Gloria Tomatoe Serobe, née Ndaliso, married Gaur Serobe in 1987, following a six-month courtship. And so began Gloria’s 26-year relationship with her mother-in-law, Winnie Serobe.

Winnie Serobe was born in Thaba ‘Nchu in 1933, in a deeply racialised South Africa. Yet she transcended all the barriers put in place by the South African government, and society at large, to become a nurse, midwife, community builder, social entrepreneur and leader. In the course of her marriage to Andrew Serobe, for 40 years, during which they became parents to five children, she was never only a wife and a mother.

This book is Gloria’s ode of love, honour and respect to her mother-in-law, whom she referred to as Mama. It brings to life the story of a Winnie Serobe, who we may not read about when we look at the heroes and heroines of this country, but who served those around her every day. She remains memorialised in the hearts and minds of those for whom she fought for the right to be educated; buried with dignity; and provided with the best quality healthcare – particularly for mothers and their unborn and new-born babies. Throughout her remarkable life, Winnie Serobe ‘saw’, ‘heard’, and homed some of the most vulnerable, stigmatised, ostracised and perhaps forgotten members of her community.

Throughout this life well lived, she nurtured and mentored Gloria as a makoti of the Serobe family. She reframed marriage, family and service for the young Gloria, lessons which Gloria shares in the pages of this book

When Amin Cajee left South Africa to join the liberation struggle he believed he had volunteered to serve a democratic movement dedicated to bringing down an oppressive and racist regime. Instead, he writes, in this powerful and courageous memoir, "I found myself serving a movement that was relentless in exercising power and riddled with corruption".

Fordsburg Fighter traces an extraordinary physical journey – from home in South Africa, to training in Czechoslovakia and the ANC’s Kongwa camp in Tanzania to England. The book is both a significant contribution to opening up the hidden history of exile, and a documentation of Cajee’s emotional odyssey from idealism to disillusionment.

In his introduction to the book, Paul Joseph, ex-treason trialist, South African Communist Party member and MK recruiter, writes: ”What happened to them and to the others in that chaotic and confused time is both sad and tragic. But his honestly told story is essential for us to have a fuller picture of our history, if only to ensure, perhaps, that future generations will learn from our mistakes.’

Cape Town is two cities.

One is beautiful beyond imagining, known since its beginning as the 'fairest cape' in the world. Here tourists come to lounge on beaches, scale misty peaks and dine in fine restaurants. The other is one of the most dangerous cities in the world, where police need bullet-proof vests and sometimes army backup. Here gangs of young men rule the night with heavy calibre handguns, dispensing heroin, cocaine, crystal meth and fear. This is a story of the second city...

In Gang Town, investigative journalist and criminologist Don Pinnock draws on more than thirty years of research to provide a nuanced and definitive portrait of youngsters caught up in violent crime.

In April 2017, Pravin Gordan addressed a packed audience in St George’s Cathedral in Cape Town. It was a week after President Jacob Zuma had fired him as Finance Minister, a move that signalled South Africa had been well and truly captured. Gordhan urged the crowd not to give up hope and to ‘join the dots’ in understanding what was taking place. At this moment he became a moral authority to many, someone who could fight the corruption.

Seasoned journalists Jonathan Ancer and Chris Whitfield take a magnifying glass to someone at the centre of South Africa’s most tumultuous period and try to understand the man behind the public image. They go back to Durban in 1949 when Gordhan was born, tracing the significant events and influences that shaped his life and prompted him to become involved in politics as a pharmacy student at the University of Durban-Westville. Ancer and Whitfield have interviewed close former activists to build a picture of his time in the underground and the role he played in the struggle including his detention and torture. It was during this time he worked closely with Zuma, the man who would, on the back of a bogus intelligence report, fire him as finance minister.

The book will examine why Gordhan has been dragged into major controversies like the rogue unit saga, the intelligence report and other smears against him. President Cyril Ramaphosa’s right-hand man has made many enemies: public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane, Julius Malema and Ace Magashule to name a few.

Joining the Dots is an in-depth and satisfying read about a man who has been at the centre of South African public life.

Moshitadi is a mother wound recovery coach.

In The Girl Who Survived Her Mother, she details the years of her torturous relationship with her mother, maps the intergenerational nature of the trauma in her family, and reveals how she was finally able to begin her journey of healing.

