The richly anecdotal story of an extraordinary life – when baby Mamphela was born to teacher parents in the rural village of Kranspoort, few would have predicted that she would become not only a medical doctor, but an international leader and the founder of not one but two new political movements. As a young woman, Mamphela was instrumental in creating the ideology of Black Consciousness with her partner, Steve Biko. As an accomplished and well-off businesswoman who had reached the pinnacle of success, this year she felt compelled to start Agang SA , to provide South African voters with an alternative to the inept and increasingly corrupt ANC.

In this very readable autobiography, Mamphela Ramphele vividly describes her rural childhood, her extended family, her first loves and losses – after the death of her firstborn, she nearly lost her and Steve’s baby after his death by torture – and her subsequent successes in both politics and business.

She exposes what went on behind the scenes in the run-up to the launch of Agang SA, discusses her relationship with a number of prominent South Africans, including Helen Zille, and she shares her vision for a future South Africa of which we can all be proud.

An unauthorised biography of Lindiwe Mazibuko, the first black person to lead the parliamentary opposition in South Africa.

Owning The Future is a crucial overview of the Democratic Alliance ahead of the 2014 general elections and a tale of the remarkable campaign led by a young team of MPs to replace a member of the old guard.

Chapters include:

• Who is Lindiwe Mazibuko?
• “Cheeky Blacks”. What does the profile of Mazibuko – and how Julius Malema denigrated her - say about being young, black and powerful in South Africa today?
• “Dirty Laundry” For the first time in Opposition history, the intrigues surrounding an internal party election spilled over into local media.
• “Let’s talk money” Unpacking the DA's economic policies and how Mazibuko supports these.

As National Director of Public Prosecutions from 2005 until 2007, Advocate Vusi Pikoli pursued criminal charges against the current President of South Africa Jacob Zuma and the convicted former National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi. It was his dogged determination to bring the country's top cop to account that ultimately saw Pikoli removed from office and a public inquiry into his suspension held. My Second Initiation traces Pikoli's journey from his first graduation to manhood in the hills of the Eastern Cape, to his second in the corridors of power in government. Pikoli has a deeply ingrained loyalty to the Constitution of the country and a keenly developed sense of justice, cultivated on the politically aware streets and rugby fields of New Brighton township. He recounts how he fled with his ANC unit into exile and spent fourteen years away from his home and his family, suffering the loss of a child and a man he considered a brother.

South African Battles describes 36 battles spread over five centuries. These are not the well-trodden battlefields of standard histories, but generally lesser-known ones. Some were of critical importance, while some were infinitely curious.

Who, for instance, has heard of the battles of Nakob, Middelpos, Mome Gorge or Mushroom Valley? Who knows about the four black women that Bartolomeu Dias brought with him on his pioneering voyage of exploration? Who knows that there was a significant battle in what is now the Kruger National Park in 1725? Who knows about the military episode where not a shot was fired but which brought South Africa into the Great War? Who knows that Germany once invaded South Africa?

Written in a light, humorous and personal style, each chapter is self-contained, like a short story. They can be read one a night, and mulled over next day with the promise of further enjoyment to come. South African Battles is an ideal bedside book, as well as an engaging travel companion.

But there is also a twist in the tale at the end. Caveat lector, or lectrix!

A magistrate put Glenn Agliotti among the ‘snitches, pimps, rats who would sell their soul to evade a long prison term’. The press called him a drug trafficker and a drug dealer. He was. He’d admitted to these crimes and signed a plea bargain to blow the whistle on an associate. He was also known as the Landlord, which made him sound like a mafia boss.

He was too a facilitator between those in high places, think Jackie Selebi, and businessmen on the make, think Brett Kebble. He was known as a fixer, the go-to guy who commanded fees of R100 million to organise connections.

This is the story of the man who did business in coffee shops and met associates in car parks and underground garages. It is the story of the man who bought shoes for the national commissioner of police. The man accused of the murder of Brett Kebble. This is the story of Glenn Agliotti, one of Johannesburg’s sons of the underworld.

As the favoured son of a tribal headman, Nelson Mandela was perhaps always destined for greatness. However, Mandela was to spend some 27 years of his life behind bars but during this time he rose up to become a powerful symbol of the struggle against apartheid and racism.

