On 10 June 1980, during a seemingly endless day of bloody fighting, 13 men of the South African Defence Force died and several more were wounded after 61 Mechanised Infantry Battalion Group attacked a vast complex of Swapo military bases in Angola.

During Operation Sceptic second lieutenant Paul Louw led his platoon in four Ratel infantry fighting vehicles to a battleground called Smokeshell. In the ensuing chaos of that day 12 national servicemen of his platoon of 44 were killed and he himself was wounded. In a separate incident during the fighting his company second-in-command was also slain. One of his troops, 18-year-old HP Ferreira, was shot through the pelvis by a 14,5 mm anti-aircraft round and also hit by AK-47 bullets.

Louw spent the night drenched in the blood and guts of his men, hunkered down with a handful of other survivors in a Ratel destroyed by an RPG 7 rocket, isolated from the rest of the South African attack force.

Blood Brothers records the dramatic events that took place in Angola that day, in the words of the survivors of the battle. It investigates the human cost of war after the last shots have been fired and follows the veterans as they return to the battleground four decades later in search of peace.

Hot Water is an intimate and daring look into the life of a young African woman from the Cape Flats with a chronic illness. The book investigates how endometriosis affects the way young woman function and navigate the world, and how this becomes especially complicated for those who are underprivileged and reliant on the public sector’s healthcare system.

In Hot Water Nadine Dirks reveals the unique issues of racism, sexism, classism, fatphobia and slut-shaming that African women experience within the context of healthcare facilities, and how especially jarring it is when the stigma comes from medical staff who one expects to have the patient’s care as their primary concern. All of this has enraged Dirks and catapulted her into becoming a sexual reproductive health and rights advocate.

Hot Water tells the story of how people with chronic illness are treated daily, at school, university and socially for being differently abled; how people are regarded as lazy, aggressive, disappointing, lacking, among multiple other things for being unwell in comparison to their healthy counterparts.

One cannot look at seeking adequate healthcare as a young, black, underprivileged woman on the Cape Flats without experiencing racism in the most blatant of ways. Even with guidelines in place, the book shows that it is next to impossible to invoke those rights even if you are aware of them for fear of being victimised and excluded from the system.

“There were three other people present, or five, depending on whom one chooses to include. Five, let’s say, the men divided from the women according to the timeworn tradition… The ceremony lasted precisely thirty minutes, as had been agreed on well in advance, not a second longer. One of the people present announced the end in a voice as blunt as it was relieved.”

What kind of bar mitzvah lasts no more than thirty minutes? Which five people could have been in attendance, and where could such a ceremony –– if there really was a ceremony –– have taken place under these circumstances? This book has echoes of a detective trail and as Denis Hirson gradually reveals the answers, he explores the wider ancestral and political strands of his story.

We are reminded of what the world might have looked like to a thirteen-year-old boy in the Johannesburg of the 1960s. This perspective is, thanks to his daughter, set against that same boy’s adult understanding of what had happened. This is a breathtaking account of the author being confronted by his own past.

Thirty-nine-year-old Thando is living in total denial about her drinking. On the surface her life looks aspirational – great job, apartment, snazzy car. But behind the façade she harbours a shameful secret – she can’t control her drinking.

To the outside world she's just having fun, but alone at home, she’s knocking back a bottle or two a night to ‘unwind’. It’s not until she takes a sabbatical from booze, that she's forced to confront her crippling anxiety.

Intimate, brave and inspiring.

Helena Kriel finds herself in deep personal crisis, where she's forced to ask herself: Where do I belong? 

After the writers' strike in LA renders her useless and her marriage falls apart, she travels back in Johannesburg. Little does she know that she'll find clarity in the African bush as she volunteers to work with baby rhinos, orphaned by poaching.

Using the ancient technique of meditation, Helena finds she can access these broken beings, to connect through nature and find new homes. 

Facing internal rebellion and the threat posed by German troops on South Africa’s borders, Prime Minister Louis Botha and his deputy, Jan Smuts, led the Union Defence Force during the First World War. This first-of-a-kind volume investigates the wartime roles of these two legendary yet divisive historical figures.

Both men commanded in the field. The army they commanded gained resilience, experience and battle-hardiness, adapting to the conditions of the campaigns and the demands of the tasks. South Africa’s campaigns were complex and divergent, starting with the invasion of neighbouring German South West Africa, moving to East Africa, Egypt, Palestine and the devasting fighting at Delville Wood in France.

