sc. (Hons) in Chemistry and a Postgraduate Diploma in Financial Studies, both from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland. There is no truth to the rumour that he is a rabid Scottish Nationalist, just waiting for the call to return to Scotia in the wake of a majority vote for Scottish Independence in any forthcoming referendum.

Chris Harrison is a postgraduate economics student, a high school maths teacher, and an unrepentant nerd who calls it as he sees it. A vocal champion of rural development and education, Chris founded the Igqangi Project in 2009. Igqangi assembles teams of volunteer postgraduate tutors who run extra lesson workshops at rural Eastern Cape schools during the school holidays. During the term times, Chris can be found in Cape Town, where he researches renewable energy and pines for Pondoland.

Chris Vick is a spindoctor who has been active in media and politics (and some of the murkier spaces in between) for the past 19 years, including seven years in the government communications environment.  He was previously special advisor to Minister Tokyo Sexwale and now runs Black, a communications and lobbying consultancy. His email address is chris@codeblack.co.za, and on Twitter he is @chrisvick3.

Craig Kelly is a film maker and digital media entrepreneur. He is the CEO of Africa Media Management, a pan African content distribution and broadcast consulting company. He also founded and runs The AfricaXP Channel, Africa’s newest multinational entertainment television channel.

Dan Brotman is the Media & Diplomatic Liaison at the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (Cape Council). He is a native of Boston and a graduate of the University of Oregon. He is the first non-South African ever to be appointed to this position. You can follow him on Twitter at @DGBrotman or learn more about the Board of Deputies by “liking” “Cape Jewish Board of Deputies” on Facebook.

David Bass is a Senior Information Officer in the Press and Media Team at the AU/UN IST, a United Nations contracted capability that provides Strategic Communications support to the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) Prior to joining the AU/UN IST David was a communications adviser to the British Foreign Office, the office of the British Prime Minister David Cameron at No.10 and NATO Headquarters in Brussels during the Libyan Civil War. He studied Law at Durham University.

David Bruce is a Johannesburg based independent researcher and writer working in the fields of policing, crime and criminal justice. From 1996 to 2011 he worked in the Criminal Justice Programme at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR). He has a Masters in Management (Public and Development Management) from the School of Public and Development Management at the University of the Witwatersrand (2000). He has written extensively on policing issues including on questions of police reform, control of the use of force and police accountability and oversight.

David grew up in the Free State, with his father working on the gold mines. Spent a big chunk of his life trading in agricultural commodities. Eventually he became a project manager, working mainly on the Debswana diamond mines in Botswana.

Later he took-up freelance writing, appearing in Business Day and The Weekender. David has an unusual talent for making people open up to him, which he later turns into a gripping read. He gained nationwide fame after he completed the biography of Joost van der Westhuizen, Joost: The Man In The Mirror. David is currently working on Glen Agliotti's biography.

Deep Fried Man is a musical comedian. No, seriously. That's what he does full-time, for a living. He gets on stage and sings funny songs about a variety of things, but mainly South Africa, sex and social media. Deep Fried Man is as surprised as you that being a musical comedian is something that can be done as a career.

Sometimes Deep Fried Man wins awards, like Best Newcomer at the 2011 Comics Choice Awards or a Standard Bank Ovation Award for his debut one-man show Deeply Fried. Sometimes he goes viral on YouTube, like with An Idiot's Guide to Singing the South African National Anthem, a collaboration with fellow comedian Gareth Woods. Sometimes he spends every waking minute on Twitter (Follow him @DeepFriedMan). He is also a writer, currently for The Daily Maverick, which you probably realised since that's where you're reading his bio, and for Meme Burn. He apologises in advance for all the people he's going to offend.

Diane Coetzer is the South African correspondent for Billboard Magazine and its online platforms - and has been writing about South African music and the South African music business in various publications for more than 15 years.

Donald Paul is a freelance writer and editor. He has no children but still thinks those that do should have the benefit of being able to leave them a good, clean and safe world to live in. He lives in Cape Town but still only thinks of the mountain in the lower case (9pt courier font, for those who like details). He has a bakkie, a bicycle, two cats and books—some with pictures. His last steady job was editor of The Big Issue South Africa for three years.

Ejaz Khan is an award-winning content producer at Radio Islam, avid Liverpool supporter, and sometimes tweets in his sleep. Interact with him on Twitter: @ejaz_k

Ela Bhatt founded the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), now one of India’s biggest trade unions with more than 1.2 million members. Desmond Tutu is archbishop emeritus of Cape Town and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. They are members of The Elders, a group of independent leaders working for peace, justice and human rights. In 2011, The Elders founded Girls Not Brides, a global partnership of 200 organisations working to end child marriage all over the world.

Emma Powell holds a cum laude Honours degree in Political Science. After her Honours degree she worked at National Parliament as the Coordinator for the Democratic Alliance's Councillor and Members of Provincial Legislation Networks, later returning to Durban to complete her Master’s degree in African Politics. Emma freelances for a variety of publications including Business World Botswana, Feminist South Africa, Women Writers Across Borders and can also be found in the Mail and Guardian’s ThoughtLeader from time to time. She is currently on sabbatical in Italy, where she spends the majority of her time scribbling incredibly profound observations onto the back of till slips, in eyeliner.

Eve Dmochowska spends all her time pretending to be working, while she clicks from website to website, trying to make sense of the mayhem that is the online world. She's been doing this for 15 years, so she really knows how to do it well. In between the clicks, and just for more fun, she is the founder of crowdfunding.co.za, and.geekspace.co.za and helps online startups and their entrepreneurial founders get to market. When not playing, she works on her own online ventures, and consults to the big boys who end up paying her bills.

Born in Malamulele, Limpopo Province and a resident of Gauteng Province since 2002, Floyd Shivambu is a political activist, revolutionary, Freedom Charter Defender, writer, blogger, Publisher, and was a Spokesperson (2008 to 2012) for the ANC Youth League and member of its National Executive and Working Committees (2008 to 2012).

