Africa has received $1.2 trillion in development assistance since 1990. Even though donors have spent more than $1 000 per person over these 30 years, the average income of sub-Saharan Africans has increased by just $350. The continent has very little to show for this money, some of which has been consumed by the donors themselves, much of it by local governments and elites. There must be a better way to address the poverty pandemic.

Expensive Poverty is focused on answering the trillion-dollar question: why have decades of spending had such a small impact on improving the lives of the poor? Whatever the area of aid expenditure – humanitarian, governance, military, development – the overall intention should be the same: to try to reach the point that aid is no longer necessary.

Expensive Poverty lays out how to get there.

This timely collection of essays analyses the crisis of journalism in contemporary South Africa at a period when the media and their role are frequently at the centre of public debate.

The transition to digital news has been messy, random and unpredictable. The spread of news via social media platforms has given rise to political propaganda and fake news. Yet media companies oust experienced journalists in favour of 'content producers'. Against this backdrop, Daniels points out the contribution of investigative journalists to exposing corruption and sees new opportunities to forge a model for the future of non-profit, public-funded journalism. She argues for the power of public interest journalism and the reflection of a diversity of voices and positions in the news.

The book addresses the gains and losses from decolonial and feminist perspectives and advocates for a radical shift in the way power is constituted by the media in the South African postcolony. With her years of experience as a newspaper journalist, Daniels writes with authority and illuminates complex issues about newsroom politics. A semi-autobiographical lens and interviews with alienated media professionals add a personal element that will appeal to a range of readers interested in the workings of the media.

Moet ek bly of emigreer? Is hier plek vir my in Suid-Afrika?

Ons moet ons besluite as morele keuses benader. Ons het dan minder keuses om te maak omdat ons al daardie selfsugtige keuses van die tafel af vee. Morele keuses organiseer ons opsies beter in verskillende kompartemente vanaf eties tot oneties, en vanaf nuttig tot nutteloos. 

Ons wil hê ons lewens moet iewers tel, daarom maak ons gedurig goeie keuses. Ons maak morele keuses - ook wanneer ons reis-en-verblyf keuses maak.

Lenerd Louw shares his journey of learning and awakening.

Jump is a book about Lenerd Louw's experiences including his playboy lifestyle in Cape Town, the difficulty and confusion when a massive internal shift occurred in him, the decision to walk away from it all, starting the outer journey all around the world whilst doing the tough deep inner journey at the same time. It includes his two-year period of celibacy at the start of his travels, his travels to fascinating places and his learnings at each place. It’s a story of personal expansion and awakening, of surrender, of trust and of transformation.

He sees the same shift now happening to many people around him, be it ex colleagues, friends or new people he has met. He feels a calling to share his journey. The book is one way of doing that!

The presidential campaign in the USA grabbed the global imagination. It also grabbed the feminist imagination, presenting the hope that if a woman could become the president of the USA, women throughout the world would finally break through the reinforced glass ceiling. However, when it didn’t happen, the lost opportunity became the metaphorical kick in the feminist gut on a global scale. Through the subsequent misogyny, vulgarity, lewd comments, the pussy grabbing video, and the threats of the erosion of feminist activism in the trenches, worldwide a deep mourning arose from the feminist community. It was the name calling of “nasty women” that really smarted. Initial feelings of anger gave rise to empowerment of women — those who talk back to patriarchy — to embrace the label of “nasty women”.

The idea for the collection was born, cradled and nurtured between friends who wanted to create a space for writing and thinking about the marches. The group of feminists who contributed to this collection used the marches and the posters inspired by the marches as a vehicle which galvanised women into action to put pen to paper and show fervour for ongoing feminist activism.

The nexus of this beautifully written and evocatively illustrated collection is telling narratives that link very personal stories with deeply political issues. These are the stories told by nasty women who are making the personal political, who are seeking to live their lives in ways that resist and challenge patriarchy. Through their very intimate nature these are stories that speak to the creation of a different kind of social order, one based on equity, the promotion of human rights and social justice.