Behind Botha’s charming façade and Smuts’s stoic machine, were two very human, imperfect men. Together they provide a wonderful lens through which to examine the potent forces of the early 20th -century world and the country they hoped to forge. Myopic compatriots had constrained their plans, but it was the outbreak of war in 1914 that offered the most significant opportunities and brought the most adverse challenges.

They fought insurmountable odds and achieved great victories, at home and abroad, but also made startling errors and, ultimately, in classical fashion risked being crushed by the weight of the world they tried to create.

In Rule Of Law, Glynnis Breytenbach reflects back on her career as a prosecutor, including specific cases she has tried, and on her life to provide a fascinating commentary on the importance of the independence of judicial institutions and the precariousness of this independence.

Her current challenges are directly linked to how outspoken she is and how she continues to campaign fiercely for the rule of law in this country.

A fascinating, unflinching and forensic work of non-fiction by Cato Pedder, the great-grand daughter of Jan Smuts, the South African prime minister responsible for heralding the age of apartheid.

Moederland is a courageous and modern appraisal of what it means to be descended from the people who created the ultra-racist apartheid system in South Africa. Illuminating its turbulent history through the lives of her female ancestors, it is a history of South Africa like no other, told from the perspective of women long silenced in the historical narrative.

It asks, what were they doing while white supremacy was constructed?

In Moederland, Cato Pedder travels the centuries from the 1600s, when Cape Town was a remote outpost of the Dutch East India Company, to the kraal of a Zulu king in the 1800s before doubling back to Europe and then culminating with the English Quaker aunt who defies apartheid to marry across the colour line. As anti-racist campaigners call out the statue of Jan Smuts in Parliament Square, Cato painstakingly excavates the longforgotten life stories of the women of her prehistory, unpacking the legacy of her Afrikaans heritage and bringing their collective shame into the light.

Moederland brilliantly sits at the borderline between personal history and memoir and shares themes with The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal, The Wife's Tale by Aida Edemariam and Maybe Esther by Katja Petrowskaja, both of which use unknown
forebears to throw new light on the troubled past. It will also appeal to readers of Damon Galgut's Booker Prize winning novel, The Promise.

Business tycoon Patrice Motsepe is never shy to shake up the status quo. He has always followed his instincts to stay ahead of the curve. An icon of corporate South Africa, he is as much known for his leadership in the world of football as for his philanthropy.

He was a top lawyer when he followed his dream of being an entrepreneur, making a deal with Anglo American in the late 1990s that marked the beginning of a series of unique relationships which today define his African Rainbow Minerals empire. As the owner of Mamelodi Sundowns, he led it to becoming one of the most accomplished clubs in Africa. Then came the powerful seats of president at the Confederation of African Football and vice-president of FIFA, football’s global governing body, in 2021. Yet questions linger about his political ambitions because of his close links to the ANC and particularly his brothers-in-law, Cyril Ramaphosa and Jeff Radebe.

In this unauthorised biography, best-selling author and journalist Janet Smith mines public archives, academic papers and international media to find what lies behind this hugely successful, intensely private man, and what may lie ahead.

Forgiveness Redefined is Candice Mama’s honest and healing story. It tells how she found ways to deal with the death of her father, Glenack Masilo Mama, and to forgive the notorious apartheid assassin Eugene de Kock, the man responsible for his brutal murder. We follow Candice’s journey of discovering how her father died, how this affected her and how she battled the demons of depression before the age of sixteen. But most importantly, we follow her journey towards beating the odds and rising above her heartbreaks.

Candice Mama is today still under the age of 30, but has been named as one of Vogue Paris’ most inspiring women alongside glittering names such as Michelle Obama. She has taken backstage selfies with music crooner Seal and travels all over the world to talk about her journey. This bubbly, inspiring young author tells how she shed some of the worst layers of grief and became an inspiration for others. We learn about her perplexing, unconventional childhood, her search for identity, and the beautiful bond she formed, posthumously, with a father she never had the opportunity to get to know in person. She also tells, in her own words, about the life-changing encounter between her family and her father’s killer.

Candice tenderly opens up about the result of the trauma of her father’s death on her entire family, and meeting her mother for the first time at the age of four. She tells about the confusing, yet fascinating, dynamics that later unfolded as she discovered pieces of herself, rediscovered relationships with her own family and came to forgiveness and understanding.

This book serves as inspiration for other young – and older – people to look at their own stories through different lenses. Candice’s experiences are not unique, and she offers healing thoughts to others who suffered similar trauma by sharing the details of her own story. Forgiveness Redefined is a touching, personal story by a young woman who learned too early about pain, loss and rejection – but who also learned how to overcome those burdens and live joyfully.