He was a student leader at Wits University (SRC President between 2004 and 2005), National Coordinator of the process that led to the launch of the South African Union of Students. Shivambu served in the National Executive of SASCO, National Committee of the Young Communist League and in the National Executive Committee and National Working Committee of the ANC Youth League.

He also served as a member of the African National Congress' Economic Transformation and Communications NEC sub-committees. As President of the Students' Representative Council at Wits University, he served in its Council and Senate (2004 and 2005), was a Students Representative in the Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA) chaired by RSA Deputy President Mlambo Ngcuka (2006 to 2007) and Board Member of the National Students' Financial Aid Scheme between 2008 and 2012.

Floyd Shivambu is also a Director of Mirograph PTY Ltd (www.mirograph.co.za), a company that owns and publishes a youth lifestyle empowerment Magazine called LOOCHA (www.loocha.co.za). He is a fervent Community Activist. His political outlook is Left and Marxist/Leninist.

He is also a blogger from 2005, publishing interactive and mind boggling perspectives and documents on floydn.blogspot.com.

Floyd Shivambu is also enrolled at the University of the Witwatersrand for postgraduate studies from 2013 onward.

Frans Cronje is deputy chief executive of the South African Institute of Race Relations.

Georgina Alexander is a researcher focusing on politics, government and assets and incomes.

Fred first started teaching people how to build their brands in the digital economy way back in 1998. Fred is currently the CEO of digital marketing agency World Wide Creative, with clients such as Honda, Old Mutual, Fancourt, Virgin, Exclusive Books and Ferrari, and is also the co-founder of The Heavy Chef Project, dedicated to demystifying digital marketing. Fred is obsessed with brand strategy and digital media - with side habits of pizza, Hawaiian shirts, movies, Danish beer and fine wine. Fred also happens to do a mean version of ‘Angie’ by the Rolling Stones at 3am in any randomly selected Korean karaoke joint (feel free to search for it on YouTube).

Born in South Africa in 1962, Greg is a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer and is co-author of The Bang Bang Club, a nonfiction book on South Africa’s transition to democracy. He has spent 25 years doing conflict, documentary and news photography around the globe. His photographs have appeared in top international publications such as Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian of London, among others.  
He is chair of the World Press Master Class nominating committee for Africa, and was a World Press Photo judge in 1994 and 2005. In 2009 he was the recipient of the Nat Nakasa award for courageous journalism. Marinovich was Editor-In-Chief of the Twenty Ten project and responsible for managing over 100 African journalists’ work in all forms of media.
Currently, Editor-at-Large for IMaverick and Daily Maverick, doing freelance photography and making a film about the former militants in Thokoza township, South Africa, and writing a non-fiction book about an infamous murderer who just happened to be married to Marinovich’s mother.

Nicolson left his hometown of Melbourne to move to Johannesburg, beset by fears Australia was going to the dogs. With a camera and a Mac in his bag, he ventures out to cover power and politics, the lives of those included and those excluded. He can be found at the tavern, searching for a good story or drowning a bad one.

Gushwell F. Brooks is an LLB graduate from the University of the Witwatersrand. He did not go on to become an attorney, but much rather entered the corporate rat race. After slaving away for years, he found his new life as a talk show host for Talk Radio 702 and 567 Cape Talk.

Guy Berger is part of the School of Journalism and Media Studies, Rhodes University. A long-standing media activist and academic, he has written extensively on the self-regulation vs the media appeals tribunal debate.

Guy Harris was involved in the 1994 elections as a business observer in KZN. Since then he has also participated in many of the tripartite structures focusing on trade and industry.

Hagen Engler is a writer, journalist, poet and blogger at hagenshouse.com. He rose from small-town obscurity in Port Elizabeth to attain big-city anonymity in Johannesburg. En route he edited men's magazine FHM, where he admired bikinis, lit his farts and streaked around Randburg professionally. Today he types furtively in a darkened room, trying to look busy and avoid nappy duty.

Hamilton Wende is a freelance author, journalist, producer and fixer based in Johannesburg. He has worked all over Africa, the Middle East and Afghanistan for most of the major international networks including CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera and many others.  His latest novel House of War about a search for a lost city of Alexander the Great in northern Afghanistan is in its second printing with Penguin. The fixer in the novel is called 'Abdulov' and he was once in the KGB - a long time ago.

Hans van de Groenendaal is Feature Editor of EngineerIT magazine

Herman Wasserman is professor of journalism and media Studies at Rhodes University. He has published widely on media in post-apartheid South Africa, most recently the book Tabloid Journalism in South Africa: True Story! He edits the journal Ecquid Novi: African Journalism Studies.

Sean Jacobs, a native of Cape Town, teaches media courses in the Graduate Program in International Affairs at The New School, New York. He blogs at Africa is a Country.

Ian Ollis, Joined the DP in 1999 and worked as a volunteer before being elected to political office in 2005. He was elected MP for the Democratic Alliance in 2009 and promoted in 2010 to take the position of Shadow Labour Minister. He has formerly lectured at Wits University, founded a small real estate business and worked as a Christian Minister. He lives in Craighall Park and has no dogs!

Inge Abraham is a Dutch political scientist who previously worked as a journalist in China and The Netherlands. She moved to Cape Town in 2009 and works as a journalist and freelance correspondent.

Ivo Vegter is a columnist and the author of Extreme Environment, a book on environmental exaggeration and how it harms emerging economies. He approaches issues from the perspective of individual liberty and free markets. He grew up in the deep south of Johannesburg, and learnt his politics reading the Weekly Mail and Vrye Weekblad at Wits University during the early years of the country's transition to democracy. He recently left the city for the lower cost of living of Knysna, where he continues to write about everything under the sun. He is always right.

Spector settled in Johannesburg after a career as a US diplomat in Africa and East Asia. He has taught at the U. of the Witwatersrand, been a consultant for an international NGO, run a theatre, and been a commentator for South African and international print/broadcast/online media, in addition to writing for The Daily Maverick from day one. He says he learned everything he needs to know about politics from ‘Casablanca.’ Maybe he's cynical about some things, but a late Beethoven string quartet, John Coltrane’s music and a dish of Pad Thai will bring him close to tears.