A secret torment for some, a proud responsibility for others, ‘black tax’ is a daily reality for thousands of black South Africans. In this thought-provoking and moving anthology, a provocative range of voices share their deeply personal stories.

With the majority of black South Africans still living in poverty today, many black middle-class households are connected to working-class or jobless homes. Some believe supporting family members is an undeniable part of African culture and question whether it should even be labelled as a kind of tax. Others point to the financial pressure it places on black students and professionals, who, as a consequence, struggle to build their own wealth. Many feel they are taking over what is essentially a government responsibility. The contributions also investigate the historical roots of black tax, the concept of the black family and the black middle class.

In giving voice to so many different perspectives, Black Tax hopes to start a dialogue on this widespread social phenomenon.

South Africa’s distorted distribution of wealth is one of the biggest challenges facing the country’s economy, with unemployment sitting at an unsustainable 27.7%. In terms of wealth, the top percentile households hold 70.9% while the bottom 60% holds a mere 7%. 76% of South Africans face an imminent threat of falling below the poverty line. With such statistics, the inequality crisis in this country is at a desperate level and strategies to remedy this challenge seem shallow and lack urgency.

In this context, the Institute for African Alternatives has brought together a series of papers written by eminent South African academics and policymakers to serve as a catalyst to finally confront and resolve inequality. With papers from former Public Prosecutor Thuli Madonsela, Ben Turok and former President Kgalema Motlanthe, this book provides a guide to how the nation can confront and resolve the inequality plaguing the country. The nation is headed to the polls later this year and books such as this are vital for providing a strong guide on how those in power can address South Africa’s biggest economic crisis.

A great contribution to the current political discourse, the book both confronts the issue and provides strategies on how to remedy inequality.

A remarkable new book about a dark stain on modern South Africa – our enormous and problematic prison population – and what we can do to fix it.

"Lock them up and throw away the key!" is a cry we hear often in South Africa today. But this simplistic solution to crime simply isn’t working. As Father Babychan Arackathara, a Catholic chaplain to some of the Western Cape’s most notorious prisons, shows in this compassionate reflection on his work, even criminals have stories, and crime invariably has roots. He listens to those stories and untangles those roots on our behalf, sharing insights into the brokenness of our society and communities – and offering real, workable suggestions for fixing them.

Can we move to the ideal of hating the crime, but loving the criminal? What must we do to see that offenders are themselves victims and to engage them constructively? How do we break the cycles of addiction, trauma and crime to reach for reconciliation and transformation?

Increase your chances of getting a refund from SARS!

If you derive your income from salaried employment and wish to utilise the tax laws in South Africa to minimise your tax liability and maximise your refund from the South African Revenue Services (SARS) upon filing your annual tax return, this book is for you. How To Get A SARS Refund will help you understand why you are taxed the amount that you are, and will assist you in reducing your tax liability. It will also help you to navigate your way through the annual income return (ITR12) for individuals as you complete your return via eFiling.

Topics covered include the basics of understanding individual tax, deductions from taxable income and medical tax credits. The guide also deals with the following types of taxes a salaried taxpayer may become liable for:

• Dividends tax;
• Tax on interest earned;
• Capital gains tax; and
• Provisional tax.

With plenty of informative, practical examples, How To Get A SARS Refund sets out in a simple, effective way how to get the most bang for your buck from the taxman.

After 25 years Madam & Eve is still going strong. The duo is back with more hilarious cartoons reflecting on another year of the crazy rollercoaster that is daily life and politics in South Africa.

For nearly eighty years, a huge portion of coastal South Africa was closed off to the public. With many of its pits now deemed “overmined” and abandoned, American journalist Matthew Gavin Frank sets out across the infamous Diamond Coast to investigate an illicit trade that supplies a global market. Immediately, he became intrigued by the ingenious methods used in facilitating smuggling particularly, the illegal act of sneaking carrier pigeons onto mine property, affixing diamonds to their feet, and sending them into the air.

