There is the high veld, the middle veld, the low veld, the bush veld, and now thoughts from the thorn veld,
Jonathan Jansen, As by Fire: The End of the South African University (Cape Town: Tafelberg, 2017) UNIVERSITIES are fragile institutions. They require calm and as little change and disruption as possible to enable their primary […]
Mike Procter and Lungani Zama, Caught in the Middle: The Autobiography of Mike Procter (Cape Town: Don Nelson, 2017) A FEROCIOUSLY fast bowler who could turn to off spin, a dominating and entertaining middle order batsman, […]
Terry Shakinovsky and Sharon Cort with Lauren Segal, The Knock on the Door: The Story of the Detainees’ Parents Support Committee (Johannesburg: Picador Africa, 2018) DURING the 1980s, in its desperate attempt to delay liberation, […]
Ray Hartley, The Big Fix: How South Africa Stole the 2010 World Cup (Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball, 2016) THE RUN-UP to the 2010 FIFA World Cup held in South Africa lasted five years. It was a remarkably […]
Millard W. Arnold (ed.), The Testimony of Steve Biko and No Fears Expressed: Quotes from Steve Biko (Picador Africa) APARTHEID was a theatre of both fear and farce. Steve Biko, by then a banned person, […]
John le Carré, A Legacy of Spies (Penguin Random House) IN the novel that first made John le Carré’s name, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Alec Leamas and Elizabeth Gold are shot […]
Jacques Pauw, The President’s Keepers: Those Keeping Zuma in Power and out of Prison (Tafelberg) HE became South Africa’s president in 2009 already deeply compromised by the arms deal. Subsequently Jacob Zuma has behaved like […]
Mark SHAW, Hitmen for Hire: Exposing South Africa’s Underworld (Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball, 2017) WANT someone rubbed out? It could cost you as little as R10 000 in a society in which extreme violence is commonplace […]
Hugh MACMILLAN, Oliver Tambo: A Jacana Pocket Biography (Johannesburg: Jacana, 2017) HAD it not been for the Treason Trial of 1956, Oliver Tambo would almost certainly have become an Anglican priest. He was close to […]
Helen ZILLE, Not Without a Fight: The Autobiography (Cape Town: Penguin Random House, 2016) HELEN Zille arrived home one night after a visit to a Cape Town township believing her car had been stoned. However, […]