Jackie Dugard is a human rights activist and scholar. She's currently a senior researcher at the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI), which she co-founded in January 2010 and directed until December 2012.

Kathleen Hardy joined CALS in June 2011 as the attorney in the Rule of Law Programme. Prior to joining CALS she completed an internship at the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee’s Executive Directorate (CTED) in New York. Kathleen is a sessional lecturer at Wits where she lectures criminal law.

Born and raised in Stanger in KZN, Jackie Shandu was a co-founder of the September National Imbizo and co-drafter of The People's Manifesto, which calls for a law that compels all politicians and public servants to consume public services, including state hospitals and public schools. He is now doing a Masters degree in Development Studies at UKZN but currently in Germany on an exchange program.

Rousseau is a voluntary exile from professional philosophy, where having to talk metaphysics eventually became unbearably irritating. He now spends his time trying to arrest the rapid decline in common sense exhibited by his species, both through teaching critical thinking and business ethics at the University of Cape Town, and through activities aimed at eliminating the influence of religious ideology in public policy.

When not being absurdly serious, he’s one of those left-wing sorts who enjoys red wine, and he is alleged to be able to cook a mean Bistecca Fiorentine.

Jan Hofmeyr heads the Policy and Analysis Programme at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation. He conducts and manages policy-orientated research and has a specific interest in the variables that affect social and economic inclusivity in transitional societies. He belongs to the Bertelsmann Foundation's group of international Transformation Thinkers and has collaborated on the Foundation's Transformation and Sustainable Governance Indices.

Professor Jane Duncan is Highway Africa Chair of Media and the Information Society, School of Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes University. Before joining Rhodes, she worked at the Freedom of Expression Institute, and was its executive director from 2001 to 2009. She has also worked at the Afrika Cultural Centre in Newtown and the Funda Centre in Soweto. An art historian by training, she has three post-graduate degrees, including a PhD from the Wits School of the Arts, and has published widely on media policy and freedom of expression issues. She tweets at @duncanjane.

Janice Winter is a journalist and media scholar. She has a postgraduate degree in International Development from the University of Oxford, for which she was awarded a distinction for research on victims of political violence in Zimbabwe. She written for and edited magazines and book publications, and has conducted research for several international organisations. She is currently programme manager of the Axess Programme on Journalism and Democracy, which explores the relationship between the media and political power globally. Her book, The Dystopian Democracy: Media and Politics in South Africa, will be published in 2012.

Jared Sacks is a founder of the Children of South Africa. Since 2007, he has been living in Cape Town working directly with communities supporting their efforts to build authentic grassroots social change. He has worked closely with a range of poor people's social movements. He is also the compiler of the anthology No Land! No House! No Vote! Voices from Symphony Way.

Jay Naidoo is founding General Secretary of Cosatu, former Minister in Mandela Government and Chair of a GAIN a Global Foundation Fighting malnutrition in the World. You can also visit his Facebook Page or www.jaynaidoo.org.

Jeremy Goldkorn founded the popular China media website Danwei.org, and acts as editor and publisher. The site has tracked the changes in China's media and Internet on a daily basis since 2003 and also produces video interviews with people in culture and the media in China.  

Goldkorn produced the documentary film African Boots of Beijing. His writing has appeared in many Chinese and foreign publications including The Guardian, The New York Times, Life, and Cosmopolitan's China edition, covering a range of subjects from media regulation, Internet business, freedom of expression, the habits of young Chinese Internet users and Chinese consumer culture.

He is a regular speaker at English and Chinese language conferences and events.

Johann Redelinghuys is a partner at Heidrick & Struggles the international leadership consulting business, which bought the firm Redelinghuys & Partners of which he was the founder. He has been deeply involved in career management and executive search all his life. He is the chairman of the South African company and now heads up its board practice working with chairmen and CEOs focussed on CEO succession, strategic leadership review and board evaluation.

John Stephens' work as a Legal Researcher at SECTION27 focuses on human rights, the right to health and, more particularly, issues around tuberculosis

John Stupart is the editor and founder of Africanscene.co.za and holds a Masters in International Relations from Wits University. He writes a lot about piracy (the maritime kind), post-conflict peace-things, and general defence-related affairs. John also works for a monthly defence magazine in Johannesburg.

Jon Foster-Pedley is the Dean and director of Henley Business School South Africa, a school of Henley Business School UK.

Julie Cunningham is Talk Radio 702's resident nation builder, a journalist and guest speaker. She's been a producer at most of South Africa and London's TV news organisations, but left before it became boring. When she's not building communities, or mentoring younger South Africans, she's talking to organisations and individuals about active citizenship and South Africa's future possibilities. She's dabbled in science and psychology and will talk to anybody about anything.

Dr Julie Reid is an academic and media analyst at the Department of Communication Science at the Unisa. She tweets about media issues regularly from @jbjreid and writes about media policy debates and the state of media freedom in South Africa. Julie is the Deputy President of the South African Communications Association (SACOMM), and an active member of the Right2Know campaign. She is involved in various media policy research projects, has published research in the field of media studies and edited a book on South African visual culture.

Justin is Irish born and raised in Africa. As a consequence you can take him out of the bush but you can’t extract the animal. He studied Anthropology and English at Wits, toured the world, and owned and operated two restaurants before committing to the deceptive allure of advertising.

An adman at heart, he’s never shy of an opinion or to throw it about with gusto. This extends beyond marketing and advertising to equally noisy and everyman opinion-steeped topics like politics and rugby. His commitment to freedom of expression is matched only by his enthusiasm for good food and wine.

Kalim Rajab is a director of the New National Assurance Company, SA’s oldest black insurance company. He previously worked in the diamond industry, and was educated at UCT and Oxford. He writes in his personal capacity about SA, current events, film appreciation and culture. Catch him on twitter at @kalimrajab

Karen Milford is a doctor who has been working at state hospitals for the last six years. She's not a journalist and doesn't spend much time on social media. Her friends say she's opinionated and every now and then she strings a few sentences together to have her say.

