Mexican cooking, Mzansi-style!

In Mexico in Mzansi, chef Aiden Pienaar brings local flair to some traditional Mexican favourites. Like the ubiquitous taco, this cookbook is filled with a surprising array of flavours and influences to excite even the most experienced chefs and exhausted home cooks.

By thinking a little outside the box, and using South African ingredients and cooking techniques – boerie tacos and braaied corn, anyone? – Chef Aiden gives Mexican cuisine a Mzansi-style facelift.

From classics such as mole, refried beans and nachos, to innovations including Mexican chakalaka, chilli con carne vetkoek and sosatie tacos, these are recipes to inspire and delight. All are easy to follow and require minimal prep.

In addition, Chef Aiden will teach you to make your own tortillas and salsas, show you how to present tacos, enchiladas and quesadillas, as well as introduce you to different cooking methods, from braising and grilling to air-frying. That’s not to mention the array of delicious desserts to round off your meal, or the collection of margaritas to tantalise your tastebuds.

An urgent and passionately argued call to action, The Unaccountables skilfully profiles the large corporations and private individuals who are all implicated in economic crime but have never been held to account. This book will anger many, who will now be able to put names and faces to those behind some of South Africa’s biggest corruption scandals, from apartheid to state capture.

Crucially, The Unaccountables focuses on 38 profiles detailing evidence of impunity and suggesting actions in each instance that could ensure accountability. Remember, South Africa is a wealthy country. The 2022 Africa Wealth Report estimates total private wealth in South Africa to be over $651 billion, more than R10 trillion. South Africa is home to more than twice as many high-net-worth individuals than any other African country. But these acts of violence, for that is what they are, by powerful individuals and corporations have driven millions into poverty.

In The Unaccountables, we meet them all, apartheid and war profiteers, the state capture profiteers, those who have profited from welfare, we meet the bankers and their banks who got away with laundering and profiteering, the auditors, complicit in economic crimes and, unsurprisingly, the bad cops. This book is led by research, data and years of investigation and, as such, is the most persuasive book to have been written about corruption in South Africa.

One of the editors, Hennie van Vuuren, is the author of the runaway international bestseller, Apartheid Guns and Money.

Improving the quality of your writing starts with rethinking your assumptions and developing healthier writing habits. This book will help you do both.

Become a Better Writer: How to Write with Clarity and Simplicity is a practical guide for those who wish to write more clearly and concisely. Drawing on their extensive experience as writers and editors, the authors discuss tools and tips for making your writing accessible and meaningful to your target audience.

The book is readable and engaging, covering different kinds of writing (including reports, essays, emails, novels and speeches) across a wide range of subjects. The examples discussed are derived from real-world material and are particularly relevant to the African context. The book will be especially useful to writers of non-fiction.

Die “roman” in die titel verwys na ’n spinnekop of baardskeerder, wat die teenwoordigheid van onheil, boosheid en gevaar verteenwoordig.

Die Klein Karoo se berugte reeksmoordenaar, Gert Bloubaard Swanepoel het in die 1800’s op die spogplaas Rietfontein in die Attaquas tussen Oudtshoorn en Calitzdorp geboer. Swanepoel se pa was ’n siener wat glo met ’n halwe helm gebore is. Hy het groot onheil gesien voor Gert se geboorte. Sy ma was ’n wrede, ongenaakbare en sadistiese mens wat plaaswerkers se kinders se mangels uitgeskep het met ’n rooiwarm teelepel, sonder enige verdowing.

Danie Gouws, akademikus van Stellenbosch, vertoef in die Klein Karoo om navorsing te doen oor kulturele gebruike en erfgoed. Waarin hy hom egter vasloop, is die spook van Gert Swanepoel: “Wat Danie Gouws nog nie weet nie, is dat Gert hom gister al sien aankom het toe hy in die pas oor die Gamka gery het.”

