‘Mad Mike’ Hoare: The Legend
Chris Hoare, ‘Mad Mike’ Hoare: The Legend (Partners in Publishing, 2018) AN officer and a gentleman; a brave, swashbuckling adventurer; a legend in his lifetime; the ‘best bloody officer in the British army’; the man […]
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Incorruptible: The Story of the Murders of Dulcie September, Anton Lubowski and Chris Hani
Evelyn Groenink, lncorruptible: The Story of the Murders of Dulcie September, Anton Lubowski and Chris Hani (Privately published, 2018) IN February 1990 we liberated the contents of the banned book cupboard in the local university […]
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The search for a better life
LAND restitution: you will not find a mainstream political party or commentator in South Africa who does not fervently support it as an essential prerequisite of the nation’s future. The current populist cry (and increasingly […]
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Sol Plaatje: A Life of Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje, 1876-1932
Brian Willan, Sol Plaatje: A Life of Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje, 1876–1932 (Johannesburg: Jacana, 2018) MAGISTERIAL is an apt description of this massive biography – for its depth of research, breadth of context and precision of […]
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Liberty in peril
THESE are troubled times globally for pluralism and liberal democracy; and especially in South Africa whose rainbow nation gloss has long looked thoroughly tarnished. In recent weeks the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), third largest party […]
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Ministry of Crime: An Underworld Explored
Mandy Weiner, Ministry of Crime: An Underworld Explored (Johannesburg: Macmillan, 2018) ALL countries have a criminal underworld. But when it merges with the overworld, society is in deep trouble. Mandy Wiener’s latest book concludes that […]
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Black Consciousness and Progressive Movements under Apartheid
Ian Macqueen, Black Consciousness and Progressive Movements under Apartheid (Pietermaritzburg: UKZN Press, 2018) IN popular perception Black Consciousness (BC) is often portrayed as a breakaway, isolationist tendency; a mirror image of apartheid promoting the interests […]
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A betrayal of epic proportions
LAST month we buried our mother. Her ashes lie in a peaceful, but well-frequented, English village churchyard directly under the highest point of the Cotswold hills; close to those of our father. At her funeral […]
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Heist: South Africa’s Cash-in-Transit Epidemic Uncovered
Anneliese Burgess, Heist: South Africa’s Cash-in-Transit Epidemic Uncovered (Cape Town: Penguin, 2018) VIOLENT crime is a long-standing South African tradition and at the top of the hierarchy are the gangsters who hijack cash-in-transit vehicles. These […]
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Massaging history in an orgy of hagiography
‘POLITICALLY and morally accountable for gross violations of human rights’: the author of this statement is South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC); and its subject is Winnie Madikizela Mandela (WMM) who died on 2 […]