Karl Gostner is Primedia Broadcasting’s General Manager in the Western Cape. In addition to this role he is a passionate member of the Lead SA leadership group.

Karyn Maughan is a senior legal reporter at ENEWS and co-author of the best-selling Lolly Jackson biography. She started her career working at a mortuary and will happily spend her weekends reading autopsy reports. She also spends inordinate amounts of time in strip clubs.

Kate Lefko-Everett is Senior Project Leader for the Reconciliation Barometer at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation. You can follow her on Twitter on @opinionkate and @SABarometer.

Kate Tissington is a researcher at the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI).

Ken Borland hails from the south coast of KwaZulu-Natal and was educated in the Midlands before going to Joburg in 2004. For a small fee, he'll write or talk about anything and has been a contributor for Reuters, SuperSport, the BBC, various other radio stations around the world, and Midi Olympique. He has covered rugby and cricket World Cups and, even though his own game is a disgrace, numerous golf tournaments. In fact, he took up writing when it became clear he was not going to be actually playing in the big stadiums, no matter how keen he was!

Kevin Bloom has written for a wide array of South African and international publications, including Granta, the UK Times and the Guardian, and is an Honorary Writing Fellow at the University of Iowa, having completed the fall residency of the International Writing Program in 2011. Kevin’s first book, Ways of Staying, won the 2010 South African Literary Award for literary journalism, and was shortlisted for the Alan Paton Award. He is currently working on a book about a changing Africa.

Khadija peddles words on street corners, in polite company she's known as a journalist. Words are her only defence against impending doom, old age and iniquity - spurring her interest in what language tells us about where we are from, what we are doing and where we are headed. Don't mind the headscarf, she don't need no liberation. 

Khulekani Mathe joined the public service in 2007 as Senior Policy Analyst in the Policy Coordination and Advisory Services in the Presidency. He moved to the National Planning Commission Secretariat, as one of the sector experts in March 2010. He has been responsible for all education, health and social protection work in the National Planning Commission Secretariat. Currently he is Acting Head of the National Planning Commission Secretariat.

Kiflu Hassain was born in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, in the 1960s. He was trained as a lawyer in Addis Ababa University, and worked at different state enterprises and corporations as an attorney until he landed up in a concentration camp in October 2005 on a farcical charge of corruption. After being denied bail for a full year, he was released in October 2006.

On top of being threatened by another round of incarceration, he found the outside world itself to be one big concentration camp, since fear and suspicion had descended on the land due to the brutal crackdown in July and November 2005 that saw the massacre of more than 200 civilians in Addis Ababa alone. Hence, he decided to flee the country, seeking asylum in Uganda in January 2007.

Kiflu has written articles for the English Reporter and the defunct Addis Zena newspaper in Ethiopia; and the Daily Monitor, Uganda Record, and New Vision in Uganda, among other publications.

Ethiopia, despite being the seat of the African Union had never produced a regime that allows even the minimum space for dialogue that other people in Africa enjoy so naturally. Thus Kiflu feels that ending up in Uganda is a blessing in disguise, as it affords him the opportunity to write.

At the same time, being a refugee has exposed him to the hypocrisy of the international community. Thus, he defines the term refugee as follows:

R - rooted out
E - exiled
F - frightened
U - unwelcome
G - globally shunned
E - expendable to capricious politics
E - eternally endangered

Whether you welcome him or not, his voice will be heard through his eclectic writings.

Lance oversees the daily content of all the Talk shows on Kaya FM. In his spare time he has an alter ego called Chip Channing, who has a satirical "How to Guide on workplace politics" www.chipchanning.com It would be easy to confuse Lance with his identical twin brother Larry Claasen, who writes for the Financial Mail. The best way to tell the difference is that Larry is left handed and Lance uses right hand.

Lev David is a columnist and screenwriter living in Johannesburg. He doesn't look like a "Lev David" and can provide no satisfactory explanation for that. Also, he knows that you know that he's written this bio. In the third person. Why did the editor make him do that? Oh, screw it. He's a writer, that's all. He is on Twitter as @levdavid. Email him at lev@levdavid.com

Mandi Smallhorne is a freelance journalist who writes about all kinds of damage, to our health, in our society and to the environment.

Mandy de Waal is a writer who reports on technology, corruption, science, the media and whatever else she finds interesting. She loves small stories and human narratives, and dislikes persistent evangelists, bad poetry and the insane logic that currently passes for political rhetoric. Back in journalism after spending time in the corridors of corporate greed, de Waal has written for Mail & Guardian, Noseweek, City Press, Rapport, MoneyWeb, Brandchannel (New York) and a number of other good titles. She now writes for The Daily Maverick because it’s the smart thing to do.

Manqoba Nxumalo is a senior investigative reporter for the Times of Swaziland, the country's only independent group of newspapers. He is also an activist, with particular interest in issues of human rights and media freedom.

Marelise van der Merwe writes a lot about gender and sexual orientation, which has led people to ask whether she is perhaps a lesbian or, worse, a feminist (at the very least, an oddball with a unibrow). However, she is regrettably unable to commit to a sexual orientation, as she does not own enough Barbra Streisand DVDs, and anyway, she lives in Cape Town, where homophobia is totally gay. By day she is a sub-editor at The Daily Maverick, and by night she is also a sub-editor at The Daily Maverick. This means that if you spot a spelling error on the site, it is her fault. When she’s not obsessing over comma placement, she wires her heart to Facebook, falls asleep at parties, or makes a mean butternut soup.

Margie Orford is the author of the Clare Hart crime series. The most recent title is Gallows Hill, published by Jonathan Ball. www.margieorford.com

After retiring from IBM he entered the travel industry and is currently a partner in a specialised tour company which operates in the USA, South America, Africa and South Asia.

Mark Heywood is Executive Director of SECTION27 and an Executive member of the Treatment Action Campaign.