Entering Die Sperrgebiet (“The Forbidden Zone”) is like entering an eerie ghost town, but Frank is surprised by the number of people willing—even eager—to talk with him. Soon he meets Msizi, a young diamond digger, and his pigeon, Bartholomew, who helps him steal diamonds. It’s a deadly game: pigeons are shot on sight by mine security, and Msizi knows of smugglers who have disappeared because of their crimes. For this, Msizi blames “Mr. Lester,” an evil tall-tale figure of mythic proportions.

From the mining towns of Alexander Bay and Port Nolloth, through the “halfway” desert, to Kleinzee’s shores littered with shipwrecks, Frank investigates a long overlooked story. Weaving interviews with local diamond miners who raise pigeons in secret with harrowing anecdotes from former heads of security, environmental managers, and vigilante pigeon hunters, Frank reveals how these feathered bandits became outlaws in every mining town.

Interwoven throughout this obsessive quest are epic legends in which pigeons and diamonds intersect, such as that of Krishna’s famed diamond Koh-i-Noor, the Mountain of Light, and that of the Cherokee serpent Uktena. In these strange connections, where truth forever tangles with the lore of centuries past, Frank is able to contextualize the personal grief that sent him, with his wife Louisa in the passenger seat, on this enlightening journey across parched lands.

Blending elements of reportage, memoir, and incantation, Flight of the Diamond Smugglers is a rare and remarkable portrait of exploitation and greed in one of the most dangerous areas of coastal South Africa.

Everywhere she looked, the world was in poor shape. And because she’d quit drinking, she no longer had the comfort blanket of alcohol to tamp down her anxiety. How did sober people stay sane?

In recent times, the self-help industry has exploded into a multi- billion dollar global industry – and along with it has come every imaginable type of therapy, healing or general woo-woo. In the past, Rebecca scoffed at this industry, mocking its reliance on half-baked science and the way it appears to prey on the mentally fragile.

But as she searched for a meaning of life that did not involve booze, she found it increasingly hard to rationalize her default scepticism. This shit really seems to work for some people, she reasoned. And it’s not like I have any particularly solid alternatives.

Rebecca lives in Cape Town, the undisputed epicentre of ‘alternative’ paths to peace and enlightenment in South Africa. She decided that over the course of a year, she would embark on a quest for personal wellness, spiritual enlightenment and good old-fashioned happiness. She was willing, within reason, to try anything. She would open herself to even the most outlandish contemporary fads in self- improvement.

What followed was a twelve-month immersion in the world of auras, chakras, hallucinogenic drugs, sweat lodges, sangomas, past lives and more.

And by the end of it? Maybe she would find some new ways of thinking and living. Or maybe she would emerge with her prejudices untouched.

Either way, it would be a good story.

An essential guide for those dealing with the Cape Water Crisis and for general water saving in South and southern Africa, a notoriously water-scarce region.

Three provinces in South Africa have been declared national disaster zones because of drought. The way we think about water needs to change, and fast. This is especially true for those of us who have running water and flush sanitation piped into our homes. For millions of South Africans, water is already a precious resource that costs toil to collect and fuel to heat. Our middle-class expectations that water will gush steaming from our dozens of indoor taps 24/7 are going to look as bizarre to future generations as the spectacle of Cleopatra bathing in asses’ milk. Our Roman-orgy relationship with water is over.

This book will hopefully help to alleviate water panic and distress. A “can-do” compendium, it’s meant to be a guide, not prescriptive – not all solutions or tips are one-size-fits-all. Think of it as an ally in your fight to save water and part of your survival kit, along with the first-aid box; Valium for water-worriers.

