There is the high veld, the middle veld, the low veld, the bush veld, and now thoughts from the thorn veld,
IT is something of a mystery why South Africa has produced so few satirical writers: there is raw material everywhere. One of the best satirists of the apartheid years was Christopher Hope whose first book, […]
TWEETS are clearly a short route to trouble. A couple of years ago Tim Noakes, the highly respected sports scientist and dietician, expressed an opinion via Twitter to a mother that a high-fat and vegetable, […]
THERE are two plausible explanations for the death of political detainee Ahmed Timol at the hands of apartheid security branch (SB) police on 27 October 1971, both involving defenestration. Either he was suspended from a […]
Bongani NGQULUNGA, The Man Who Founded the ANC: A Biography of Pixley ka Isaka Seme (Cape Town: Penguin, 2017) THE title of this book is a little misleading. The significance of Pixley ka Isaka Seme’s […]
Jonathan ANCER, Spy: Uncovering Craig Williamson (Johannesburg: Jacana, 2017) HUNDREDS of apartheid-era operatives have quietly disappeared into the forgotten recesses of post-liberation South Africa. An exception is the much-reviled Craig Williamson: “I feel anger; seething […]
WILL Twitter outbursts eventually contribute to the downfall of Donald Trump as US President? Americans must surely be cringing at his remarks via a medium especially suited to the crass and the less articulate. But […]
Albie SACHS, We, the People: Insights of an Activist Judge (Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 2016) THE South African Constitution is a constant benign presence in this book, Albie Sachs’s anthology of writings and talks. It […]
Thandeka GQUBULE, No Longer Whispering to Power: The Story of Thuli Madonsela (Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball, 2017) Her whispering was so pronounced that Thuli Madonsela’s media appearances were often all but inaudible. This was in stark […]
TEN and a half million votes and over one third of the total cast: that was the support for the candidate of the far right, Marine le Pen of Front National, in the second round […]
Bill NASSON, History Matters: Selected Writings, 1970–2016 (Cape Town: Penguin, 2016) SOMETHING of a self-indulgence? Many might regard auto-anthology in such terms, but would surely excuse a writer of Bill Nasson’s exceptional quality. If the […]