Marlise lives in Brixton, Jozi  - mainly in her pyjamas, in front of her laptop, moping over her PhD thesis. In the event that she does get dressed, it is to go to her office at the African Centre for Migration & Society (Wits), to play Ultimate Frisbee, ride Critical Mass, watch Kung Fu movies at the Bioscope, or demonstrate in support of the decriminalisation of sex work. She aspires to - one day - write like Peter Singer, debate like Eusebius McKaiser, have the courage of Steve Biko, and the hairstyle of Yo-landi Vi$$er.

Max co-founded Africa’s first social enterprise incubator and set up an innovation hub for small businesses. In 2010, Max was selected as one of Mail & Guardian’s Top 200 Young South Africans. Max is the Co-founder of Impact Amplifier, an incubator and consulting firm and leads the SA Regional Chapter for the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE), part of the Aspen Institute in Washington DC. For kicks, Max spends a lot of his time on a surfboard, yoga mat, playing Ultimate Frisbee or reading Africa’s history.

Michael Neocosmos is currently Professor of Sociology at UNISA in Pretoria. He is the author of a number of academic books including a recent one on xenophobia in South Africa. He has taught at various universities on the African continent. During the 1980s, like hundreds of others, he did support work for the ANC. He is currently working on a book on popular politics in Africa for UKZN Press.

Michelle Solomon is doing her Masters in journalism and media studies at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, where she also works as a freelance researcher and journalist. When she's not out sniffing for stories, she takes a particular interest in research about media ethics and self-regulation.

Moulana Bham is the Secretary General of the Jamiatul Ulama South Africa and the Imam of one of the largest Muslim congregations in Gauteng at Hamidia Mosque in Newtown. Twitter: @EbrahimBham

Neil Coleman is advisor to COSATU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, and Strategies Co-ordinator in the COSATU Secretariat. Neil joined COSATU in 1989, as spokesperson and head of Communications ; was appointed Co-ordinator of the COSATU Parliamentary Office in 1995; and to his current position in 2008. As Convenor of COSATU’s ‘Walking through the Doors’ project, he advises the COSATU Secretariat, in areas such as the economy, retirement funds, and the labour market. A labour and political activist since the late 1970’s, he was active in the UDF, and various community organisations from the 1980’s. From May-December 2009, COSATU seconded him as Special Advisor to the Minister of Economic Development, to provide policy and strategic advice. He has been responsible for extensive policy work on labour related and political issues, and represented COSATU in many structures and processes, locally and internationally.

Nic Borain is a political analyst, writer and garlic farmer. He advises financial market investors about South African politics and is currently top ranked in the Politics and Industrial relations category of the Financial Mail Analyst of the Year ranking.

Nicky Falkof is a senior lecturer in the Media Studies department at Wits. She's recently returned to South Africa after almost 14 years of living mostly in the UK, during which time she was, variously, a journalist, author, student, semi-professional feminist, radio pundit and singer in a Yiddish reggae band. She tweets (infrequently) as @barbrastrident.

Nicole Fritz is a lawyer. She runs an NGO. In a perfect world, she’s do human rights work and wear haute couture. Right now she has to pass up on the haute couture. She likes to write and one day hopes to do more of it. Sadly, that too is unlikely to make her a much valued client of Karl Lagerfeld.

Nikki Stein, an attorney at SECTION27, is currently working on the right to basic education and the obligations of the government arising from that right. She obtained a BA (Law and Psychology) and an LLB from Wits University. She then went on to clerk for Justice Nkabinde at the Constitutional Court and completed her articles at Bowman Gilfillan Attorneys. In 2008/09 she obtained an LLM in International Human Rights Law from the University of Virginia in the United States. She returned to Bowman Gilfillan in June 2009 and joined SECTION27 in September 2011.

Nthabi Pooe is a research assistant at SECTION27. She graduated from the North West University in 2011 where she obtained her LLB degree. She joined SECTION27 in January 2012 as part of a fellowship programme with the Students for Law and Social Justice (SLSJ). Pooe works on cases related to the right to basic education, which includes work on sanitation in schools, provision of learner teacher support material in schools, school infrastructure and sexual violence in schools.

Onkgopotse JJ Tabane is one of South Africa’s leading media and communications specialists, as well as a community activist and a business executive. He is currently the Chief Executive of Oresego Holdings an International Advisory Company.  His most recent roles were Head of Communications for COPE, Political Advisor to the COPE parliamentary Leader as well as a Corporate Affairs Executive at the JSE listed Altron. He is also a member of the Northwest University Council where he is serving his second term as a representative of the Minister of Education, and an Associate of the prestigious international Institute of Independent Business (IIB) He is a regular columnist for The Sunday Independent , The City Press and the Daily Dispatch. He has now rejoined the ANC as an ordinary member.

Osiame Molefe is a writer with a keen interest in the space where personal and societal ambitions intersect with technology, politics and economics. That intersect right now, in South Africa, has brought him to observing, researching and writing on racial and gender inequality, and how well, or poorly, dialogue around these issues takes place. His column deals with these and issues tangential. When he is not writing news, analysis and opinion, he reads speculative fiction and writes some, too. Rumour is he single-handedly keeps the South African sparkling wine industry afloat.
 
In a former life, he worked as a chartered accountant in New York, Bermuda and Johannesburg, but has since fled that industry in pursuit of a life less grey. He holds a bachelors degree in accountancy from Rhodes University, but don’t let that fool you into believing he has a head for numbers. He does not.

Patrick is senior professor of development studies and directs the University of KwaZulu-Natal Centre for Civil Society, and recently authored Politics of Climate Justice (UKZN Press, 2012) and edited Durban's Climate Gamble (Unisa Press, 2011). Other books include Elite Transition, Unsustainable South Africa, Looting Africa, Against Global Apartheid, Zimbabwe's Plunge and Talk Left Walk Right.

Paul Berkowitz: studied economics, maths stats. Worked at Econometrix, FNB, Wits. Interested in South African politics, economics.

De Wet is the deputy editor of The Daily Maverick.

Not having the imagination to even try anything other than journalism (or any medium other than words), he has spent all his adult life writing about what everybody else is doing. He has written about technology and telecommunications, business, politics, the property market, unusual medical conditions and, for a brief interlude, movies.