Want, in die woorde van die oplettende, diepsinnige petroljoggie Willem Marsman: “As jy klippers in dié deel van die wêreld omrol, dan hardloop daar sommer gou gevaarlike goete soos skerpioene oor die vlaktes of ’n romans wat jou jaag om in jou skaduwee te kom”.

Kan ’n mens oorlewering glo? Wie was Gert – voorslagboer, veedief, geweldenaar, moordenaar, minaar? Dit hang af met wie ’n mens gesels, want stories is plooibaar.

Cops and Robbers: we think we know how to tell the good guys from the bad, but when it comes to Cape Town’s crime scene, things are anything but clear cut. Controlled by gangs, fuelled by drugs and policed by cops that, all too often, get caught on the wrong side of the action.

Among the Cape Town cops who have consistently claimed that colleagues are trying to pin crimes on them are Major General Andre Lincoln (former head of a national police unit mandated by Nelson Mandela), Major General Jeremy Vearey (known as SA’s top gang buster) and Lieutenant Colonel Charl Kinnear (who was investigating some of the country's most brutal underworld crimes when he was assassinated in September 2020). Colleagues and suspects alike pointed to all three as colluding with criminals. Who is telling the truth?

Journalist Caryn Dolley has tracked this tangled trail, following the corruption breadcrumbs, sifting through court documents, laying fact upon fact and exposing the depths and breadth of systemic corruption that was set in place during apartheid and has only become more entrenched during the first decades of our democracy. She has traced the rot from cops to underworld to politicians and back, exposing duplicitous networks that have for decades ensnared South Africa in an expanding cycle of organised crime and cop claim crossfire. At the centre of this crisis is the mounting collateral: the victims of Cape Town’s manufactured killing fields.

To The Wolves tells the true life story of how South Africa’s underworld came to be, what continues to fuel it today and how the deception and lies go all the way to the top...

The Misery Merchants is a hard-hitting exposé of G4S, the company running one of South Africa’s private prisons in Mangaung. Hopkins presents up-close encounters with the gangs who run the prisons, and a unique insight into the minds of the men on the torture squad, who doused inmates with water before electrocuting them, and in some cases, strapped down ‘unruly’ prisoners and forced anti-psychotic medicines into their systems.

In the Free State of Ace Magashule, both the gangs and the prison bosses competed to run Mangaung Prison, one of South Africa’s few private prisons. Torture and forced medication were the order of the day. Hopkins, a seasoned journalist, has interviewed over 100 prisoners and many prison warders in order to understand what makes this prison so dysfunctional. Her insights and revelations will astonish you.

This book follows several characters who were held in or worked at the prison. L. is a prison gang general and an advocate for prisoners’ rights. He smuggled information on assaults, injections and corruption out of the prison for the author. Dan is a prison guard and a shop steward for the union. He led the workforce during two strikes and paid for it with his job and union membership. Setlai is a Department of Correctional Services official who blew the whistle on the abuse at Mangaung Prison in 2009. His reports were ignored and he was punished for speaking out. He was criminally charged and moved to another DCS post. Shakes is a member of the Emergency Security Team (EST) also known as the Ninjas. He engaged in torture and abuse but now feels ‘what we did was wrong’.

G4S is the largest security company in the world, and has its claws deep in SA’s government and private companies. Drive down any street and you’ll find a G4S van collecting or delivering money.

Hot Water is an intimate and daring look into the life of a young African woman from the Cape Flats with a chronic illness. The book investigates how endometriosis affects the way young woman function and navigate the world, and how this becomes especially complicated for those who are underprivileged and reliant on the public sector’s healthcare system.

In Hot Water Nadine Dirks reveals the unique issues of racism, sexism, classism, fatphobia and slut-shaming that African women experience within the context of healthcare facilities, and how especially jarring it is when the stigma comes from medical staff who one expects to have the patient’s care as their primary concern. All of this has enraged Dirks and catapulted her into becoming a sexual reproductive health and rights advocate.

