From Georgian to Elizabethan and now Carolean
ONE does not need to be an ardent monarchist, or even a very tepid one, to recognise the significance of the end of the 70-year-long reign of Elizabeth Regina. Its events have framed my life […]
-
-
Spoilt Ballots: The Elections that Shaped South Africa from Shaka to Cyril
Matthew Blackman and Nick Dall, Spoilt Ballots: The Elections that Shaped South Africa from Shaka to Cyril (Johannesburg: Penguin, 2022) THERE are numerous points in this book where it feels as if journalists Matthew Blackman […]
-
State capture report … what next?
POST-APARTHEID South Africa has produced some first-class heroes. Two of them are former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela and current Chief Justice Raymond Zondo. It was Madonsela’s work investigating the corruption of Jacob Zuma’s administration that […]
-
The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation
Rosemary Sullivan, The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation (London: William Collins, 2022) ANNE Frank, author of the famous diary about life in hiding in wartime Amsterdam, was arrested on 4 August 1944, […]
-
Clare: The Killing of a Gentle Activist
Christopher Clark, Clare: The Killing of a Gentle Activist (Cape Town: Tafelberg, 2022) THERE is a myth that still circulates out there, one of legions about South Africa’s history: that the transition from apartheid to […]
-
Count me out … the census that wasn’t
APPARENTLY, earlier this year South Africa held a decennial national census. Well, so we thought. In tune with the times, I registered us online and identified our house on Google Maps. Then, in spite of […]
-
Nuclear: Inside South Africa’s Secret Deal
Karyn Maughan and Kirsten Pearson, Nuclear: Inside South Africa’s Secret Deal (Cape Town: Tafelberg, 2022) ONE of several wives of the president tries to poison him at the behest of the CIA, but he is […]
-
Now You Know How Mapetla Died: The Story of a Black Consciousness Martyr
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 […]
-
Arguments for the unelected
AND now for something completely different as Monty Python impressed on us back in the late sixties. Indeed, I never imagined that I would ever write anything under this heading, but as John Maynard Keynes […]
-
Too White to be Coloured, Too Coloured to be Black: On the Search for Home and Meaning
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 […]