A rolling insurrection in South Africa?
FIFTY years ago, Richards Bay on the Zululand coast was hardly more than a spot for recreational fishing. Today it is the site of South Africa’s deepest harbour and main bulk port, shifting 80 million […]
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The ongoing saga of Mzala’s ‘Chief with a Double Agenda’
FEW people will recognise the title Inqaba Yabasebenzi. Nor did many back in November 1987 when Inkatha, as the partial price of participation in peace talks in the growing Natal civil war, demanded that the […]
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For my Country: Why I Blew the Whistle on Zuma and the Guptas
Themba Maseko, For my Country: Why I Blew the Whistle on Zuma and the Guptas (Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball, 2021) THIS might well have been the routine story of a young struggle activist who graduated to […]
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ANC political culture and the South African crisis
NOTHING appears to separate the worlds of Cyril Ramaphosa and Jacob Zuma more obviously than their attitudes towards the Zondo Commission into State Capture. Ramaphosa turned up for two apparently co-operative rounds; Zuma when he […]
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Comrade Editor: On Life, Journalism, and the Birth of Namibia
Gwen Lister, Comrade Editor: On Life, Journalism and the Birth of Namibia (Cape Town: Tafelberg, 2021) ON 11 June 1974 a small group of anti-apartheid Cape Town students disrupted a Southern Universities versus British Lions […]
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Amakomiti: Grassroots Democracy in South African Shack Settlements
Trevor Ngwane, Amakomiti: Grassroots Democracy in South African Shack Settlements (Johannesburg: Jacana, 2021) HAVING visited 46 informal settlements to discover that three quarters have popular committees, and just one no committee at all, Trevor Ngwane […]
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Views on life in the continuing crisis: part four
WHEN my yoga teacher suggested returning to in-person classes from September, I was pleased to think of sharing the experience ‘live’ again. His email encouraged booking soon as places were limited, and I assumed he […]
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Do Not Disturb: The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad
Michela Wrong, Do Not Disturb: The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad (London: Fourth Estate, 2021) The title of this substantial book is a double entendre. It uses the words […]
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Filling in the potholes of apartheid history
RECENTLY, on 6 September, yet another apartheid functionary took with him to the grave secrets of the past without being put through a conclusive truth process. The dead man was João Rodrigues, the last surviving […]
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When They Came for Me: The Hidden Diary of an Apartheid Prisoner
John R. Schlapobersky, When They Came for Me: The Hidden Diary of an Apartheid Prisoner (Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball, 2021) IN John Schlapobersky’s case they came on Friday 13 June 1969 in the middle of a […]