Hot Water tells the story of how people with chronic illness are treated daily, at school, university and socially for being differently abled; how people are regarded as lazy, aggressive, disappointing, lacking, among multiple other things for being unwell in comparison to their healthy counterparts.

One cannot look at seeking adequate healthcare as a young, black, underprivileged woman on the Cape Flats without experiencing racism in the most blatant of ways. Even with guidelines in place, the book shows that it is next to impossible to invoke those rights even if you are aware of them for fear of being victimised and excluded from the system.

My reis, eers as pleegma en later as aanneemma, was nie een waarop iemand my kon voorberei nie. Rooiletterkind is my poging om hierdie reis so eerlik as moontlik te ondersoek, vanaf die vertrekpunt een oggend voor ’n kerkdiens tot by ’n handgemaakte Moedersdagkaartjie meer as vyf jaar later.

Wat maak jy met ’n kind wat aanhou om teen jou liefde te baklei? Hoe help jy haar deur die slaggate van die lewe as jyself nooit daardeur is nie?

Dit is maar net twee van die vele vrae wat ek myself onophoudelik moes vra terwyl ek verbete vasklou aan ’n rooiletterdatum, ’n halsstarrige kind en ’n hart wat gereeld uit my borskas geruk word.

Saam met ons eie verhaal was daar egter ook ander stories wat vertel moes word — stories van ons kind se herkoms, van gebrokenheid en straatmense en kriminele en ’n drughuis sonder reëls of taboes.

We have a lot to be positive about in South Africa. With all our problems, it’s easy to feel bleak. But hold those thoughts, because Legends might be just the tonic you need to drive off the gloom. This book tells the stories of a dozen remarkable people – some well known, others largely forgotten – who changed Mzansi for the better.

Most South Africans are proud of Nelson Mandela – and rightly so. His life was truly astounding, but he’s by no means the only person who should inspire us. There’s King Moshoeshoe, whose humanity and diplomatic strategies put him head and shoulders above his contemporaries, both European and African. And John Fairbairn, who brought non-racial democracy to the Cape in 1854. Olive Schreiner was a bestselling international author who fought racism, corruption and chauvinism. And Gandhi spent twenty years here inventing a system of protest that would bring an empire to its knees.

Legends also celebrates Eugène Marais’s startling contributions to literature and natural history (despite a lifelong morphine addiction); Sol Plaatje’s wit, intelligence and tenacity in the face of racial zealots; Cissie Gool’s lifetime fighting for justice and exposing bigots; and Sailor Malan’s battles against fascists in the skies of Europe and on the streets of South Africa. And then there’s Miriam Makeba, who began her life in prison and ended it as an international singing sensation; Steve Biko, who shifted the minds of an entire generation; and Thuli Madonsela (the book’s only living legend), who gracefully felled the most powerful man in the land.

Engagingly written and meticulously researched, Legends reminds South Africans that we have a helluva lot to be proud of.

“Caster’s story isn’t just a tale of perseverance and poise, it’s a story that makes us all interrogate our humanity and the world we build with our actions every day. An essential read.” - Trevor Noah

Caster Semenya is one of the greatest athletes ever to run the 800- metre. She went undefeated for almost four years, winning two Olympic gold medals and three World Athletics Championships, and set and broke numerous records.

However, Caster’s life and career were devastated by accusations that she was not a woman and should not compete against other women as she was born with naturally elevated levels of testosterone. Required by the International Association of Athletics Federations to take hormone-altering drugs as a condition of competing in certain events, Caster for years suffered side effects that she describes as devastating to her health. Her predicament surfaced a still-raging firestorm over our understanding of gender and, of how gender plays out in sports, as well as our expectations of female athletes.

The Race to be Myself tells the coming-of-age story of an iconic athlete – of Caster’s dramatic journey from a gifted and self-trained novice to the pinnacle of her sport – and takes readers behind the scenes of her inspiring battle to run in the ‘body that God gave me’.