Through a series of revealing photographs and concise but illuminating text, this book charts Mandela’s long journey from young firebrand to elder statesman and global icon.

The ninth of eleven children born to political activists Ebrahim and Fatima Asvat, Amina Cachalia’s political activism and championing of women’s rights was almost a preordained path with her father’s connection with Mahatma Gandhi and a family tradition that started with her father’s explanation of racial discrimination.

When Hope and History Rhyme explores Amina’s remarkable life from her early childhood to the women’s march on the Union Buildings in Pretoria on 9 August 1956, when a heavily pregnant Amina was one of 20 000 women to march against the pass laws for black women, to her banning, in 1963, for 15 years and the trials and tribulations when her husband, Yusuf, was placed under house arrest and banned for a total of 27 years.

The book includes details of Amina’s close relationship with Nelson Mandela, from their first meeting to their poignant encounters after his release from prison in 1990, and allows the reader to experience the people, places and events that have been a part of Amina’s extraordinary life journey.

Toe Debbie Calitz en Bruno Pelizzari in Oktober 2010 in Dar-es-Salaam anker lig, sou hulle nooit kon raai dat hulle op ’n hellevaart vertrek nie.

Drie dae nadat hulle as bemanningslede op die seiljag Choizel vertrek het, is die vaartuig gekaap deur Somaliese seerowers wat ʼn losprys vir Debbie en Bruno geëis het. Twintig maande lank is die paartjie van die een donker hool na die ander verskuif, telkens met ander oppassers wat hulle – en veral vir Debbie – aan onbeskryflike gruweldade onderwerp het.

Dit was Debbie se geestelike ingesteldheid, haar medemenslikheid, en ironies genoeg, haar verlede as ʼn slagoffer van mishandeling, wat haar aan die lewe help hou het deur positief te bly en te glo dat sy en Bruno gered sou word.

In hierdie meesleurende boek oor afskuwelike ontmensliking onthul Debbie die besonderhede van hul beproewing en hul uiteindelike bevryding. Dit is die verhaal van ʼn vrou se onoorwinlike moed toe vryheid en menswaardigheid nog net ʼn vae herinnering was.

More than a ringleader, a rabble-rouser and a rebel who knows no bounds, Julius Malema is a new kind of cadre in South African political life, a radical product of 100 years of struggle politics. Whether you love him or loathe him, he is undeniably one of the most controversial politicians of our time and yet he remains an enigma to most.

An Inconvenient Youth traces Malema's life, from his early, poverty-stricken years in Limpopo, to his joining the student structures of the ANC in the early 1990s, and his rapid rise through the party's ranks to become the president of the ANC Youth League in 2008. Forde analyses the sources of Malema's wealth, exploring his seamless approach to business through politics. She situates Malema within the ANC's history and shows in unprecedented detail how he has perfected the practices that characterise a new 'struggle' in which individuals extend their personal wealth and political power at the expense of the people.

This researched account explores how a brave child has grown to become a grave inconvenience, not only to the ANC, but also, due to his style of politics, to South Africa's fledgling democracy.

Jay Naidoo was a tireless anti-apartheid campaigner in the 1980s, serving as the first General Secretary of Coastu, South Africa’s largest union federation and the backbone of the internal mass struggles against apartheid. In 1993, he stepped down to lead twenty leaders from Cosatu into parliament on an ANC ticket, and was asked by Nelson Mandela to work as the Minister responsible for the Reconstruction and Development Programme, and then as the Minister of Communications. In 1999 Jay moved away from politics and entered the world of business, setting up the J&J Group, an investment and management company. He remained engaged in the field of development and was appointed as the Chairman of the Development Bank of Southern Africa. In 2003 he became the Chairman of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, launched to fight the malnutrition facing 2 billion people around the world.

A documentation of the development of Mandela as a political leader, and also as a family man and friend. Magubane presents some of his most famous political photographs depicting Mandela as a leader through the various stages of the struggle.

Through his relationship with Mandela, Magubane was given unparalleled access to his private life and his home. The collection includes wonderful personal and behind-the-scenes photographs of Madiba at home and at family events.

