In 1982 aanvaar Nico Smith ’n beroep na die NG Kerk in Afrika se Mamelodi-gemeente. Hy en sy vrou laat hulle gemaklike lewe agter en gaan bly in Mamelodi. Hier leer Nico en Ellen rêrig die hart van Mamelodi se mense ken, en beleef swaarkry saam met hulle. Hulle leer wat dit beteken om swart te wees in Suid-Afrika onder apartheid. Hulle leer ’n ander God ken, nie die God van Nico se vaders nie, maar die God van die verworpenes en die verdruktes.

Wat beteken dit as ’n jong Afrikanerman jou beskryf as “nogals orraait”? Hoe trek jy die gehoor se aandag as die basaarpoeding hulle gemesmeraais het? En waar in die wêreld is die berugte Pomona Spur? In dié piepie-jou-nat-van-die-lag memoire verklap Schalk – en sy soortvan-bestuurder, Erns Grundling – die bisarre en hartroerende dinge wat hy oorgekom het op sy reise regoor die land na oral waar ’n mikrofoon en ’n gehoor hom inwag.

Hierdie bundel is saamgestel uit hoogtepunte van die laaste 15 jaar se "Laaste sê"-rubrieke deur Koos van der Merwe in Sarie. Koos weef meesterlik met woorde en het die vermoë om diep betekenis uit alledaagse situasies te haal. Koos vertel van mense, en hulle soeke na hoop, maar ook ons almal se verlange na die Een wat ons nooit sal laat gaan nie.

Siya Khumalo het grootgeword in ’n Durbanse township waar net een opruiende preek ’n skare kon laat toesak op enigeen wat as “anders” beskou is. In Siya se geval was “anders” om gay te wees. Hy het daarom begin om indringend na seks, politiek en godsdiens te kyk. Hy ontbloot tegnieke wat vandag deur magsfigure gebruik word en wys hoe veral gay mense die prooi word van politici en pastore wat wil ryk word deur die armes en populêre vooroordele uit te buit.

Nomasomali – Ubomi bam is the life story of an extraordinary South African woman.

Born in 1941 in Bizana in the former Transkei, Marjorie Nomasomali Goniwe Nkomo seems to have lived many lives – as wife, mother, daughter, sister, cousin, aunt, nurse, activist and social worker – Before apartheid, During apartheid and After apartheid. In just 138 pages, the author seamlessly presents her history with the touch of a master storyteller and the universal voice of grandmothers everywhere.

From the first line, we are engaged with her back in time, walking among her childhood friends following Nkosi Ndunge, the village traditional leader, as he strides through the streets proclaiming his authority. We are taken back to the homestead and the fields and the hearth, where meals are made and stories are brewed, along with the tea. Divided into three Parts – Before, During, After – the story moves from the innocence of the homestead and tales of growing up among a community of nurturing adults to Nomasomali’s rise to adulthood, marriage, family and the ravages of apartheid. As the history of that period is well documented, it is refreshing to experience it from the perspective of a life moving forward in spite of the events swirling around it.

Part 3, ‘After’, is a bittersweet reflection on what has become of our country since South Africa’s first democratic election in 1994. One is left in catharsis, wishing for a return to the innocence of a bygone era but knowing it is gone forever. A sad fact that makes stories like this one such treasures.

Hierdie boek is die voltooiing van Elsa Joubert se outobiografiese drieluik wat ingelei is deur ’n Wonderlike geweld (2005) en Reisiger (2009). Dit fokus hoofsaaklik op die skrywer se latere jare, in die aftreeoord in Kaapstad waar sy nou al geruime tyd woon, maar haar belewenis van die hede en onlangse verlede word onlosmaaklik vervleg met herinneringe aan veel verder terug, alles geteken met die kenmerkende woordvaardigheid van een van Afrikaans se mees gevierde skrywers.

Elsa Joubert - Biografiese inligting

Elsabé (Elsa) Antoinette Murray Joubert is op 19 Oktober 1922 in die Paarl gebore. Sy matrikuleer in 1939 aan die Hoër Meisieskool La Rochelle in die Paarl. Sy behaal ’n BA-graad (1942) en ’n Sekondêre Onderwysdiploma (1943) aan die Universiteit van Stellenbosch.

