Vir 45 jaar het Freek Robinson die grootste nuusgebeure in die ou én nuwe Suid-Afrika eerstehands beleef. As TV-joernalis en nuusanker was hy ’n gereelde besoeker in miljoene Suid-Afrikaners se huise.

In sy memoires deel Freek dit wat hy agter die skerms beleef het.

Dié boek verweef die lewe en loopbaan van een van ons land se mees gerespekteerde en geliefde joernaliste en gee ’n besonderse blik op die ingrypende nuusomwentelinge in ons onlangse geskiedenis.

As uitgesproke kommenatator wat voor en na 1994 met die regering gebots het, een van die Dakar-gangers wat al in die 1980s die ANC gaan ontmoet het en wereldkenner van die Afrikaners, is Giliomee ten nouste betrokke by ons land se geskiedenis – en hoe ons dit verstaan. Hier verweef hy sy eie lewensverhaal met die van die land en die mense wat hom fassineer in leesbare, narratiewe vorm, vol staaltjies en onvertelde verhale.

Once, chef Brett Ladds was given a cigar by Fidel Castro, he talked weightlifting with Swazi king Mswati III and his cooking made Quincy Jones sing. For many years he also served Nelson Mandela many cups of rooibos tea and made him his favourite meals.

Ladds was the executive chef of the SA government and manager of the presidential guesthouse at Bryntirion Estate in Pretoria from 1994-1999 where he served both Mandela and Thabo Mbeki. It was a naive and star-struck 21-year-old Ladds who started working at the guesthouse in the months before the first democratic election. During this time he was always in the background when struggle stalwarts like Steve Tshwete, Joe Modise and Dullah Omar met Mandela to discuss the future of the country.

This heart-warming book tells of a young man’s coming of age at a turning point in our history. His stories about meeting kings and queens, presidents, rock stars and even the pope are laced with his unique, self-deprecating sense of humour. Of Queen Elizabeth he says it felt like speaking to his gran. “I asked myself, how does all that power fit into this lovely, caring lady?” Of Robert Mugabe: “He never moaned about a thing.”

Then there are the Russian diplomats and their drinking habits and the Saudi-Arabian sheik who had 8 television sets installed in his room and bought 20 blankets at R5000 each for his stay.

It’s a book to make you laugh and cry. And Madiba’s favourite champagne? Pêche Royale . . .

When the Cradock Four's Fort Calata was murdered by agents of the apartheid state in 1985, his son Lukhanyo was only three years old. Thirty-one years later Lukhanyo, now a journalist, becomes one of the SABC Eight when he defies Hlaudi Motsoeneng's reign of censorship at the public broadcaster by writing an open letter that declares: "my father didn't die for this".

Now, with his wife Abigail, Lukhanyo brings to life the father he never knew and investigates the mystery that surrounds his death despite two high-profile inquests.

Join them in a poignant and inspiring journey into the history of a remarkable family that traces the struggle against apartheid beginning with Fort's grandfather, Rivonia trialist and ANC Secretary-General Rev James Calata.

What kind of president will Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma be if she is chosen at the ANC’s December 2017 congress? She has been fairly media-averse and hasn’t granted many interviews in the past few years, but taking a closer look at her history does provide some clues about the kind of leader she is.

In this book, journalist Carien du Plessis looks at Dlamini-Zuma’s early years, education and involvement in the struggle; her role as a cabinet minister under all four presidents of democratic South Africa; and her achievements as African Union Commission chairperson.

The book considers her feminism and political philosophy; tracks her presidential ambitions and campaigning; and explores how her personal relationship with one of her most important backers, President Jacob Zuma, will influence her leadership.

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.

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.

Allister Sparks joined his first newspaper at age 17 and was pitched headlong into the vortex of South Africa’s stormy politics. The Sword And The Pen is the story of how as a journalist he observed, chronicled and participated in his country’s unfolding drama for more than 66 years, covering events from the premiership of DF Malan to the presidency of Jacob Zuma, witnessing at close range the rise and fall of apartheid and the rise and crisis of the new South Africa.

In trenchant prose, Sparks has written a remarkable account of both a life lived to its full as well as the surrounding narrative of South Africa from the birth of apartheid, the rise of political opposition, the dawn of democracy, right through to the crisis we are experiencing today.

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.''

After serving twenty-seven years of a lifetime sentence for conspiring to overthrow South Africa's apartheid government, Nelson Mandela emerged to become both the catalyst and the symbol of post-apartheid South Africa. He served as the country's first black president and has since been internationally acclaimed as a powerful and vigilant humanitarian.

John Carlin began covering South African politics while serving as the London Independent's Bureau Chief in South Africa in 1989, and formed a relationship with Nelson Mandela in the decades since. Mandela has called Carlin's journalism 'courageous' and 'absolutely inspiring'. Now, Carlin reflects back on the man he has studied and admired for much of his career. The book will begin with Mandela's release from prison in 1990, and will end with the last time Carlin saw Mandela face-to-face in the early 2000s.

Spanning decades, and chronicling both personal and national memories, Carlin's tribute to Mandela is a fitting retrospective on a life well lived and its enduring legacy.