He has participated in the closing-down of one daily newspaper and two magazines, but implausibly claims that none of it was his fault.

Pierre De Vos teaches Constitutional law at the University of Cape Town Law Faculty, where he serves as deputy dean and as the Claude Leon Foundation Chair in Constitutional Governance. He writes a regular blog, entitled 'Constitutionally Speaking', in which he attempts to mix one part righteous anger, one part cold legal reasoning and one part irreverence to help keep South Africans informed about Constitutional and other legal developments related to the democracy.

After much persuasion and a case of Tullamore Dew, the Daily Maverick is proud to welcome renowned academic and all-round intellectual good guy, Professor Balthazar, whose erudite insights will take us past headlines, deadlines and old pick-up lines.

Ranjeni Munusamy is a survivor of the Salem witch trials and has the scars to show it. She has a substantial collection of tattered t-shirts from having “been there and done it” – from government, the Zuma trials, spin-doctoring and upsetting the applecart in South African newsrooms. Following a rather unexciting exorcism ceremony, she traded her femme-fatale gear for a Macbook and a packet of Liquorice Allsorts. Her graduation Cum Laude from the School of Hard Knocks means she knows a thing or two about telling the South African story.

Ravindra Mistri is an investment portfolio analyst at Capital Eye Investments. He is also a retired auditor, injury prone sportsman, travelling philanthropist & struggling writer.

Raymond Joseph is a journalist, a journalism trainer and a media consultant. A media junkie, both old & new, he lives in Cape Town but works wherever the job takes him.

Raymond Joseph (@rayjoe) and Adi Eyal (@SoapSudTycoon) are members of HacksHackers Cape Town, part of a worldwide community of journalists (hacks) and coders (hackers) working together to bridge these two worlds, the techies exploring technologies to filter and visualize data, and for journalists to use technology to find and tell stories.

Rebecca Davis studied at Rhodes University and Oxford before working in lexicography at the Oxford English Dictionary. After deciding she’d rather make up words than define them, she returned to South Africa in 2011 to write for the Daily Maverick, which has been a magnificilious decision.  

Rehad Desai is the spokesperson of the Marikana Support Campaign. He writes in his personal capacity. He is a documentary filmmaker, currently making a film about the Marikana massacre.

Thomson Reuters is the world's leading source of intelligent informatiom for businesses and professionals. It combines industry expertise with innovative technology to deliver critical information to leading decision makers in the financial, legal, tax and accounting, healthcare, science and media markets.

Richard Pithouse is from Durban and is currently teaching Political Theory and Urban Studies at Rhodes University in Grahamstown where, each year, he also runs a post-graduate workshop on Frantz Fanon. This year he will be helping to organise a conference on the work of V.Y. Mudimbe and will be a visiting professor at The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Richard Poplak is an author and a journalist, currently working as a freelance writer in places as inclement as the Arctic and northern Afghanistan; as Middle Eastern as Syria and Lebanon; as slightly more Eastern as Sri Lanka and Pakistan; as southern as, well, you get the picture. He has won a crateful of awards, and loves each one equally. He is co-authoring a book about Africa rising, due in 2013, and can be followed @poplak, or found at www.richardpoplak.com

Rob Boffard is a freelance music and technology journalist. He's been writing, talking and thinking about his specialty, hip-hop music, for over ten years - and been trying to convince people of its awesomeness for about the same amount of time.

He has written for The Guardian, The Mail and Guardian, The Saturday Star, NME, Wired Magazine, Computer Music Magazine, Okayplayer, Beatnik and The Jewish Chronicle, among quite a few others. He writes a weekly column for The South African newspaper in London.

Rob is also a radio presenter and producer, hosting the popular 20/20 music show on Recharged Radio, where he tries to combine South African rap with music from elsewhere in as unobtrusive a manner as possible. Mostly, it works.

A passionate maths teacher in a country where those skills are in desperate short supply, Robyn Clark teaches at a Sekolo sa Borokgo, a school for formerly disadvantaged children. She carving out a niche for herself as an expert on the use of technology and mobile technology in the classroom and is especially interested in the accessibility of quality Maths education. She is currently studying towards her MSc in mathematics education at the University of Witwatersrand.

Born and raised in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, Robyn Lee Kriel is a Senior East Africa Correspondent for eNews, based in Nairobi, Kenya.

Robyn began her career in broadcasting as a reporter for KWTX Television in Waco, Texas. She graduated from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas, with degrees in Broadcast Journalism and Musical Theatre.

She started with eNews in June, 2008. During her time in South Africa, Robyn has field-reported and anchored several large news events including the xenophobic attacks, the 2009 National Elections, the recall of President Thabo Mbeki by the ANC, the ongoing crisis in Zimbabwe, and the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

In 2010, Robyn travelled to Afghanistan, where she spent a month embedded with U.S. Marines in Helmand Province, covering the Afghan parliamentary elections. Most recently, Robyn has spent time in Mogadishu, Somalia, reporting on the drought and civil war.

Robyn has been honoured with several awards for her coverage of Southern Africa. In 2008 she won an Edward R. Murrow award for in-depth series reporting, earned an Overseas Press Club honourable mention for reporting on the human condition, a David Burke Award for Bravery in Journalism by the Broadcasting Board of Governors and a Houston Press Club Award. In 2007 she won two Lonestar Emmy Awards. In 2005 and 2006 she earned first place finishes in the William Randolph Hearst National Championships, as well as a Society of Professional Journalists Award. Her reports aired on National Public Radio, CNN, ABC, BBC, Voice of America and Carte Blanche.

Ryland Fisher has more than 30 years of experience in the media industry as an editor, journalist, columnist, author, senior manager and executive.
Among his media assignments were as Editor of the Cape Times and The New Age and as assistant editor at the Sunday Times.
Fisher is the author of Race (published 2007), a book dealing with some of the issues related to race and racism in post-apartheid South Africa. His first book, Making the Media Work for You (2002), provided insights into the media industry in South Africa.
He is executive chairperson of the Cape Town Festival, which he initiated while editor of the Cape Times in 1999 as part of the One City Many Cultures project. He also runs a consultancy focusing on media and social cohesion.