Today she helps clients around the world face their most shameful question -- how do I love myself when the person who carried me and gave birth to me cannot?

Azille Coetzee gaan studeer in Nederland, kry ’n Nederlandse lover en besluit om in Europa aan te bly. Maar iets voel nie reg nie … Daar is tog altyd die vraag: Watter herkoms hou die styfste vas, Afrika of Europa? Dié is ’n uiters leesbare verhaal van identiteit, reis en liefde: intiem, eerlik en slim.

A tribute to her father, Makaziwe Mandela shares the most definitive portrait of Nelson Mandela to date, revealing the man behind the anti-apartheid movement that changed the world.

One of Time magazine’s Most Important People of the Twentieth Century, Nelson Mandela continues to be a symbol of equality and justice: a Nobel Prize winner, South Africa’s first Black president, and an unrelenting leader in the movement to dismantle racial inequality. Written by his daughter, her story uncovers the family man behind the international peacemaker persona.

This volume presents an extraordinary assembly of historic biography and imagery alongside never-before-published family stories and personal photographs, Nelson Mandela’s letters to friends and family, journal entries written during his incarceration, and a unique collection of rarely seen charcoal drawings and paintings he began at 83 years old. Chapters chronicle Mandela’s childhood growing up in Mvezo, his time in Johannesburg as leader of the African National Congress, the importance of his familial relationships, decades of imprisonment, and his role as president and philanthropist. An enthralling read illustrated by powerful historic imagery, this tome delves into the life of the man that continues to galvanize so many.

In 2011 while riding his motorbike through Mali, on his way home from London to Johannesburg, Stephen McGown was taken captive in Timbuktu by Al Qaeda. He was held captive for almost six years giving him the unenviable record of Al Qaeda’s longest held prisoner.

Together with writer Tudor Caradoc-Davies, he wrote his book Six Years With Al Qaeda: The Stephen McGown Story. In this inspirational biography Steve uncovers the extraordinary lengths he went through to survive; from learning French and Arabic, converting to Islam and accepting a name given to him by his captors. His aim was to raise his status among Al Qaeda, keep himself alive and hopefully make his way back home.

Thousands of kilometres away in Johannesburg, the shock of his kidnapping hit his wife Cath and the rest of the McGown family. Working every option they could find, from established diplomatic protocols to the murky back channels of the kidnap game, they set to work on trying to free Steve.

Months turned to years and while the captive-captor dynamic was ever-present, Steve witnessed first hand what no westerner has ever seen before, giving him a nuanced perspective on one of the worlds most feared terrorist organisations.

"So here I am, at a psychiatric hospital, looking for myself in a building I’ve never been in before. A few nights ago, I was ready to rid myself of myself. I still am, only, in a different way. This time, I want to do away with what I hope will soon be my former self. I don’t know what is wrong with me, I never have. All I know is that my head is clouded with loud voices screaming in different frequencies; none of them making sense. With only a stony face to hide it all behind, and a pained smile to offer my friends and colleagues."

Patient 12A is Lesedi Molefi’s absorbing memoir, reflecting on his time spent in a psychiatric clinic in 2016. With vulnerability and candour, Lesedi reflects on the moments, large and small, that led him here. It is at once a personal history, an observation of how childhood experiences can have a profound effect on the adults we become, and a commentary on how mental illness remains a difficult conversation in black families.

But more than anything, Patient 12A is Lesedi’s attempt to filter out the noise in his head to find the truth, however uncomfortable that may be.

This is a story about a woman; a story about her struggle. As the survivor of great tragedy; this is a story about triumph.

Despite only being 33 years old, Zoleka Mandela has endured enough to fill several lifetimes. While she may be a member of South Africa's own royal family, Zoleka has not led a sheltered life. She has travelled down paths which most would not dare; from the horror of losing two children within two years, to the shadowy journey through cocaine addiction and rehab, and being diagnosed with cancer. Though she was robbed of her children, stripped of her sobriety, and subject to a disease that necessitated a double mastectomy, Zoleka Mandela is not a victim. She is a survivor, and her story serves as testimony to the strength of the human spirit in fighting against life's challenges. Zoleka is a living example of success in spite of overwhelming challenges.