In 1945 verwerf sy ’n meestersgraad aan die Universiteit van Kaapstad. Daarna is sy die vroueredakteur van Die Huisgenoot van 1946 tot 1948. Hierna begin sy te reis en in 1957 verskyn haar eerste reisverhaal, Water en woestyn, wat handel oor haar ervarings in Egipte en Uganda. Elsa Joubert se reise deur Afrika, Suid-Amerika, Europa en die Verre-Ooste het op ’n besondere wyse in haar werk neerslag gevind.

In 1963 verskyn haar eerste roman, Ons wag op die kaptein, wat onder meer die Eugène Marais-prys ontvang het. Sy is met die WA Hofmeyr-, CNA- en Louis Luyt-prys bekroon vir haar invloedryke roman Die swerfjare van Poppie Nongena (1978), wat in 2002 aangewys as een van die honderd beste boeke in Afrika.

In 1981 ken die British Royal Society of Literature die Winifred Holtby-prys aan haar toe en word sy ’n Fellow van die Society. Haar magistrale roman Die reise van Isobelle (1995) is met die Hertzogprys bekroon. Haar lewenswerk word bekroon met eredoktorsgrade van die Universiteite van Stellenbosch (2001) en Pretoria (2007), en sy ontvang die Orde van Ikhamanga (2004).

Skakel van Maandag, 18 Junie 2018 af in op RSG om te luister na Elsa Joubert se jongste roman, Spertyd (2017, Tafelberg) voorgelees deur Rika Sennett.

Shéri Brynard has reached many remarkable milestones, although she was born with Down Syndrome. She talks about how love and acceptance from her family and friends formed her. She tells of her adventures, her pain and the harsh realities she has to face as an adult with Down Syndrome. Her mother tells the tale of living in Shéri’s shadow, speaking without holding back about her crisis of faith when she heard that her daughter had Down Syndrome. A touching tale.

The Wretched of the Earth is a classic, political work which has gained prominence in SA during the recent student (and political) uprisings. It is an in- depth analysis of the effects of colonisation on the individual in society. It examines the consequences of a decolonising struggle and the needed path to liberation. Themes of class, race, violence and culture are discussed, and this book has had a major impact on civil and human rights, anti-colonialism, and black consciousness movements around the world, and is currently hotly-debated in SA.

Hierdie boek het ontstaan as 'n verhaal oor die lewe van 'n besonderse mens: David Samaai. Maar baie gou besef jy dat dit eintlik 'n boek oor 'n baie besonderse familie, die Samaai-familie woonagtig in Paarl, is. Davy Samaai was 'n legendariese tennisspeler, 'n begaafde musikant, 'n inspirerende skoolhoof of hardwerkende onderwyser. Hy het ook met sy voorbeeld gelei.

Meer as ’n honderd jaar na die laaste skote in die Anglo-Boereoorlog geklap het, word genl. Christiaan de Wet steeds bewonder as onverbiddelike bittereinder, die held wat tot die einde toe volhard het. Sy jonger broer, Piet, word onthou as die joiner. In Broedertwis probeer Albert Blake verstaan waarom hulle lynreg in stryd met mekaar gekom het. Wie was reg? Christiaan, wat ten alle koste die vryheidstryd wou voer, of Piet, wat ’n einde aan die smart en lyding van die oorlog wou bring?

Leon and his twin Norman were born in August 1929, the youngest of four children born to Mary and Mark Levy, immigrants from Lithuania. His father died when Leon was six; to heroic degree, his mother carried the family – financially, practically and emotionally – in her widowhood. Leon was an intensely bookish boy but left school aged sixteen to help makes ends meet through a series of jobs. Deeply affected by the events of the Second World War and the Holocaust, Leon was radicalised in the Hashomer Hatza’ir, a left-wing Zionist youth movement. He was seventeen when he joined the Communist Party and became a committed young activist.

In 1953, at the age of twenty-four, Leon became a full-time trade unionist. ‘It was a defining moment in my life story,’ he writes. ‘It gave practical form to my political beliefs; it also determined the shape and scope of my life. It transpired that I would spend the next six decades and more working in trade unions, industrial relations and mediation.’