Sarah Burton has been the Deputy Programme Director for Greenpeace International since March 2009. Sarah is an experienced Human Rights Lawyer and her first role at Greenpeace was as the UK office’s in-house lawyer. She later became Greenpeace UK’s Campaign Director where she was responsible for high level lobbying and advocacy with Government officials, Ministers and international business leaders. Before her current position Sarah was the Campaign Programme Director of Amnesty International and directed global campaigns, including against gender based violence, promotion of arms control and its Counter Terror with Justice Campaign.

Dr Scott Firsing, an American residing in South Africa, is an international studies lecturer at Monash South Africa, a campus of Monash University Australia. He also serves as president of Young People in International Affairs and as an ambassador for Young Professionals in Foreign Policy.

Scott Mathie is a ten-year veteran of professional rugby currently plying his trade for the EP Kings. He is a jock who, surprisingly, can read and write. This achievement in literacy establishes him as one of the leading minds in his field (excuse the pun). He plans to write a book entitled, ‘8 years of hurt’, documenting his struggle to obtain a University degree. He is indebted to all the young ladies who took notes for him over the years. Scott has written extensively for skysports.com and the Manchester Evening News. He has represented the Bulls, Sharks, Leeds and Sale in his rugby career.

Sean Muller is currently a lecturer and PhD candidate in economics at the University of Cape Town, where he teaches history of economic thought and public sector economics to undergraduates. He has a Masters in Applied Economics from UCT and an MPhil Economics from Oxford. His PhD is on the use of randomized experiments to inform policy, focusing on issues relating to education. Among his other research interests are intergenerational mobility, causal inference and philosophy of economics. He has been writing opinion pieces on a wide range of South African issues, particularly relating to public policy, for over a decade.

Sha'ista Goga is an Economist and Senior Researcher at SECTION27. Her focus is on policy, competition and economic regulation within the healthcare sector.

Shaka Sisulu is a reluctant-columnist, sometimes radio-talk-show host, occasional social activist and consistent member of the ANC. He is writing this from a secret location.

Shaun Swingler works as a freelance journalist and managing editor of Jungle Jim magazine. After receiving his degree in philosophy, Shaun served a brief stint in a claustrophobic corporate publishing house. After escaping, he chose to pursue a career writing about things that interested him. Among others, these have included the forensics industry, animal testing, and the South African porn industry.

Simon Allison covers Africa for the Daily Maverick, having cut his teeth reporting from Palestine, Somalia and revolutionary Egypt. He loves news and politics, the more convoluted the better. Despite his natural cynicism and occasionally despairing tone, he is an Afro-optimist, and can’t wait to witness and chronicle the continent’s swift development over the next few decades.

Simon Apfel was born into obscurity, the son of a frozen peas importer and a washing machine. Even from a young age, he seemed destined for greatness, urinating on an electric wall panel, and short-circuiting an entire block of flats. His fame soon spread excrementally. As a teenager, Apfel was introduced to Joyce, Dostoyevsky and Michel Houllebeq, and his self-confidence took a knock from which it never quite recovered. Nevertheless, he gradually progressed from being a rough and raw talent to become the polished piece of costume jewellery currently on display. Apfel describes his writing style as “cinematic”. His favourite pastimes include scratchcards, pigeon-kicking and procreation. He also enjoys star-gazing, hair-raising, head-scratching and chin-wagging. Apfel is a flamingly religious Jew, is married to a mathematician, and is the proud progenitor of a pair of twin boys. He is also a Creative Director at Bay Moon Communications.

Simon Williamson was once in advertising before realising that trying to convince people to think differently was far more purposeful than getting them to buy stuff. He once wrote for TV websites before flittering around the world with the sole purpose of seeing more of it. Nowadays, he writes for GoTravel24 as a travel journalist, telling people where to take their holidays.

Simric Yarrow was born (and given his, err, unique name, by his non-conformist parents) in the culturally independent state of Norfolk, known to the uninitiated as a flat county in the east of England. Being neither from the North or the South helped him develop a healthy disregard for the mainstream, but it still wasn't quite enough - so the new South Africa was a natural magnet for him. As an actor (at times) he often gets away with being taken for South African these days, which is as he generally prefers it. 'n Pom maak 'n plan, as no-one has said yet. Co-builder of a double-storey mud house on a suburban street, (Cape Town's "greenest B&B"), teacher, professional musician, and, when time allows, opinionated writer. More of his thoughts are at lucidfringe.blogspot.com

Sipho Hlongwane is a writer and columnist for Daily Maverick. His other work interests also include motoring, music and technology, for which he has some awards. In a previous life, he drove forklift trucks, hosted radio shows, waited tables, and was once bitten by a large monitor lizard on his ankle. It hurt a lot. Arsenal Football Club is his only permanent obsession.

He appears in these pages as a political correspondent.

Grootes is the host of the Midday Report on Talk Radio 702 and 567 Cape Talk, and the Senior Political Correspondent for Eyewitness News. He's been part of the political hack pack since before the Polokwane Tsunami, and covers politics in a slightly obsessive manner. Those who love him have recommended help for his politics addiction. He quotes Amy Winehouse.

Educated at Oxford University, Steven worked British Council, Seoul, South Korea before returning to UK to complete his MBA at Durham University Business School. He moved to South Africa from Kenya in 2003. Since 2006 he has focused his attention on the emerging private health industry in Africa and is responsible for bringing forward the currently distressed 160-bed hospital project in Lusaka, Zambia with another 200-bed facility planned for Luanda, Angola.

Stuart Wilson is the Director of Litigation at the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI) - a public interest law centre based in Johannesburg - and a practicing advocate.

With a high-school prize for best supporting actor in a one-act play and as captain of the chess team, Charalambous qualified to join the esteemed ranks of the Daily Maverick opionionistas.

After being expelled from the halls of finance houses for possessing an inkling of wit, this budding entrepreneur spends his days bird watching and writing subtle, yet moving social commentary pieces for South Africa’s bastion of journalism excellence (that’s The Daily Maverick, in case you were wondering).