Zoleka is now clean and cancer-free. Zoleka Mandela had her last session of chemotherapy in April this year, and has been sober for 36 months. Through her story, it is impossible not to have faith in the good things in life, and possible to believe that anything is achievable. Zoleka's book is an ideal read for those exposed to life's challenges and traumas - from a mother who has had to deal with the loss of a child, or families who have had to endure the pains of cancer, or those who have dealt with the stress of addiction - it is a universal read exhibiting the power of healing.

In Lucas Mangope: A Life, journalist Oupa Segalwe incisively examines the public and private life of this traditional-leader-cum-elected politician, whose rise and fall coincided with the collapse of apartheid and that of the ill-advised homelands project. Segalwe compellingly traces how complex currents of self-enrichment, duty to his people, and serving the interests of all those he was indebted to played out. A balanced account of the life and times of the enigmatic Mangope.

Widely considered to be the most important biography of Nelson Mandela, Anthony Sampson's remarkable book has now been updated by acclaimed South African journalist, John Battersby.

Over a decade after his presidency of South Africa, Nelson Mandela remains an inspirational figure to millions of people -- both in his homeland and far beyond her borders. He is, without doubt, one of the most important figures in global history. Mandela's opposition to apartheid and his 27 year incarceration at the hands of South Africa's all-white regime are familiar to most.

In this utterly compelling book, eminent biographer Anthony Sampson, who knew his subject since 1951, reveals the man behind the events that rocked a continent -- and changed the world. With unprecedented access to the former South African president -- the letters he wrote in prison, his unpublished jail autobiography, extensive conversations, and interviews with hundreds of colleagues, friends, and family -- Sampson depicts the realities of Mandela's private and public life, and the tragic tension between them.

Newly updated by distinguished South African journalist John Battersby, Mandela is the ultimate biography of one of the twentieth century's greatest statesmen.

Harry Oppenheimer, the international gold-and-diamond magnate, presided over the corporate dynasty of Anglo American and De Beers for more than 25 years. Yet, two decades after his death, the Oppenheimer empire is no more. As the political opposition’s key financial backer, the founder (along with Anton Rupert) of the Urban Foundation after the Soweto uprising in 1976, and a ubiquitous philanthropist, Oppenheimer helped propel the process of reform.

Nevertheless, in some quarters he is demonised as the archetype of ‘white monopoly capital’ and scapegoated, along with Nelson Mandela, for the country’s disappointing democratic dividends. In the first, full-scale biography of Oppenheimer, based on unrestricted access to his subject’s private papers and extensive interviews with family members and close associates, Michael Cardo eschews both the corporate hype and the political propaganda to produce a vivid, fully-rounded portrait.

He brings to life the places, people, events and relationships that shaped Harry Oppenheimer’s long and rich career at the intersection of business and politics. Cardo also tackles thorny questions of legacy and Oppenheimer’s complicity with the oppressive racial order of the past.

Ivor Swartz kom van die Gaatjie in Grabouw, 'n hooplose plek. 

Sy pa is vroeg dood en sy ma maak hom en sy sibbe alleen groot. Hulle oudste broer terroriseer die gesin en een aand skiet Ivor en sy vriend sy broer en hy sterf later in die hospitaal. 

Ivor gaan tronk toe en met sy uitkoms begin sy lewe van voor af. Vandag is hy 'n jeugpastoor met 'n passie vir Here wat sy storie gebruik om ander te inspireer. 

'n Storie van die verlore seun wat huis toe kom. 

Werk soos ’n miljardêr vertel die verhaal van Dan, ’n werknemer, wat bloot van salaristjek tot salaristjek leef. Hy streef daarna om sy eie besigheid te begin maar hy staar verskeie uitdagings in die gesig.

Een van dié uitdagings is hoe om, sonder enige geld, ’n besigheid te begin. Maar alles verander op ’n dag toe hy voor ’n groot besluit te staan kom.

Die boek is propvol waardevolle wenke oor hoe om rykdom te skep, jouself beter te leer ken en hoe om volhoubare besigheidsisteme te bou.

Navigating motherhood from the age of 18, Kim Stephens shelved her inner journo and embraced a life of media sales and sports marketing, working with some of the biggest sports brands globally, and locally, whilst pursuing her own ultra-running ambitions.