Unrecognised, ignored and forgotten. The Forgotten Scientist: The Story of Saul Sithole is the untold story of a pioneering black scientist who made a great contribution to the fields of anthropology and ornithology in South Africa. Saul Sithole was so committed to his craft that even the weight of apartheid did not stop him from giving 62 years of his life to the scientific world of birds and fossils. Saul never received the official recognition he deserved - until now. This book validates his contribution, sharing his life's work and laying out a story that will inspire future generations of scientists. This book would not have been possible without the support of Biblionef and funding from the National Heritage Council.

Unrecognised, ignored and forgotten. The Forgotten Scientist: The Story of Saul Sithole is the untold story of a pioneering black scientist who made a great contribution to the fields of anthropology and ornithology in South Africa. Saul Sithole was so committed to his craft that even the weight of apartheid did not stop him from giving 62 years of his life to the scientific world of birds and fossils. Saul never received the official recognition he deserved - until now. This book validates his contribution, sharing his life's work and laying out a story that will inspire future generations of scientists. This book would not have been possible without the support of Biblionef and funding from the National Heritage Council.

In Sorry, Not Sorry, Haji Mohamed Dawjee explores the often maddening experience of moving through postapartheid South Africa as a woman of colour.

In characteristically candid style, Dawjee pulls no punches when examining the social landscape: from arguing why she’d rather deal with an open racist than some liberal white people, to drawing on her own experience to convince readers that joining a cult is never a good idea. In the provocative voice that has made Dawjee one of our country’s most talked-about columnists, she offers observations laced throughout with an acerbic wit.

Sorry, Not Sorry will make readers laugh, wince, nod, introspect and argue.

In the afternoon of May 10, 2015, Mmusi Maimane was announced as the new leader of the Democratic Alliance, beating his opponent by a huge margin. It was an historic event because it marked the completion of the DA’s transformation from a ‘white’ political party to one whose new leader shared similar experiences to those of the majority of voters.

Thus a highly intelligent and charismatic young man is thrust onto centre stage. But who is the real Mmusi Maimane? Experienced political reporter S’Thembiso Msomi goes behind the scenes to examine how and why Maimane rose to head up the opposition. He delves into Maimane’s formative years, his time at the pulpit in the church, and his family, to bring substance to the man.

Finally, the author attempts to answer these burning questions: is Maimane his own man, and can he deliver the electorate that the DA so fervently desires?

In 1964, the security police in Johannesburg detained Hugh Lewin. He was later tried and convicted on charges of sabotage. He spent seven years in prison, secretly recording his experiences, and those of his fellow inmates, on the pages of his Bible. On release, rather than submit to 24-hour arrest, he left South Africa on a one-way visa.

One of the finest ever examples of prison writing from South Africa, Bandiet was originally released during Hugh Lewin’s exile, and published by Random House in 1978. Selected poems and journalism interspersed with line-drawings by another of Pretoria’s inmates, Jock Strachan, appear alongside a freshly typeset version of the complete text of the original book.

Alan Paton called Bandiet “splendid” and commented on its lack of rancour and exaggeration. He spoke of its truthfulness and its quality, and called it a document of great historical value.

In his memoir, Jaki Seroke shares the joys and the sorrows of his life, starting with his childhood in Alex, where he is born as ‘a poor mother’s son’. He recalls the political battles among the various Africanist groupings, his incarceration on the Island and his later work at Skotaville Press, as publisher and poet.

After 1994, having decided that parliamentary politics were not for him, he joined the corporate sector and committed to a new kind of struggle.

Hans van Rensburg se magnetiese persoonlikheid en sy sterk teenkantingteen Suid-Afrika se deelname aan die Tweede Wêreldoorlog het Afrikaners só aangegryp dat die Ossewabrandwag (OB) binne drie jaar na sy stigting by die 300 000 lede gehad het.

In die vroeë 1930’s was Van Rensburg egter nog deel van die regering en het ’n blink politieke toekoms vir hom gewink. Hy was die jongste Justisiehoof voordat hy as die jongste administrateur van ’n provinsie aangestel is. Hy was ook ’n regsgeleerde, filosoof, taalkundige en taalstryder, bekwame burokaat, militaris, boer, wildjagter en hengelaar.