For our world to survive, and thrive, we need people who can lead the way to a better future for everyone, be that in corporate, government, or society in general. What we need is great leadership – not mediocre leadership; and an attitude of ever-learning, growing and developing.

Business leaders have a financial and moral obligation to uplift the people of this country. A narrow focus on profit won’t achieve that, but a culture that puts people first can. We need ethical leaders, visionary leaders, empathic leaders, courageous leaders, forward-thinking leaders, transformational leaders, human-centric leaders, purposeful leaders, curious leaders. This book is the antidote to the lack of mentorship, and is the resource for the saying: When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.

Incorporating the collective leadership wisdom for both the leaders of tomorrow and for the leaders of today, The Book Every Leader Needs to Read is full of lessons, insights, pep talks, advice and direction for building your own style and approach to great leadership, and not shy away from the ecstasy (and sometimes agony) of becoming a significant leader. If you are striving for excellence as a leader, get your pen and notebook ready, start reading and make notes from the thousands of hours of lived experiences, and list what you can start doing, right now, to craft the art of leading.

Morris Isaacson High School (MIHS) is widely known as the epicentre of the 1976 Soweto uprising. However, its legacy extends far beyond this event. This insightful book explores the rich, untold story of the school, revealing its profound impact on secondary education in Soweto.

While the 1976 uprising cemented MIHS’s place in history, Clive Glaser argues that its true significance lies in its unwavering commitment to quality education during a tumultuous period. Located in the heart of Soweto, MIHS faced immense challenges – poverty, a repressive education system (Bantu Education) and political unrest. Yet, it defied the odds, nurturing generations of successful professionals throughout the 1960s and 1970s. How did MIHS flourish under Bantu Education, and why did its performance not reach its full potential in the democratic era? By examining the interplay between dedicated leadership, a strong alumni network and shifting socio-economic realities, the book provides some compelling answers.

This book is not just about MIHS; it is a testament to the enduring power of education in the fight for social justice. MIHS’s story serves as an inspiration, demonstrating the transformative potential of education, even under the most challenging circumstances.

Lienke en Dezi beleef die vakansie van hulle lewe in Kalkbaai.

By die hotel ontmoet hulle Danroy, 'n kelner wat vakansiewerk doen, wat hulle na al die mooiste plekke in die baai vat. Hulle leer ken Danroy se "skwad" en sy geliefde Uncle Kaz. Dan is daar 'n tragedie op see wat Danroy en sy ma se lewe omkeer.

Soos Uncle Kaz altyd sê: "Mens het net drie goete nodig om gelukkig te wees: iemand om lief te hê, iets om jou hande mee besig te hou, en iets om na uit te sien."

In the past decade, hundreds of thousands of women from poorer countries have braved treacherous journeys to richer countries to work as poorly paid domestic workers. In From servants to workers, Shireen Ally asks whether the low wages and poor working conditions so characteristic of migrant domestic work can truly be resolved by means of the extension of citizenship rights. Following South Africa's 'miraculous' transition to democracy, more than a million poor black women who had endured a despotic organization of paid domestic work under apartheid became the beneficiaries of one of the world's most impressive and extensive efforts to formalize and modernise paid domestic work through state regulation. Ally explores the political implications of paid domestic work as an intimate form of labour. From Servants to workers integrates sociological insights with the often-heartbreaking life histories of female domestic workers in South Africa and provides rich detail of the streets, homes, and churches of Johannesburg where these women work, live, and socialise.

In January 2003, Paul O’Sullivan, then a board member at Airports Company South Africa, opened a criminal docket against Jackie Selebi, South Africa’s chief of police and global head of Interpol, after discovering that Selebi was on the payroll of notorious drug trafficker Glenn Agliotti. In 2010, Selebi was convicted of corruption and sentenced to fifteen years in prison. Released on medical parole, he died at home in 2015 without spending a day in prison.