A comrade in the trade union movement nicknamed Leon, TsabaTsaba – which means “here, there and everywhere”. Anyone who reads Leon’s account of his years as a full-time unionist will agree that the soubriquet was well earned. (Alongside trade union work, Leon was also committed to the remarkable Discussion Club, which he co-founded and ran throughout the 1950s; he was also secretary of the South African Peace Council from 1951 to 1961.) In the mid-1950s, he was part of a small group of progressive trade unionists who pushed for the formation of the first non-racial trade union federation in South Africa. These aspirations were realised in March 1955 with the launch of the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU). Later that year Leon was elected president and remained in that position for nine years. SACTU linked day-to-day concerns of workers with support for national liberation and the abolition of apartheid and was one of the five organisations which formed the Congress Alliance. As SACTU leader, Leon served on the committee that directed the activities of the Alliance; he was present at Kliptown when the Freedom Charter was adopted – and as SACTU president was one of the five original signatories of the Freedom Charter.

Political activism of this order came at a high price. Leon Levy was served with banning orders and arrested several times; he was Accused No 4 of the 156 people arrested and charged with treason, and from November 1958 was one of the final 30 (and with Helen Joseph one of only two whites) who faced charges until the trial was finally dismissed in March 1961. He was detained for five months during the 1960 State of Emergency. In May 1963 he was the first person to be detained under the notorious General Laws Amendment Act, known as the 90-day Act. Unable to continue his work he chose to go into exile in the United Kingdom. There, he studied politics, economics and industrial relations at Oxford – and then applied what he had learned in a series of positions in industrial relations. After 1994, he was determined to make the skills and knowledge that he had acquired available to a democratic South Africa – and he and his wife Lorna returned to the country of their birth in 1997. In a remarkable final phase of his career, Leon took office shortly after his 70th birthday as a full-time commissioner for the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration – and spent the next 19 years in this capacity.

Op 40 voel Gerard Scholtz onfiks, vet en verveeld. Hy koop ’n tweedehandse fiets en trap saam met sy vrou Anuta die Argus tot hulle gereed is om verder te reis.

Van St Petersburg tot Moskou; die lengte en breedte van Frankryk; oor die Alpe, oor die groot riviere van Europa, Ierland en Wallis reis hulle. Later is dit twee skoeters waarmee hulle elke jaar tot 10 000 kilometer deur Europa aflê. Hulle reis ook per trein, per motor, boot en soms te voet.

In hierdie bundel spreek Gerard se vertellings van sy kennis en liefde vir geskiedenis, kuns, musiek, letterkunde … Hy word veel meer as net reisiger en verteller. Gerard neem die leser ook ’n op metafisiese avontuur …

Weinig mense spit diep in hulle spaargeld in, sluit hulle huis en klim vir drie maande van afsondering op ’n kanaalboot in die verre Engeland. Op hul eie. Sonder ervaring. Sonder ’n bootliksens. Sonder die voorwete dat alles goed sal afloop.

Annelie en die ou gryse het besluit om die kanaalpad te vat en reg in die snerpende winter in te vaar. Om te toets wat hulle ná vier-en-veertig jaar van saamwees in mekaar oorhet. Om te besin oor die roete van die allerlaaste vyftien sterkerige jare wat dálk voorlê. Om herinneringe te vergaar vir die stil dae op die ouetehuisstoep. En om mekaar vergifnis te gee vir sovele sondes. Min sou hulle kon voorsien dat die reis van hosannas ook ’n reis van tappende ontberings en rasperende emosies sou wees. En dat hulle meer as een maal die boot wou verlaat en die kinders bel om hulle te kom haal.

Maar tot op die een-en-neëntigste dag het hulle vasgehou aan die idille. En aan mekaar.

In Mr Entertainment, we hear the voices of the people who knew Taliep Petersen best: his family, friends and collaborators. Their stories bring to life the spaces he inhabited, vividly recounting scenes from his childhood, his rise to fame from the Cape Coon Carnival stage to the West End, his artistic collaborations, most notably with David Kramer, his family life, and his tragic death and its aftermath.