Arguing vehemently against the possibility that she was running from her own truth, Covid-19 wiped out Kim’s possibilities for continued escape. After three children, two divorces and a gradual sexual awakening, Kim found herself at 40-something virtually unemployed, with all the time in the world to write, sip gin and study a general response to one of the world’s most draconian lockdowns. Her humorous observations of middle-class South African behaviour through the various levels of lockdown earned her a certain notoriety and a degree of viral success, and with that the courage to put it all into a book.

Hold the Line tells the story of teenage pregnancy, the situational blindness of white South Africa, the disappointment of divorce and the deep joy found through true awakening. Stitched together with the lockdown writing that Kim penned for a growing base of followers, she shares a more in-depth life story with her usual candid self-deprecation.

Written to rattle a few truths from within its readers, Hold the Line ends ironically as the world begins to follow a potential third World War via TikTok.

Holding My Breath is a candid, heart-breaking and very funny memoir of life in one of Johannesburg’s busiest emergency rooms. Biccard’s warmth and humanity shine through the often harrowing tale, creating an unputdownable, uplifting and inspiring book.

The first customer today reports that, the previous night, his right nipple had moved away from its usual location. He noticed its absence when he looked in the mirror and later found it in his armpit.

‘Wow,’ I say with a slight frown. I have never heard of a migrating nipple before. ‘Let’s have a look.’ I slide the door shut and motion to him to pull his T-shirt off.

‘Oh, it has moved back now,’ he says.

’n Blik op die binnekring van die Krugersdorp-kultus

“Daar was bloedspatsels oor die koffietafel, die banke en die banke se kussings. Peter en Joan was oortrek van steekwonde in hul rûe, nekke en agterkoppe. Nicholas het sy pa en ma gesigte na onder in ’n bloedbad op die mat in die sitkamer gekry. Hulle het hul hek en huis vir hul moordenaars oopgemaak, want hulle het ’n afspraak met hulle gehad.”

Elf wrede moorde oor ’n tydperk van vier jaar ruk die gemeenskap van Krugersdorp en haal landwyd nuusopskrifte. Eindelik word al hierdie moorde verbind met Cecilia Steyn en haar kultusgroep, Electus per Deus (uitverkies deur God). Lede van die groep aanbid die grond waarop Cecilia loop en sal selfs vir haar moord pleeg.

Die moordenaars is slim, gewone mense – ’n onderwyseres, ’n finansiële makelaar, ’n kind wat tussen die moorde deur steeds ses onderskeidings in matriek behaal en boonop keuring kry om medies te gaan studeer. Hul slagoffers het bloot ’n sake- afspraak nagekom, min wetend dat dít ’n afspraak met die dood was.

Wie is Cecilia Steyn? Hoe kan een mens vyf ander manipuleer om moord te pleeg en namens haar in die hof te lieg? Watter rol het Satanisme gespeel? Hoe ontduik onervare misdadigers die polisie vir so lank?

Jana Marx beantwoord dié en ander vrae in ’n waremisdaad-verhaal wat gelei het tot een van die opspraakwekkendste moordsake in die land se geskiedenis.

Met behulp van onderhoude uit diegene in die binnekring, hofgetuienis en polisiedossiere oor ’n tydperk van vier jaar poog Marx om die publiek se vrae te antwoord en ’n blik te gee op die binnewerkinge van só ’n kultus.

Mteto Nyati knew as a schoolboy in Mthatha, working at his mother’s store, that he wanted to fix and build things. After completing his studies at Natal University, he turned down a Rhodes scholarship and headed for Jo'burg to take up a position at Afrox. He was the only black engineer and the advice he received was ‘don’t mess up’. 

He didn’t and today is one of South Africa’s top CEOs. This is his inspirational story. 

Dana Snyman deel in Seun die deel van sy storie waaroor hy nog nooit gepraat het nie: sy ervaringe in die 1980’s. Dit is die tyd van PW Botha se vinger, van die Voëlvry-toer, AWB-saamtrekke, onderhandelinge en die laaste dae van diensplig. Dana word oneervol ontslaan uit die weermag, maar eers maak hy ’n draai in Saal 24. Werkloos en doelloos eindig hy in ’n gewese bediendekamer in Pretoria. Dié rou, selfonthullende memoir vra: hoe word ’n seun ’n man? Met Seun neem Dana lesers in sy vertroue.