Hulle lieg, bedrieg, gee voor. Hulle verdraai, verdoesel, verduister, verwoes. Geleidelik palm hulle jou vertroue in. Dan, eensklaps, is jy jou geld, status en reputasie kwyt. Só oortuigend doen hulle dit dat selfs die slimste, mees ingeligte mense ’n rat voor die oë gedraai word en eers besef wat hulle getref het nadat grootskaalse skade aangerig is en die gladdebek soos mis voor die son verdwyn het. Maar selfs swendelaars kom hulle moses teë...

Boereverneukers vertel die stories van Afrikaanses wat van ons land se grootste skelmstreke gepleeg het.

Van die karakters is minder bekend by die publiek, maar ander het byna mitiese status in die Afrikaanse psige verwerf, soos die kubuskoning Adriaan Nieuwoudt, die pynmasjienman Gervan Lubbe, die kamma-pediater André Esterhuizen, die Hertzogville-profeet David Francis en die Trustbank-rowers Derek Whitehead en Antonie van der Merwe.

Dalk het jý ook deurgeloop, maar praat tot vandag toe nie graag daaroor nie.

A psychologist’s guide for parents, care-givers and health care practitioners to the emotional challenges facing children and their parents today

Current research shows that certain childhood mental disorders are diagnosed more frequently today than in previous generations. Many of today’s children and teenagers are more unhappy, anxious and distressed than young people used to be. In this highly informative book, child psychologist Jenny Perkel explores in depth why this might be so, highlighting what modern-day South African children and adolescents are experiencing and the environment in which they are being raised.

Children in Mind presents a broad range of up-to-date findings from psychological, neurobiological, genetic, psychiatric, sociological and epidemiological research related to the diagnosis and treatment of children’s mental health problems. Theoretically informed but not theoretically dense, the book cites both local and international studies to increase awareness and understanding of children’s mental health.

Perkel discusses a broad spectrum of issues faced by today’s children and adolescents: the Covid-19 pandemic, the influence of electronic media, diverse family structures, stress and trauma, and difficult socio-economic circumstances. While offering no easy answers or formulaic solutions to the problems of troubled children, she shows how to think about children’s mental well-being in today’s South Africa.

Children in Mind is an invaluable resource for all those who work with troubled children and adolescents: psychologists, social workers, counsellors, educators and parents. The author’s informed and compassionate approach will help equip professionals and parents to help young people navigate complex issues and make adjustments in their behavior in order to live more balanced and happier lives.

When you next sit down at your local coffee shop, look around you: there may just be a professional hitman sitting at the next table. As author Mark Shaw reveals in this highly original and informative book, the ‘upper world’ sails perilously close to the underworld.

Hitmen For Hire takes the reader on a journey like no other, navigating a world of hammermen (hitmen), informers, rogue policemen, taxi bosses, gang leaders and crooked businessmen. The book examines a system in which contract killings have become the norm, looking at who arranges hits, where to find a hitman, and even what it is like to be a hitman – or woman.

Since 1994, South Africa has witnessed some spectacular underworld killings associated with various industries and sectors. Drawing on over a thousand cases, from 2000 to 2016, Shaw reveals how these murders have an outsized impact on the evolution of both legal and illegal economic activity.

Shine A Light tells the story of two women, Corrine and Ingrid, who at the onset seem worlds apart, separated by the deep chasm of South Africa’s dark history. But as they traverse one of the most dangerous communities in Cape Town in search of vulnerable animals, they discover they are more similar than they are different.

While the narrative winds its way along the troubled streets, it becomes clear how animals provide a unique platform for dialogue and, in turn, healing. Through Ingrid’s eyes, and in conversations with people who would never have otherwise spoken – gangsters, drug dealers and addicts – Corrine slowly begins to feel her perceptions waver when she learns that behind every broken animal is a broken human, and just because someone can speak, it does not guarantee them a voice.

What would you do if you discovered that the food you have been told is good for you is actually the cause of your ill health …?