Celebrate the incredible career of pop music’s biggest star in this sparkling biography.

We’re all living in the Taylor Swift Era. Since her 2006 debut album she’s sold more than 200 million records, sold out countless arenas and become one of the most influential artists of her generation. Her Eras Tour is on track to gross more than $1 billion by the time it concludes in December 2024, and her most recent studio album hit No. 1 in more than 25 countries.

In this revealing and entertaining biography, author and music journalist Caroline Sullivan charts Taylor’s journey from budding country starlet to pop music phenomenon, encompassing her evolution as an artist, her high-profile relationships and the stories behind her songs. Each of Taylor’s Eras is explored in depth, detailing her influences, her collaborators and the aesthetics that have become such a crucial part of her performance.

Featuring a stunning photographic section with pictures spanning her entire career, this is the most complete portrait yet of one of the most popular artists on the planet.

After the runaway success of his Afrikaans memoir, Hoerkind, the contrarian journalist and writer Herman Lategan translated and updated his eventful life story to include material that did not appear in the original book.

Herman was conceived illegitimately one warm February night in 1964 in a boarding house in Cape Town. From an early age, he felt disposable, passed from one pair of unstable adult hands to the next, even ending up in an orphanage for a while.

At thirteen he was caught in the web of a cunning paedophile, a well-known Afrikaans newspaperman. Shortly after his eighteenth birthday, when his abuser had finished with him, Herman was unceremoniously dumped at the door of his alcoholic father. Conscription into the army and a dishonourable discharge followed.

During his teenage years, Herman befriended poets like Sheila Cussons, Tatamkhulu Afrika and Casper Schmidt, and later, in New York, he followed Andy Warhol in the street and partied with a ‘smorgasbord of social butterflies’.

Back in South Africa, Herman established himself as a journalist, but struggled with alcohol and drug addiction, and was homeless for a while. For many an employer, he became the nightmare they feared most.

Son of a Whore is a gripping account of loss, hardship and overcoming both; it will make you laugh and, at times, break your heart. You will despair at the cruelty of a world in which the marginalised are forsaken, but stand in awe at the extent of the goodness surrounding us, because, ultimately, people depend on each other.

In this riveting memoir Marion Sparg traces not only her experience in MK – often as the only woman in training camps in Angola – and her friendship with Chris Hani, Joe Slovo and Thabo Mbeki, but also her secret return to South Africa, the three police-station bombs, her sudden arrest and her years of imprisonment.

Guilty And Proud is the gripping tale of a woman who defied stereotypes and, at great personal cost, stood up for her beliefs.

“Caster’s story isn’t just a tale of perseverance and poise, it’s a story that makes us all interrogate our humanity and the world we build with our actions every day. An essential read.” - Trevor Noah

Caster Semenya is one of the greatest athletes ever to run the 800- metre. She went undefeated for almost four years, winning two Olympic gold medals and three World Athletics Championships, and set and broke numerous records.

However, Caster’s life and career were devastated by accusations that she was not a woman and should not compete against other women as she was born with naturally elevated levels of testosterone. Required by the International Association of Athletics Federations to take hormone-altering drugs as a condition of competing in certain events, Caster for years suffered side effects that she describes as devastating to her health. Her predicament surfaced a still-raging firestorm over our understanding of gender and, of how gender plays out in sports, as well as our expectations of female athletes.

The Race to be Myself tells the coming-of-age story of an iconic athlete – of Caster’s dramatic journey from a gifted and self-trained novice to the pinnacle of her sport – and takes readers behind the scenes of her inspiring battle to run in the ‘body that God gave me’.

We have a lot to be positive about in South Africa. With all our problems, it’s easy to feel bleak. But hold those thoughts, because Legends might be just the tonic you need to drive off the gloom. This book tells the stories of a dozen remarkable people – some well known, others largely forgotten – who changed Mzansi for the better.

Most South Africans are proud of Nelson Mandela – and rightly so. His life was truly astounding, but he’s by no means the only person who should inspire us. There’s King Moshoeshoe, whose humanity and diplomatic strategies put him head and shoulders above his contemporaries, both European and African. And John Fairbairn, who brought non-racial democracy to the Cape in 1854. Olive Schreiner was a bestselling international author who fought racism, corruption and chauvinism. And Gandhi spent twenty years here inventing a system of protest that would bring an empire to its knees.