In May 2012, O’Sullivan uncovered false stories published by the Sunday Times alluding to so-called Zimbabwe renditions. The stories were used to fire good cops, gain control of the police, and capture the South African criminal justice system. In October 2012, O’Sullivan opened a criminal docket against Crime Intelligence boss Richard Mdluli and National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) bosses, Lawrence Mrwebi and Nomgcobo Jiba. Jiba was later fired from the NPA, and both Mrwebi and Mdluli were suspended from their positions. Mdluli went on to be convicted of unrelated offences and was sent to prison.

By early 2016, O’Sullivan’s corruption-busting charity Forensics for Justice had opened no fewer than fifty criminal dockets relating to the underworld capture of the criminal justice system and state-owned companies like South African Airways, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa, Eskom and Transnet.

This is the story of how a corrupt police and prosecution service tried desperately to stop O’Sullivan from exposing the dark underbelly of South Africa – and how they ultimately failed. It is the story of a man who, against all odds and at immense personal cost, refused to give up on his quest to turn the tide against corruption. While many of these criminals still walk freely among us today, they will all be held accountable for what they have done – O’Sullivan will make sure of that.

After 31 years, Madam & Eve are still going strong and are back with more hilarious cartoons looking back at another year of the crazy rollercoaster that is daily life and politics in South Africa.

Madam & Eve is South Africa’s best reminder that we need to laugh at ourselves as a society.

The perfect gift for anyone wanting to understand South African politics.

Coloured as an ethnicity and racial demographic is intertwined in the creation of the South Africa we have today. Yet often, Coloured communities are disdained as people with no clear heritage or culture — ‘not being black enough or white enough.’

Coloured challenges this notion and presents a different angle to that narrative.

It delves into the history of Coloured people as descendants of indigenous Africans and a people whose identity was shaped by colonisation, slavery, and the racial political hierarchy it created. Although rooted in a difficult history, this book is also about the culture that Coloured communities have created for themselves through food, music, and shared lived experiences in communities such as Eldorado Park, Eersterus, and Wentworth. Coloured culture is an act of defiance and resilience.

Coloured is a reflection on, and celebration of Coloured identities as lived experiences. It is a call to Coloured communities to reclaim their identity and an invitation to understand the history and place of Coloured people in the making of South Africa’s future

Almost fired for insubordination, detectives Benny Griessel and Vaughn Cupido find themselves demoted, exiled from the elite Hawks unit and dispatched to the leafy streets of Stellenbosch. Working a missing persons report on student Callie de Bruin is not the level of work they are used to, but it's all they get. And soon, it takes a dangerous, deeply disturbing turn.

Stellenbosch is beautiful, but its economy has been ruined by one man. Jasper Boonstra and his gigantic corporate fraud have crashed the local property market, just when estate agent Sandra Steenberg desperately needs a big sale. Bringing up twins and supporting her academic husband, she is facing disaster. Then she gets a call. From Jasper Boonstra, fraudster, sexual predator and owner of a superb property worth millions, even now.

For Sandra, the stakes are high and about to get way higher. For Benny Griessel, clinging to sobriety and the relationship that saved his life, the truth about Callie can only lead to more trouble.

In this multi-billion rand corruption memoir, former Bosasa C.O.O and whistleblower, Angelo Agrizzi rips open the can of worms, exposing two decades of untold greed, politicking, corruption, bribery and deep state capture.

Inside the Belly of The Beast is a detailed confession, exposing the intimate fraudulent workings of a company, under the cult-like leadership of Gavin Watson. Agrizzi is one of few people with a first-hand account of what really happened behind the closed doors of Bosasa.

Prim Reddy and Niranj Pather are South Africans of Indian origin who embrace the diverse culinary offering of cosmopolitan South Africa.

Temptations is a reflection of their philosophy, a cookbook encompassing various cultures and featuring heritage recipes passed down through generations, as well as dishes experienced on their travels. To these they have added their own flair and the resulting flavours are incredible. The array of recipes will transport you from local Indian cuisine and exotic offerings from the sub-continent, through local braaivleis (barbecue) and salads, to Italian, Spanish, Greek, Portuguese and African flavours.