In December 2010, Professor Tim Noakes was introduced to a way of eating that was contrary to everything he had been taught and was accepted as conventional nutrition ‘wisdom’. Having observed the benefits of the low-carb, high-fat (LCHF) lifestyle first-hand, and after thorough and intensive research, Noakes enthusiastically revealed his findings to the South African public in 2012. The backlash from his colleagues in the medical establishment was as swift as it was brutal, and culminated in a misconduct inquiry launched by the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA). The subsequent hearing lasted well over a year, but Noakes ultimately triumphed, being found not guilty of unprofessional conduct in April 2017.

In Lore of Nutrition, he explains the science behind the LCHF/Banting diet, and why he champions this lifestyle despite the constant persecution and efforts to silence him. He also discusses at length what he has come to see as a medical and scientific code of silence that discourages anyone in the profession from speaking out against the current dietary guidelines. Experienced journalist Marika Sboros provides the full backstory to the HPCSA hearing, which reads like something out of a spy novel.

Written in an accessible style, Lore of Nutrition is informative, highly controversial and an eye-opener for anyone who cares about their health.

Stellenbosch staan internasionaal bekend as 'n dorp van weelde en wyn, 'n plek van pragtige natuurskoon en mooi mense. Dit is die tuiste van Suid-Afrika se sake-adel, geleerde professore en studente bestem vir groot dinge.

Maar die idilliese beeld wat in reisbrosjures en op sosiale media voorgehou word, versluier 'n skadukant. Tussen die ou eikebome, blou berge en geskiedkundige wynplase broei dieselfde boosheid wat Suid-Afrika een van die lande met die hoogste moordsyfer in die wêreld maak.

Oor die afgelope twee dekades het verskeie opspraakwekkende moordsake in dié dorp koerantvoorblaaie gehaal. Inge Lotz, Hannah Cornelius, Susan Rohde, die Van Breda-gesin... Maar hierdie boek gaan ook oor Stellenbosch se minder bekende slagoffers soos dié van die plaaswerker Felicity Cilliers - 'n vrou van wie die wêreld vergeet het.

'n Uiteenlopende verskeidenheid slagoffers en moordenaars tree in die blaaie van dié boek na vore en wys dat nie eens Stellenbosch die oersondes kan vryspring nie.

"I'm at the start of an Olympic Distance Triathlon! A Greek, about to get all Olympic, following in the footsteps of my ancestors who created the games to celebrate human endeavour its ability to be pushed to the limits. Who would have thought that six years earlier I was in a deserted house in rural Mexico with a junkie smoking crack cocaine for the first time? The start of a downward spiral that would bring me to my knees and close to death. Although, maybe the seeds of my descent had been planted long before that."

Constantinos Carastavrakis, known to his friends as Costa, tells his story with great honesty and courage. He charts his course through a childhood of identity confusion & growing up Greek and gay in Johannesburg. He built a glamourous life of parties, business triumphs and money but crashed into the devastation of a crystal meth addiction. The gift of desperation' arrived to propel him towards a life without drugs and alcohol. He slowly dragged himself out of toxicity onto a path of recovery. With it came a new quest: to create the best version of himself. He has devoted his energy and drive to fitness; from small beginnings, he has worked his way up to becoming a marathon runner and triathlon athlete.

He brings light and humour to the darkness of addiction and shows that true body, mind and spirit recovery is possible for anyone who cares enough to heal themselves.

Given what we know about climate change, should we still be raising and eating cattle? And how do we weigh the cultural and economic value of cattle against their environmental impact? This engaging book brings history, science, economics and popular culture together in a timely discussion about whether current practices can be justified in a period of rapid climate change.

Journalist Gregory Mthembu-Salter first encountered South Africa’s love of cattle during his own lobola negotiations. The book traces his personal journey through kraals, rangelands and feedlots across South Africa to find out more about the national hunger for cattle. He takes a broad sweep – drawing on such diverse sources as politicians involved in land reform, history, braai-side interviews with cattle farmers and abattoir owners, conversations with his mother-in-law, and analysis of cutting-edge science.