Legends also celebrates Eugène Marais’s startling contributions to literature and natural history (despite a lifelong morphine addiction); Sol Plaatje’s wit, intelligence and tenacity in the face of racial zealots; Cissie Gool’s lifetime fighting for justice and exposing bigots; and Sailor Malan’s battles against fascists in the skies of Europe and on the streets of South Africa. And then there’s Miriam Makeba, who began her life in prison and ended it as an international singing sensation; Steve Biko, who shifted the minds of an entire generation; and Thuli Madonsela (the book’s only living legend), who gracefully felled the most powerful man in the land.

Engagingly written and meticulously researched, Legends reminds South Africans that we have a helluva lot to be proud of.

When a thoughtless tweet by Zelda la Grange unleashed a storm, she was asked: ‘Have you learnt nothing from Nelson Mandela?’ This book is her answer.

For years, she was the closest witness of Mandela’s interactions with people both famous and ordinary, and here she draws out his lessons on humility, respect, honesty, how to truly listen and what to do if you realise you have made a grave mistake, a lesson she herself had to learn the hard way.

News of the sensational priosn escape of the murderer and 'Facebook rapist' Thabo Bester, assisted by his lover, celebrity doctor Nandipha Magudumana, shocked South Africa.

In this book, Marecia Damons and Daniel Steyn, the Ground Up journalists who first exposed the scam, tell the full story, from Thabo and Nandipha's life stories and their unlikely love affair, all the way to his faked death and their eventual arrest, though in disguise, in Tanzania.

In this multi-billion rand corruption memoir, former Bosasa C.O.O and whistleblower, Angelo Agrizzi rips open the can of worms, exposing two decades of untold greed, politicking, corruption, bribery and deep state capture.

Inside the Belly of The Beast is a detailed confession, exposing the intimate fraudulent workings of a company, under the cult-like leadership of Gavin Watson. Agrizzi is one of few people with a first-hand account of what really happened behind the closed doors of Bosasa.

Mervyn King has transformed the global business landscape. King advocated reporting on society and the environment, not only on profit. His legacy transcends borders and continues to guide companies worldwide. His journey was enriched by his experience as a commercial lawyer; by his work as an advocate and a judge; and by his stellar career as a businessman, chair and director of many organisations.

DAVID WILLIAMS recounts his story.

Alun Wyn Jones is the most capped rugby player of all time. Seen by many as one of the greatest ever Welsh players, he has won three Grand Slams for Wales and was named the best player of the 2019 Six Nations Championship.

Born in Swansea, AWJ made his test debut for Wales in June 2006 against Argentina, and came to prominence in the 2007 campaign before Wales won the Grand Slam in 2008. And he has not looked back. In March 2009 against Italy he captained the Welsh side for the first time before being selected on the 2009 Lions Tour of South Africa. He was subsequently selected for the 2013 Lions Tour of Australia and the 2017 Lions Tour of New Zealand. On 31 October 2020, against Scotland, he became the most capped rugby player of all time, with 149 caps.

Brilliant, honest and combative, his autobiography, written with Tom Fordyce, is the story of one of the most compelling and singular figures in rugby. Told with unflinching honesty, this is the ultimate book for all fans of the sport.

In November 2019, Deon Wiggett’s sensational weekly podcasts held South Africa in thrall as he hunted down the paedophile who raped him as a schoolboy. Now, in My Only Story, he completes his exposé of Willem Breytenbach, the once brilliant teacher and later media luminary who led a predatory life.

Deon’s mission to expose his abuser takes him from Breytenbach’s high-school years at an agricultural school in South Africa’s hinterland to the famous Grey College in Bloemfontein and the media titan Naspers. But his quest reveals so much more. As he traces systemic failures through schools great and small, he uncovers a culture of complicity that poses a clear and present danger to the country’s children. While investigating men who prey on boys and girls, Deon devises a model that anyone can use to identify paedophiles in their midst. In his own words: ‘It’s pleasant to pretend that men don’t rape children, but once you accept that they do, it becomes surprisingly easy to recognise their trickery. Once you match a universal pattern to a specific man’s profile, you can spot the deceit before it is too late.’

My Only Story is a riveting, thoughtful and often irreverent account of one man’s determination to overcome childhood trauma; to help others face their demons; and to extract some beauty from the boyhood he lost.

“Dis politici wat oorlog verklaar, nie ons nie. Ons het gedoen wat ons geglo het ons moes doen en hulle [die vyand] ook . . .” – Marco Caforio, ouddienspligtige

Op 10 Junie 1980 gedurende ’n eindelose dag van bloedige gevegte onder die Angolese son is 13 lede van die Suid-Afrikaanse Weermag dood en etlike beseer toe 61 Gemeganiseerde Bataljon Groep ’n kompleks van Swapo-basisse in die suide van Angola aangeval het.