In this pioneering biography of one of Cape Town’s most beloved entertainers, we encounter Petersen as a complex and many-sided personality whose influence continues to reverberate in national life. Mr Entertainment evokes not just Taliep’s life, but also the music and entertainment worlds of the 1950s to 2000s and their diverse and irrepressible cultural traditions. Along the way, it brings us to the front row of South Africa’s difficult history.

Drawing on the musician’s personal archive and on more than fifty interviews conducted over a decade, Paula Fourie has pieced together a fascinating portrait of Taliep Petersen, acutely observed and poignantly captured.

From the management of major bands in the 1970s to 1980s like Fleetwood Mac, Queen, The Rolling Stones and ACDC to his swift move across to boxing management and promotion in 1984, this biography brings the late South African-born American boxing promoter Cedric Kushner’s history to life.

Leaving by ship with $400 in his pocket from South Africa to the United States, Cedric Kushner has become one of the most renowned music and boxing promoters and managers of his time. Driven by self-belief and the desire for success, Kushner rose to the very pinnacle of the boxing and music worlds. He was inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame, with the promotion of over 300 World Title Fights and boxers such as Shane Mosley, Hasim Rahman, Shannon Briggs, Oleg Maskaev, Chris Byrd, Corrie Sanders, Ike Ibeabuchi and David Tua to name a few, under his belt.

With stories of co-promotion alongside Donald Trump, his infamous rivalry with Don King, the legendary heavyweight championship Hasim Rahman vs Lennox Lewis known as “Thunder in Africa”, the late Kushner’s decorated life is told through the eyes of his Muizenberg hometown friend Barry John Cohen.

Die ware verhaal van 'n ma se stryd om met onvoorwaardelike liefde te aanvaar dat haar kind gay is. Die skrywer se doel met hierdie boek is om ander gesinne in soortgelyke omstandighede hoop te gee. Sy vertel van die skok wat sy en haar man moes verwerk toe hulle lieflingdogter aankondig sy is verlief op 'n vrou. Lidia Theron beskryf die pad wat hulle moes loop om tot volle aanvaarding te kom.

Kabelo Mabalane, South Africa's number one self-proclaimed 'pantsula for life' shares his journey and insights, from being a multi-platinum-selling musician, through the highs and lows of drug addiction, to finding hope and life again through running (eight Comrades marathons and counting) and his faith. In I Ran for My Life, this ten-time SAMA award-winner, TV presenter, athlete and entrepreneur talks about growing between Soweto and the suburbs, the back story behind his phenomenal music career, and how getting into running literally saved his life. Along with his lessons for life, Kabelo shares his thoughts and advice on staying in shape, being prepared for anything, and how to build a spirit of endurance in everything you do.

Hoe weet ’n klein seuntjie van skaars drie jaar oud dat hy in die verkeerde liggaam gebore is?

Wat ervaar daardie seuntjie in die eerste twee dekades van sy lewe dat hy so oortuig raak van wie en wat hy moet wees, dat hy die lang pad van geslagshertoewysing aanpak sodat hy sy droombestaan kan voer in die liggaam waarvoor hy gebore is?

Min het Pierre van der Merwe daardie tyd geweet wat Elise van der Merwe alles in haar nuwe bestaan sal ontdek en ervaar.

’n Hartstogtelik eerlike en roerende verhaal wat ook baie sal beteken vir mense wat met hierdie dilemma gebore is.

Janet Hodgson traces the life of Xhosa prophet Ntsikana (1780–1821) from his birth through his years as a Christian convert, evangelist, and composer of enduring hymns.

Ntsikana is known as one of the first Christians to adapt Christian ideas to African culture, writing hymns in isiXhosa and translating concepts into terms that resonated with his Xhosa community.

Even today, his hymns are among the most important in the amaXhosa churches, and he is regarded as an important symbol of both African unity and Black Consciousness.

Percy Tau grew up with seven siblings and a single mom in the mining town of Witbank. For Percy and his family, life is tough as their mother struggles to make ends meet. But there is one thing that brings the Tau boys together: soccer. At the Mmagobana Primary School, they quickly make a name for themselves on the soccer team.