Every recipe has a story. Best of all, these are meals that are quick and easy but that will make a home chef feel like a million bucks. They exude laughter and happiness, sharing and celebration.

Niranj and Prim’s motto is that food isn’t just about sustenance; it’s about the experience, irrespective of how simple the offering may be.

“We make a big mistake to consider Bain simply another foreign company that extracted economic rents. I believe its involvement in bringing South Africa to its knees through state capture was much more insidious.”

When Bain & Company partner Athol Williams reported his employer in October 2019 for withholding information on their complicity in state capture, he had no idea how far-reaching Bain’s collusion had been. Who would have suspected a prestigious global management consulting firm of misusing its business expertise and lending its reputation to the most profound attack on South Africa’s democracy?

Drawing on his testimony before the Zondo Commission, Williams here reveals the full extent of what Bain did not want the public to know. Not only did Bain withhold information and witnesses from the authorities; they also attempted to buy Williams’s silence and block his Zondo testimony.

Deep Collusion uncovers the inner workings of state capture design. Williams takes the reader into the evidence that reveals the after-hours, behind-closed-doors planning meetings that took place at Zuma’s residences – who was present and what was discussed. While this book exposes greed and corporate corruption and lifts the lid on foreign profiteering and the weakening of South Africa’s public institutions, it also highlights the lonely burden of the whistleblower and the great personal cost of telling the truth in the face of overwhelming pressure.

In 1985, a group of white South African business leaders, led by Gavin Relly, the executive chairperson of Anglo American, travelled to a game lodge in Zambia to meet with the exiled ANC leadership under Oliver Tambo and Thabo Mbeki. This visit set in motion a coordinated and well-resourced plan by big business to influence and direct political change in South Africa.

In The ANC Billionaires, top-selling author Pieter du Toit draws on first-hand accounts by major roleplayers about the contentious relationship between capital and the ANC before, during and after the country’s transition to democracy, and shows how the liberation organisation was completely unprepared to navigate the intersection between business and politics.

He also ties the rise of the new elite – including Cyril Ramaphosa, Patrice Motsepe and Saki Macozoma – to the ANC, a party of government and patronage.

There is a lot that they don’t (and probably can’t) teach you in school. It feels like we spend a lot of time learning about plant cells and different types of rocks and too little time learning about budgeting, being healthy, human rights, sexual health, surviving heartbreak, and financial freedom.

The truth is that sometimes (often!) it is hard to be an adult. It involves making decisions all the time. It’s expensive. You have to navigate mostly dodgy expectations and stories about work and relationships and sex and your finances. And sometimes you want to scream – WHY DID NOBODY TELL ME THIS?

Join Jen Thorpe as she tells you about all the things you wish you knew as an adult. Thorpe covers your health, relationships, sex, work and money. She also discusses the government, media and social media, crime and climate change. This book is about how to survive in the real world, filled with helpful advice and practical tips, it has everything you need to know.

News of the sensational priosn escape of the murderer and 'Facebook rapist' Thabo Bester, assisted by his lover, celebrity doctor Nandipha Magudumana, shocked South Africa.

In this book, Marecia Damons and Daniel Steyn, the Ground Up journalists who first exposed the scam, tell the full story, from Thabo and Nandipha's life stories and their unlikely love affair, all the way to his faked death and their eventual arrest, though in disguise, in Tanzania.

Stella Mertens, Mark Dejongh en Riaan Steytler probeer elkeen iets uit hul verlede wegsteek . . . maar elke geheim het ’n vervaldatum. Daar is net ’n sekere tydperk wat ’n sekere hoeveelheid mense ’n geheim kan hou.

In Vuurvoël, Elmarie Viljoen-Massyn se debuutroman, word donker geheime ontrafel wanneer die oënskynlik uiteenlopende wêrelde van Big Pharma en ’n Serwiese dwelmkartel paaie kruis.

’n Hoogs leesbare roman wat getuig van puik navorsing.