Sy lewensverhaal strek oor sewe dekades en hy was by al die belangrikste historiese gebeure van 20ste eeubetrokke-van die Anglo-Boereoorlog tot die apartheidsregering.Dit is ’n tydperk waartydens talle “ismes” hoogty gevier het: imperialisme, nasionalisme, nasionaal-sosialisme, kapitalisme, kommunisme en rassisme.

In die verlede is besprekings van Van Rensburg meestal beperk tot sy rol as OB-leier, terwyl hierdie boek ook gaan ondersoek instel na sy rol in die totstandkoming van die apartheidsbewind. Dit is minder bekend dat hy in die vroeë 1950’s as kommissaris van die Groepsgebiederade –’n ankerpunt van apartheidsbeleid –aangestel is.Sy konflik met die verantwoordelike minister, PW Botha, het tot sy bedanking gelei.

Van Rensburg worddikwels as ’n verbete Afrikaner-fascis beskryf, maar die werklikheid is meer kompleks. In vele opsigte was hy dalkeerder ’n gerieflike sondebok vir die Smuts-en Nasionale Party-regerings.

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 Willie Steyn se eerstehandse weergawe van wat ongetwyfeld die grootste ontsnappingsveraal van die Anglo-Boereoorlog is. Hy was een van seshondred Boere wat per skip na die eiland van Ceylon gestuur is om daar in die Diyatalawa-kamp geïnterneer te word. Die skip was op 'n donker, maanlose nag in die hawe van Colombo vasgeanker toe Steyn en vier van sy mede-gevangenes een-een met 'n tou in die water afsak terwyl Britse soldate om die skip patrolleer.

Die bekoring van Willie Steyn se persoonlike weergawe lê in die onderbeklemtoning en die feitlike eenvoud daarvan. Hy probeer homself nie as 'n held voorstel nie en maak geen aanspraak op roem nie, maar die intensiteit en krag van die vertelling verhoog namate dit ontvou. Vanaf die oomblik dat hy op die slagveld gevange geneem word, het Willie Steyn een doel voor oë: Hy gáán ontsnap. Die leser word bewus van hierdie dwingende dryfkrag, en leer Willie ken as 'n ongebonde gees, wat selfs in gevangenskap nooit sy brandende begeerte en vasberadenheid om tot die stryd terug te keer, verloor nie.

Deneys Reitz - skrywer van Kommando en bekend vir sy eie dapperheid - het in 1903 Steyn as 'een van ons dapperste burgers' beskryf, en sy ontsnapping as 'n daad 'sonder weerga in die geskiedenis van ontsnapping' genoem.

“There was no definite decision on the length of the [hunger] strike – it was to go on until their demands for release were met, or until collapse. They became slow and flagging and they didn’t talk much.”

Previously banned and unavailable in South Africa, Helen Joseph writes a moving personal account of enduring the Treason Trial - one of the longest and most important trials in South African history. She shares stories of the Pony Post -the trialists' own postal service and language, the treatment of prisoners, and the ‘real heroes’ of the Trial: the wives of the accused. She writes honestly and details the trialists' perseverance, struggles, compassion and commitment to fighting oppression for all South Africans.

This edition is a vital addition to curating our South African history and to our ever-growing Pocket Series.

Drawing on Nelson Mandela's own unfinished memoir, Dare Not Linger is the remarkable story of his presidency told in his own words and those of distinguished South African writer Mandla Langa.

In 1994, Nelson Mandela became the first president of democratic South Africa. Five years later, he stood down. In that time, he and his government wrought the most extraordinary transformation, turning a nation riven by centuries of colonialism and apartheid into a fully functioning democracy in which all South Africa's citizens, black and white, were equal before the law.

Dare Not Linger is the story of Mandela's presidential years, drawing heavily on the memoir he began to write as he prepared to finish his term of office, but was unable to finish. Now, the acclaimed South African writer, Mandla Langa, has completed the task using Mandela's unfinished draft, detailed notes that Mandela made as events were unfolding and a wealth of previously unseen archival material. With a prologue by Mandela's widow, Graça Machel, the result is a vivid and inspirational account of Mandela's presidency, a country in flux and the creation of a new democracy. It tells the extraordinary story of the transition from decades of apartheid rule and the challenges Mandela overcome to make a reality of his cherished vision for a liberated South Africa.