Mthembu-Salter suggests that perhaps 'cattle can remain wanted and treasured … more as living assets, kept in modest numbers on land where crops will not thrive, whose beef is eaten rarely – and, when it is, is savoured.'

Chances are you’re suffering from burnout. For some time, Master Coach Judy Klipin has waged what felt like a lonely battle, speaking up about the scourge of burnout that is approaching epidemic proportions in South Africa, one of the most stressed nations in the world.

Men and women, young and old, from all walks of life have sought her help for their Burnout. Housewives, students, young adults in their first jobs, executive business-people, teachers, mothers, fathers, doctors, nurses, police officers, journalists… all complaining of feeling run-down, exhausted, overwhelmed and under-enthused about life in general and their lives in particular. Burnout is not only restricted to high-flying business executives, it can affect anyone. Burnout is not one thing, it is also a feeling of listlessness and ineptitude, a lack of enthusiasm and excitement, an existential emergency.

Recover From Burnout will help you to understand why we get it, how to get better from it, and how not to get it again. You’ll discover how to:

• understand your burnout,
• recognise and engage with the underlying fears and beliefs that underpin your drive to push your body, mind and spirit to breaking point,
• change the beliefs and habits that have exhausted you,
• regain your energy and enthusiasm, and
• avoid falling back into the burnout traps

Die kranige sportman Alwyn Uys word in die fleur van sy lewe verlam. Ten spyte van dié verlies en ander terugslae bly Alwyn se gees ontembaar.

Hy besluit om sy lewe ten volle te leef: Hy word onder andere die eerste parapleeg ooit wat van Robbeneiland na Bloubergstrand swem. Ongeskonde is Alwyn se openhartige vertelling van sy worsteling en hoe hy met genade van Bo besluit het om uit te styg bo sy beperkinge.

Sy eerlike verhaal sal jou inspireer om jou eie uitdagings aan te pak en te oorkom.

A title deed = tenure security. Or does it? This book challenges this simple equation and its apparently self-evident assumptions. It argues that two very different property paradigms characterise South Africa.

The first is the dominant paradigm of private property, referred to as an ‘edifice’, against which all other property regimes are measured and ranked. However, the majority of South Africans gain access to land and housing through very different processes, which this book calls social or off-register tenures. These tenures are poorly understood, a gap Untitled aims to address. The book reveals that ‘informal’ and customary property systems can be well organised, often providing substantial tenure security, but lack official recognition and support. This makes them difficult to service and vulnerable to elite capture.

Policy interventions usually aim to formalise these arrangements by issuing title deeds. The case studies in this book, which span both rural and urban contexts in South Africa, examine these interventions and the unintended consequences they often give rise to. Interventions based on an understanding of locally embedded property relations are more likely to succeed than those that attempt to transform them into registered tenures. However, emerging practices hit intractable obstacles associated with the ‘edifice’, which only a substantial transformation of the legal paradigms can overcome.

Die geskiedenis van die eerste 59 jaar van die SAUK se bestaan; vanaf 1936 tot 1995. Die vertel ook die ontstaan van openbare uitsaai, die missie en doelwitte daarvan en waarom dit hersien moet word.

Die politieke element word bespreek: Watter soort stut was die SAUK vir apartheid? Watter rol het die SAUK gespeel as sleutelspeler in die transformasieproses? Daar word gekyk na politieke inmenging en aanstellings wat direk uit die Uitsaaiminister se staatsdepartement gemaak is. Ook ingespan is die SAUK se sleutelrol in geskiedkundige gebeure: Die vrylating van Nelson Mandela en die vryheidsverkiesing van 1994.

Die boek behoort nie net die wye publiek nie, maar ook akademici, historici en politici te interesseer.