Having escaped the Port Elizabeth mis-education system, Charalambous now resides in Joburg and can often be spotted quality-control testing the water in many of the city’s watering holes.

Terry Crawford-Browne represented the Anglican Church during the 1996-1998 Parliamentary Defence Review, and in the public interest is the applicant in case 103/10 now before the Constitutional Court.

Cohen is a business and political journalist and commentator of more years than he likes to admit. His freelance work has included contributions to the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times, but he spent most of his life working for Business Day.

After a mid-life crisis that didn't include the traditional fast car, Cohen now divides his time between Johannesburg and a house situated almost exactly in the middle of nowhere in the Karoo.

Recent columns:

Timothy Maurice Webster is the author of three brand leadership books and columnist who consults & speaks at the intersection of three key leadership pillars; Values formation, Style Manifestation and Brand Position. Timothy’s background in branding, design and psychology is inspired by his graduate studies at the Image Institute and his undergraduate work at Brookstone College in the United States.

Troy wrote Why China Will Never Rule the World, which went to number 4 in China books recently on Amazon.com. His op-ed pieces run in about 30 newspapers, including the Toronto Star. Troy was a guest blogger on CNBC.com in August 2011.

Vashna Jagarnath currently lectures at the Department of History at Rhodes University. She writes and researches on Indian Cinema. Her PhD looked specifically at the various ways that Gandhi shaped and impacted upon the early 19th century South African public sphere.

Dlamini is a writer, critic, traveller and portrait photographer. He also has a day job, sort of.

His portraits of writers have been published in many top literary publications, but he mostly makes his living as Chairman of the Chillibush Group of Companies, which deals in the dark arts of advertising, public relations and event management.

In 2007 Dlamini was the recipient of the South African Literary Awards' Literary Journalism prize. He regularly reviews books, especially from Southern Africa, and presents the The Victor Dlamini Literary Podcast.

Recent columns:

Vukani Mde is a senior Political and Policy analyst for Southern Africa at africapractice, offering research and strategic advice to clients to help them identify opportunities, avoid and mitigate risk, and unlock growth on the subcontinent. Previously SADC editor for Southern Africa Report, tracking politics and economic development in the region. Worked as political editor for The Weekender, Business Day's Saturday sister publication. Worked as communications advisor and media liaison for the Minister of Trade and Industry. Worked as national head of communication for COSATU, SA's largest labour federation. He writes in his personal capacity.

Prior to being appointed as the Director of the UCT Graduate School of Business, Prof Baets was Professor of Complexity, Knowledge and Innovation, Associate Dean for Research and MBA Director at Euromed Marseille Ecole de Management. Previously at Euromed Marseille he was Director of Graduate Programmes. Before joining Euromed Marseille, he held the Philips Chair in Information and Communication Technology and he was director of NOTION (the Nyenrode Institute for Knowledge Management and Virtual Education) at Nyenrode Business University in the Netherlands. He has held academic positions in Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Spain.

Walter Pike is the founder of PiKE | New Marketing, consulting in building brands in an always on, always connected world. He has a background in marketing, traditional advertising agencies and was head of faculty at Marketing & Advertising at the AAA School. He has been a citrus farmer, racehorse breeder and owner, a cricket and soccer coach.

Wayne is an entrepreneur, businessman and activist harboured in one soul. He is the Chairman of OUTA and a Board member of the Tourism Business Council of SA. His recent activities include Chief Executive at Avis and President of SAVRALA. Family, travel, good whisky and some erratic golf makes him smile.

William studied at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg where he obtained his BA and Honours degree in Drama and Film. He worked in television after completing his studies. Unable to resist the lure of media monitoring, William started with some part time monitoring for the Media Monitoring Project, now Media Monitoring Africa (MMA)  in 1995 and after leaving television joined the MMA as a researcher. At MMA William has overseen or been directly involved in over 100 media monitoring projects on subjects ranging from gender based violence, HIV, and racism to children and the media. William has also completed overseeing the data analysis of the biggest civil society media monitoring exercise in the world – the Global Media Monitoring Project. For this project over 100 countries monitored gender around the world. William has also overseen the name change of the MMP to Media Monitoring Africa in 2008. William was appointed an Ashoka fellow in 2009 and also a Linc Fellow in 2010 for his work focused on children’s participation in the media.  He is regularly accessed in the media on a range of media focused issues.  In his twelve years as director of MMA William has helped MMA grow from a small 3 people driven organisation to a committed team of 16 people, with a clear vision and dedicated programme areas.  William’s knowledge of media monitoring and commitment to deepening democracy in South Africa and the continent has ensured his expertise is internationally recognised    In his spare time William likes to monitor the media when not otherwise distracted by his young sons.

Xhanti Payi is a suit during the day and has worked for almost ever South African bank, and moonlights as a columnist, having written for the Weekend Argus. His main ambition is to win the Nobel prize, for whatever. Ok, maybe Economics.

He has the misfortune of being Xhosa, and carrying a name with a click in Cape Town. Xhanti enjoys jazz music, and displays anti revolutionary tendencies in drinking copious amounts of good red wine.

After a distinguished career in advertising, Yvonne was appointed as the CEO of the International Marketing Council of SA, responsible for creating and managing Brand South Africa, which she did for 7 years. She now  a Marketer-at-Large specialising in creating communication solutions and strategy. She is a renowned public speaker, talking the country up at any opportunity.
















 

Zukiswa Wanner has contributed material to newspapers and magazines that include The Observer/Guardian, Sunday Independent, City Press, Mail & Guardian, La Repubblica, OpenSociety, Sunday Times, Africa Review, Words etc, The New Statesman, True Love, Shape, Oprah, Elle, Juice, Afropolitan and Forbes Africa.

In 2011, she wrote a book of the Bible and did a research piece on South African education, while affirming (if anyone ever doubted them) her feminist credentials with an introductory piece for Mail & Guardian’s Book of Women. Her third novel Men of the South (Kwela 2010) was shortlisted for Commonwealth Prize Africa Region for Best Book.

Photo by Lisa Skinner.