In The Dark With My Dress On Fire is the remarkable life story of Blanche La Guma, a South African woman who dedicated her life to ending apartheid through her various roles as professional nurse, wife and mother, and underground Communist activist.

Born into a poor, working-class coloured family in Cape Town, Blanche met her future husband, the novelist Alex La Guma, while training as a nurse-midwife in the early 1950s. Together they fought apartheid at great personal risk before continuing the struggle in exile in London and Havana, Cuba.

Harassed, banned, and imprisoned in solitary confinement for her political convictions, Blanche worked as a nurse-midwife in poor black communities on the Cape Flats. With Alex constantly detained or under house arrest, she was the family’s only breadwinner, a role she would continue throughout their life together. When Blanche was not working, visiting her husband in prison, or protecting their two young sons Eugene and Barto from harassment by the security police, she met secretly at night with fellow anti-apartheid Communists. As a young nurse she led the fight against “nursing apartheid” in Cape Town and she provided safe houses for anti-apartheid leaders such as Walter Sisulu and Govan Mbeki.

Forced into exile with her family in 1966, Blanche continued her struggle for justice in London, advocating for better maternal care in a large urban hospital and managing a Soviet Union publications office. When Alex was called to Havana, Cuba, in 1978 as chief representative of the African National Congress (ANC) in the Caribbean, she joined him as a full partner, which included their mentoring of ANC students sent to Cuba after the 1976 Soweto Uprising. Her story provides a rare first-hand account of life as a South African in Fidel Castro’s Cuba until Alex’s death by heart attack in 1985.

Told vividly, passionately, and at times humorously, In the Dark with My Dress on Fire is a compelling account of Blanche La Guma’s struggle against apartheid on three continents. It’s the story of a courageous woman who paid dearly for her commitments yet returned with dignity to a free and democratic South Africa.

Priscilla Jana is a legendary figure in South African revolutionary politics. As an Indian woman who had experienced racial oppression first-hand, she decided to use her degree in law to fight for the rights of her fellow people and do all she could to bring down the Apartheid state - who saw her as a very real threat. At one time she represented every single political prisoner on Robben Island, including both the late Nelson Mandela and his wife Winnie. Priscilla spent her days in court, fighting human rights case after human rights case, but it was at night when her real work was done. As part of an underground cell, she fought tirelessly to bring down the hated government. This activism, however, came at a price. One of South Africa's infamous 'banned persons', for five years Priscilla was unable to take part in any political activities, enter any place where a large number of people were gathered, and had her movements severely restricted. Worse, her own home was attacked with petrol bombs on multiple occasions. Undeterred, Priscilla Jana continued her work, even adopting the baby daughter of a client imprisoned on Robben Island, bringing here up, educating her, and providing a loving home. Finally, upon Mandela's release and the political revolution of her beloved country, Priscilla's work was rewarded, as she was elected as a member of South Africa's first democratic parliament. Later, she was to become an ambassador to both The Netherlands and Ireland. Now retired and living in Cape Town, Priscilla still works and waits for her most fervent desire: the true healing and unification of South Africa.

Willie Steyn, the author, was one of six hundred Boer prisoners sent by ship to the island of Ceylon to be interned in the Diyatalawa prisoner-of-war camp during the Anglo-Boer War. While their ship was anchored in Colombo harbour on a dark, moonless night, Steyn and four of his fellow prisoners lowered themselves into the sea, each waiting until his predecessor had got away undetected by the guards on board and in vessels patrolling around the ship.

The charm of Steyn’s personal account of his adventures lies in its understatement and its matter-of-fact simplicity. He does not portray himself as a hero, nor does he lay any claim to fame, but his account gathers intensity and force as the story progresses. Willie Steyn was intent on escape from the moment he was taken into captivity, and the reader experiences a corresponding intensity, encountering Willie as a free spirit throughout his captivity and his protracted journey home.

Deneys Reitz – author of Commando and well known for his own bravery – called Steyn ‘one of our bravest men’, and described Steyn’s escape as ''a deed that is in my opinion without equal in the history of escape.''