Despite the boys’ enthusiasm for the game, Percy’s mom is against him playing soccer. She wants him to get a ‘real job’ – after all, she doesn’t want to see her son struggle in life. But Percy persists, and is invited to join the Sundowns Youth Academy. Here he meets Pitso Mosimane, the Sundowns coach who will teach him all about what it takes to become a professional footballer.

In March 2017 Percy’s life changes forever: he is called up to play for Bafana Bafana and is named as the leading goal-scorer of the season. But just when all is going so well … heartbreak: Percy’s brother is killed in a car crash. Old fears from his childhood come rushing back as his mother blames their misfortune on soccer. But, through it all, the family pull together in their support for one another.

Then, one day, a call comes: Percy is offered a position to play for Brighton – one of the biggest deals ever offered a South African footballer. What will the future hold for one of the brightest stars in South African soccer? Join us on this action-packed adventure in the Road to Glory series.

‘. . . it is nine months this evening since I last saw the light in my own house, when I had to tear myself away from all that is dear to me. And today is also my little son’s birthday. Oh, how I long for home.’

So wrote Michael Muller in 1901 as he gazed at the lights of Cape Town from a ship bound for Bermuda, after months of internment in a British POW camp in Simon’s Town. The camps were full, so Boer prisoners were being sent to other parts of the empire. Michael’s brothers, Chris and Pieter, were exiled to Ceylon, while Lool was held in the Green Point camp in Cape Town.

Remarkably, three of the brothers kept diaries – the only known instance of this happening in the Boer War. They recorded their intimate thoughts and turbulent emotions, and the diaries gave them agency. The scrawled notes of Chris on the evening after the legendary Magersfontein battle, the rain-dashed pages written by Lool in Colesberg, and the angry words penned by Michael about his treatment at Surrender Hill, have the urgency of men determined to go on record.

When Beverley Roos-Muller first began to explore writing about the Boer experience of the war, she read the tiny war diary of Michael, grandfather of her husband, Ampie Muller. It led her to the discovery of the other diaries and many more documents. She also records the brothers’ difficult return home and examines the consequences for South Africa of the bitterness this strife invoked.

This is a beautifully told account of the fellowship of four brothers in war, their capture and their eventual recovery.

In December 1965, in a smoke-filled hotel room in Morocco, South African journalist Terry Bell accepted a challenge: to paddle a kayak from London to Tangier.

At the time, Terry and his wife Barbara were living as political exiles in London. By August 1967, they agreed it was time to get back to Africa. But they decided to up the ante. Their plan: paddle 11 000 kilometres from England to Dar es Salaam in a 5-metre glass fibre kayak.

The book includes a section on culinary kayaking – the recipes that Barbara cooked along the way.

Robben Island best known as the place where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for eighteen years has been a place of harshness and brutality; its history steeped in the suffering of those banished there. Yet it has also become a universal symbol of hope, forgiveness, and triumph.With a storyteller s sensibility, combined with rigorous research, Charlene Smith charts the evolution of the Island s political and social history, from mail station, place of exile, and military defence post to maximum security prison and World Heritage Site.Fully revised, this new edition of "Robben Island" provides absorbing accounts of daring escapes, maritime disasters, lepers ostracized from mainland society, the fates of the great Xhosa chiefs of the nineteenth century, and the unique bonds of friendship and compassion forged among the political prisoners confined on the Island during the apartheid era.Today Robben Island is recognized for both its environmental riches and its cultural significance. More than just a geographical location or a tourist attraction, it is an enduring tribute to the resilience of the human spirit. Sobering and uplifting, Robben Island is an essential read for anyone interested in South Africa s turbulent journey to democracy and the people who made it possible."

Confrontation is a memoir based on real events. Set in the early nineties, it follows the journey of a child growing up in South Africa’s season of change.

But all is not as it seems – biologically, domestically, emotionally – three words that immediately takes shape like the head, neck and tail of a monster brooding beneath the bed. Domestic unrest casts a thick veil over a much greater problem.

“One of your greatest challenges in this world, my darling, would be men... It’s a shame because you think you’re the relationship type?” So-called advice from a friend who suggested being gay might be a better option than what she was contemplating. Not that she had a choice. She wasn’t entirely herself yet, and that was the problem.

Kirsty Steinberg is the pen name for the author. Confrontation is her debut work.