On the face of it, life looks good for Sara-Jayne. She’s a popular radio personality, a bestselling author and she’s recently been reunited with her long-lost father, nearly 40 years after she was given up for adoption as a baby. Best of all, she’s just found out she’s about to become a mother, with Enver, the ‘love of her life’.

She's convinced that she’s finally heading towards her "happily ever after". But six weeks after discovering she’s pregnant, Enver relapses on heroin and disappears, leaving Sara-Jayne devastated. She checks into The Clinic, where despite the little life growing inside her, she realises she’s never felt more alone.

In her much-anticipated follow up to the bestseller Killing Karoline, Sara-Jayne is now forced, for the sake of her unborn child, to find a way to save herself. But first she has to unravel why everyone always leaves her. Why like that song she's always looking for love in all the wrong places? And why she is so obsessed with mad, bad love?

Equally skilled in different trades than in the art of love, the Italian prisoners-of-war (POWs) who were incarcerated in South Africa during the Second World War are a source of great fascination to this day.

The first Italian POWs arrived in the Union of South Africa in early 1941, most of them being held in Zonderwater Camp outside Cullinan or in work camps across the country. The government of Jan Smuts saw them as a source of cheap labour that would contribute to harvesting schemes, road-building projects such as the old Du Toit’s Kloof Pass between Paarl and Worcester and even to prickly-pear eradication schemes.

Prisoners of Jan Smuts recounts the stories of survival and shenanigans of the Italian POWs in the Union through the eyes of five prisoners who had documented their experiences in memoirs and letters. While many POWs seemed to appreciate the opportunities to gain new skills, others clung to the Fascist ideas they had grown up with and refused to work.

Many opted to remain in South Africa once the war had ended, forging quite a legacy. These included sculptor Edoardo Villa, who left an important mark in the local and international art world, and businessman Aurelio Gatti, who built an ice-cream empire whose gelato was to delight generations of South Africans.

The perfect match. Or so she thinks. Her warmth and empathy. His charisma and ambition. Yet, Cathy feels safer teaching battle-scarred gangsters in a prison classroom than at home with her own partner.

By day she walks on eggshells. At night she sleeps on the backseat of her car. Her safe place is an all-night roadhouse; her best friend, her journal. The slow boil intensifies until, one day, Cathy finds her grandmother’s armoire smashed to pieces in her bedroom, a hammer on the floor, her life in splinters beside it.

Part memoir, part inspiration, Boiling A Frog Slowly is unflinching in its confrontation of abuse and utterly courageous in its portrayal of redemption.

When Robert and Michael, a pair of starry-eyed twins see a Boeing 707 at an airport in the mid-1960s, it’s love at first sight.

But who's going to one day pay for their dream to work in aviation? This is apartheid South Africa. Coloured boys can't eat alongside white people, let alone jet off to Paris and study aeronautical engineering!

But in high school they discover an unlikely aptitude for French. Armed with scholarships, they head off to Paris and their once ordinary lives are changed forever.

Part literary history, part feminist historiography And Wrote My Story Anyway critically examines influential novels in English by eminent black female writers.

Studying these writers' key engagements with nationalism, race and gender during apartheid and the transition to democracy, Barbara Boswell traces the ways in which black women's fiction critically interrogates narrow ideas of nationalism. She examines who is included and excluded, while producing alternative visions for a more just South African society.

This is an erudite analysis of ten well-known South African writers, spanning the apartheid and post-apartheid era: Miriam Tlali, Lauretta Ngcobo, Farida Karodia, Agnes Sam, Sindiwe Magona, Zoe Wicomb, Rayda Jacobs, Yvette Christianse, Kagiso Lesego Molope and Zukiswa Wanner. Boswell argues that black women's fiction could and should be read as a subversive site of knowledge production in a setting, which, for centuries, denied black women's voices and intellects.

Reading their fiction as theory, for the first time these writers' works are placed in sustained conversation with each other, producing an arc of feminist criticism that speaks forcefully back to the abuse of a racist, white-dominated, patriarchal power.