Gedurende Operasie Sceptic het tweede luitenant Paul Louw sy peleton in vier Ratels na die slagveld by die doelwit Smokeshell gelei.

In die chaos wat daardie dag gevolg het, is 12 dienspligtiges in sy peleton van 44 noodlottig gewond en hy is self ook beseer. Een van sy troepe, die 18-jarige HP Ferreira, is met ’n 14,5 mmmasjiengeweer deur sy pelvis geskiet en hy is ook deur etlike AK-47 koeëls getref. Hy het wonderbaarlik oorleef. Louw, nog met die bloed van sy manne aan sy klere, en ’n handjievol ander soldate het die aand deurgebring in ’n Ratel wat deur ’n RPG-vuurpyl getref is. Hulle was heeltemal afgesny van die res van die aanvalsgroep en het nie geweet of hulle die son sou sien opkom nie.

In Bloedbroers vertel van die oorlewendes van hul ervarings tydens die geveg. Dit werp ook lig op wat met soldate gebeur nadat die laaste skote afgevuur is en volg die veterane toe hulle vier dekades ná die operasie vir die eerste keer na die slagveld teruggekeer het.

The Steinhoff crash wiped more than R200bn off the JSE, erased half the wealth of tycoon Christo Wiese and knocked the pension funds of millions of people.

When it was exposed as a house of cards, tales of fraudulent accounting, lavish spending and ructions in the ‘Stellenbosch mafia’ made the headlines. As regulators tally up the cost, Financial Mail editor Rob Rose reveals the real inside story behind Steinhoff. Based on interviews with key players in South Africa, the UK, Germany and the Netherlands – and documents not yet public – Steinheist reveals:

• How Bruno Steinhoff formed the company in the Communist bloc and apartheid South Africa;
• How the ‘Markus myth’ grew thanks to a ‘bit of luck’ in a 1998 takeover;
• How Jooste insiders shifted nasty liabilities off Steinhoff’s balance sheet to present a false picture of the profits;
• How Wiese was lucky to lose only R59bn and; and
• What happened behind closed boardroom doors in the frantic week before Jooste resigned.

Born in the old Transvaal town of Schweizer Reneke, Essop Pahad started on a path of political activism from his parents' flat in Becker Street, Ferreirastown, where an all-welcome policy prevailed and visionaries of the Congress alliance, such as Yusuf Dadoo, Walter Sisulu, O.R.Tambo, Nelson Mandela and Ahmed Kathrada were regular visitors. His parents instilled in the family strong anti-racist principles and a genuine concern for all human beings regardless of race, class or religion.

A graduate of the 'Congress School' in Johannesburg, Essop's growing commitment to social justice was nurtured by teachers who were among the struggle's most eminent leaders. An executive member of the Transvaal Indian Youth Congress, Essop was banned in 1964 and went into exile in the UK where he was recruited into the South African Communist Party (SACP). In 1973 he studied at the Lenin Party School in Moscow and then worked in Prague representing the SACP on the editorial board of the World Marxist Review for a decade.

During this time he was sent by the ANC for military training with Umkhonto we Sizwe in Angola, which he was unable to complete as he contracted malaria. Essop returned to South Africa in 1990, where he played a central role in shaping our new democracy.

A Life Committed is the memoir of a revolutionary whose diverse experiences with other progressive people and movements, local and international, enabled him to deepen his understanding of how to better face the challenges confronting South Africa, Africa and the world. The book is spiced with anecdotes from his impressive memory archive and lightened by his mischievous sense of humour. Profiles of his mentors and friends from liberation movements and workers' parties provide insight into the extent of the fierce integrity,compassion and humanity of the author.

Nomavenda Mathiane stumbled upon her grandmother’s story well over a century after the gruelling events of the Battle of Isandlwana that formed her life. Astounded to hear how her grandmother had survived the 1879 Anglo-Zulu War between the British and Zulu nations as a young girl, Mathiane spent hours with her elder sisters reconstructing the extraordinary life of their grandmother. The result is a sweeping epic of both personal and political battles.

Eyes In The Night is a young Zulu woman’s story of drama, regret, guilt and, ultimately, triumph – set against the backdrop of a Zululand changed beyond recognition.

A true story almost lost, but for a chance remark at a family gathering.