There is the high veld, the middle veld, the low veld, the bush veld, and now thoughts from the thorn veld,
Zikhona Valela, Now You Know How Mapetla Died: The Story of a Black Consciousness Martyr (Cape Town: Tafelberg, 2022) IN the 1980s, Black Sash meetings began with a roll-call of those who had died in […]
Ismail Lagardien, Too White to be Coloured, Too Coloured to be Black: On the Search for Home and Meaning (Cape Town: Melinda Ferguson Books, 2022) MOST people tempted to write a memoir ask themselves: is […]
David Benatar, The Fall of the University of Cape Town: Africa’s Leading University in Decline (S.l.: Politicsweb Publishing, 2021) IN his conclusion to this history of the University of Cape Town (UCT) since 2015, David […]
Phakamisa Ndzamela, Native Merchants: The Building of the Black Business Class in South Africa (Cape Town: Tafelberg, 2021) MOST South Africans probably think of black business people as those who have grown rich in the […]
Clinton van der Berg, Guns and Needles: A Journey into the Heart of South African Sport’s Steroid and Drug Culture (Cape Town: Penguin, 2022) SOUTH Africa has a major problem with drugs in sport: the […]
Keyan G. Tomaselli, Contemporary Campus Life: Transformation, Manic Managerialism and Academentia (Cape Town: BestRed, 2021) THIS book is a reminder that the medium is indeed sometimes the message. Keyan Tomaselli, for many years the well-known […]
Luthando Dyasop, Out of Quatro: From Exile to Exoneration (Cape Town: Kwela, 2021) ONE Saturday afternoon in 1980, Luthando Dyasop left home in Mthatha on foot. A week later after a circuitous journey he arrived […]
Imraan Coovadia, The Poisoners: On South Africa’s Toxic Past, 1973‒2020 (Cape Town: Umuzi, 2021) THE USE of poison as a political weapon is characteristic of fragile societies enveloped by suspicion and conspiracy. Imraan Coovadia opens […]
Ralph Mathekga, The ANC’s Last Decade: How the Decline of the Party will Transform South Africa (Cape Town: Tafelberg, 2021) IN his foreword, Stephen Grootes makes the telling observation that in an age of growing […]
Susan Williams, White Malice: The CIA and the Neo Colonisation of Africa (Johannesburg: Jacana, 2021) ‘THE AMERICANS were everywhere.’ This was the view of CIA asset Washington Okumu, a Kenyan well-known to South Africans as […]