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!

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.

’n Biografie oor Pik Botha, een van Suid-Afrika se kleurrykste figure, en in sy tyd die langsdienende Minister van Buitelandse Sake ter wêreld.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

This book is an account of Paul O'Sullivan's role in helping to not only nail South Africa's most powerful policeman, but also the world's top cop. It is based on thousands of pages of emails, statements, affidavits, letters, press reports, court records and transcripts as well as interviews with O'Sullivan himself. This version provides a perspective from his point of view as a key player in the saga. While O'Sullivan's name consistently appears in almost every key breaking story around the Selebi matter, his role, for whatever reason, has been played down.

The Jackie Selebi story, and the satellite narratives that orbited it, is a truly remarkable chronicle that requires commitment and stamina to grasp fully. There is so much detail, so much subterfuge, lying, dishonesty and cover-up by Selebi and his cronies that it is extremely challenging and almost impossible to pick out one comprehensive, linear thread. The drama played itself out in different layers and strata of South African society, sometimes simultaneously and often in an apparently unrelated fashion. The characters that populate the saga, apart from Jackie Selebi, include the then president of the country, his political rival, myriad crooked, corrupt businessmen, a gallery of rotten, very senior rogue cops, a phalanx of undercover intelligence operatives, two- bit hired guns, scrap metal dealers, drug and human traffickers, international criminal syndicates and a cast of thousands of common-or-garden-variety petty thugs and criminals.

"Sounds like a movie," say most of those who have asked about this project. Yes, but what is startling and disturbing is that this is no fairy-tale. Those of us who have become accustomed to the commodification of crime as "entertainment" in popular television series have this need to make sense of it by blurring fiction with chilling reality.

Paul O'Sullivan is no suave James Bond in a tuxedo, equipped with special equipment, downing his martini surrounded by a bevy of women. When dealing with criminals he can be abrasive, brusque and uncompromising. But who wouldn't be in a world that is populated with real thugs and dangerous killers, people who kill, maim and disrupt law and order and destabilise the country? These are sociopaths and psychopaths who do not care how much harm they cause as they go about their "business". So, what drove or drives O'Sullivan? Revenge? A thirst for justice? It's simple really. Paul O'Sullivan hates criminals and low-lifes like dogs hate flies. His long career in international law enforcement has equipped him with the intellectual and physical tools to deal with the most canny and violent of criminals.

He enjoys hunting them down and, like the radioactive bite that imbues Spiderman with special powers, criminals provide O'Sullivan with an energy and a stamina that seems to grow in proportion to the challenges they present him. His work, he says, is far from done. He is presently attempting to ensure that Czech-born fugitive, Radovan Krejcir, is extradited to his home country to face numerous charges.

This is the book President Jacob Zuma does not want you to read. From Shaik to ‘The Spear’, award-winning investigative journalist Adriaan Basson reveals the truth behind Jacob Zuma’s presidency of the ANC and South Africa.

From one bad decision to another, this explosive, roller-coaster account traces the unravelling of a likeable but deeply flawed leader who came to power as victim, not visionary. Basson forensically unpacks the charges against Zuma and reveals a president whose first priority is to serve and protect his own, rather than the 50 million people he was elected to lead.

To be published on the eve of the ANC elective conference in Mangaung, this is essential reading for any South African who cares about the country they live in.

When, in the 1990s, Wilhelm Verwoerd openly spoke out against his grandfather's racist policies and joined the ANC, he was ejected from the family. Working in Northern Ireland, making peace between former enemies, he feels the urge to return to his homeland, to make peace with his own family. 

Between listening to searing stories of friends and neigbours’ suffering under apartheid, he reads Betsie Verwoerd’s intimate private diaries. This moving memoir examines the complexities of having Verwoerd blood in your veins in the full knowledge that Verwoerd has blood on his hands.

A nuanced and intimate look at family loyalty, betrayal, and the demands of restitution in South Africa.

Van laaitie tot politieke kryger, bandiet tot generaal-majoor, ondergrondse operateur tot presidensiële lyfwag…

Van sy kleintyd in Elsiesrivier neem Jeremy Vearey se lewe talle onvoorspelbare wendings. Sy eiesoortige vertelling sluit die ouere manne van sy jeug in, die ooms by die damstafel, kerkjeugkampe en die Kommuniste-manifes, skoolhou en ondergrondse werk vir MK, en sy aanhouding op Robbeneiland. As Mandela se lyfwag help hy ’n opstand in die Karoo ontlont, voor hy deel word van die nuwe SAPD, waar hy saam met die gewese vyand terrorisme en Kaapse bendes takel.

En onder alles loop ’n donker stroom.

In 1932, Afrikaans literary icon CJ Langenhoven died suddenly. He surprised the Afrikaner establishment by naming a young Jewish woman, the fiery redhead Sarah Eva Goldblatt, executrix of his literary legacy. Since childhood, Dominique Malherbe had been intrigued by the mystery surrounding her great-aunt and Langenhoven. She finally set out to discover Sarah’s story, reclaim her for posterity, and find Sarah's son. In this biography-cum-memoir she uncovers a fascinating literary love story.