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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Oliver Tambo Remembered is a salute to one of South Africa's most remarkable individuals. Originally published in 2007, this compilation of memories is a celebration of what would have been Oliver Reginald Tambo's 90th birthday.

It sees friends and associates remembering OR the leader, the comrade and the man. The contributions are written by people who encountered OR during his travels in Europe and the US, and who knew him whilst he was living in South Africa and in exile in Africa and the UK.

This edition of Oliver Tambo Remembered is published in commemoration of his centenary on 27 October 2017. The pieces in this book celebrate not only the impact that OR had on South Africa's future, but also the character of a selfless, compassionate leader, who raised the international profile of the ANC through his wise and intelligent guidance, his humility and integrity, and his unyielding commitment to the struggle.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Op 15 Julie 1932 sterf CJ Langenhoven skielik. Dat hy ’n jong Joodse vrou, die vurige rooikop Sarah Eva Goldblatt, as eksekuteur van sy literêre nalatenskap benoem, kom as ’n verrassing. Dominique Malherbe was van kleins af gefassineer deur die familiefluisteringe oor dié groottante van haar en haar verhouding met Langenhoven. Uiteindelik besluit sy om antwoorde te soek  oor Saartjie se lewe, haar werk en die raaisel rondom haar babaseun.’n Ongewone en boeiende literêre liefdesverhaal.

Mac Maharaj played a pivotal role in the liberation movement for nearly four decades, suffering brutal tortures and twelve years’ imprisonment on Robben Island with Nelson Mandela.

It was Maharaj who smuggled out the manuscript of Mandela’s autobiography and later re-entered South Africa to establish a political and military underground on a mission so secret that only those at the highest levels were even aware of its existence.

Drawing from extensive interviews with Maharaj over eleven years and hitherto unavailable documents, Padraig O’Malley vividly renders a true tale of heroism and a gripping insider’s look at the struggle for freedom in South Africa.

Seven years since his death (2013), Nelson Mandela still occupies an extraordinary place in the global imagination. Internationally, Mandela's renown seems intact and invulnerable. In South Africa, however, his legacy and his place in the country's history have become matters of contention and dispute, especially among younger black South Africans.

These essays analyse aspects of Mandela's life in the context of South Africa's national history, and make an important contribution to the historiography of the anti-apartheid political struggle. They reassess: the political context of his youth; his changing political beliefs and connections with the left; his role in the African National Congress and the turn to armed struggle; and his marriage to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and their political relationship.

By providing new context, they explore Mandela as an actor in broader social processes such as the rise of the ANC and the making of South Africa's post-apartheid constitution. The detailed essays are linked in a substantial introduction by Colin Bundy and current debates are addressed in a concluding essay by Elleke Boehmer. This book provides a scholarly counterweight both to uncritical celebration of Mandela and also to a simplistic attribution of post-apartheid shortcomings to the person of Mandela.

16 years went into the making of the feature film Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom, a biopic based on Mandela's bestselling autobiography. Danny Schechter, who has spent 40 years getting to know Mandela, was asked to make a non-fiction documentary about the biopic and this book is his companion to the feature, the documentary, and Mandela's life itself.

In Schechter's words:
"What do we see when we see Nelson Mandela? Many of those who adore him projected on to him a god-like persona as political superman. Others projected on to him the qualities they wanted or feared. For many years, his government silenced him as a faceless terrorist and communist. Others saw him as a savior who single-handedly won freedom for South Africa. Many of us only saw the political mission, not the man behind it, and, when we did, what man was that? Was it the victim turned victor, prisoner turned President, the lone hero and political magician or the wise leader of a liberation movement? He was courted by kings and queens, the biggest names in show business and world leaders--who appealed to his often unseen vanity--but despite some compromises and co-optation, he largely stayed true to the values that shaped and guided him becoming, as he aged, even more reflective and self-aware."

It probably took a fraction of a second from the knock - a single bang - to the opening of the door and the entry of an unexpected visitor into the room. They had just finished their lunch. The unannounced visitor ...simply pretended that everything was normal. There he stood - unfazed and somehow gigantic in his presence. The room had suddenly been invaded by a man who was to be a landmark in the lives of the trainees...

The book opens in China, 1962. Andrew Mlangeni is one of a small select group undergoing military training. The unannounced visitor is Mao Tse-Tung. While still at school, Andrew Mlangeni joined the Communist Party of South Africa and also the ANC Youth League. These were the organisations that shaped his values. Decades of resourceful activism were to lead to his arrest and life sentence in the Rivonia trial. Mlangeni's lifelong commitment to the struggle for liberation reverberates with other biographies of leading figures. His perspective comes from a somewhat ambiguous position in the hierarchy of liberation leaders. Mlangeni was selected as one of the first-ever six members who received military training in China before the formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe. He seems to have been chosen because he was a dedicated, intelligent and dependable operative, rather than a leader.

Even after his release after 25 years on Robben Island, Mlangeni was not given a senior position in the post-apartheid democratic government. 'I was always the backroom boy,' says Andrew Mlangeni about himself. This story of an ANC elder is a rigorously researched historical record overlaid with intensely personal reflections which intersect with the political narrative. Above all, it is one man's story, set in the maelstrom of the liberation struggle.

This biographical project has been developed for, and published in conjunction with, the June and Andrew Mlangeni Foundation.

South Africa’s past quarter century has been shaped by the decisions and reach of one of the oldest political alliances in southern Africa, that between the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party.

Towards a New Deal offers an insider account on the evolution of trade and economic policy in South Africa over the last 25 years from one of government’s most articulate and former senior members. Beginning in the early 1970s leading up to the current Ramaphosa era, Rob Davies gives in-depth insight into the politics, policies, and inner workings of the South African government. He concludes with a chapter on the ‘new dawn’ focusing primarily on the impacts of COVID-19 and the extremely challenging period that lies ahead. Told with intriguing anecdotes and, in parts, with the author’s own very personal and humanising history of activism and time spent in exile, this memoir presents a strong case for economic change, and is essential reading for economists, businesspeople, and ordinary readers keen to grasp the political and economic dynamics of the moment.

“As the world economic system stumbles, as trade wars intensify, and the dangers of a diminishing global multilateralism threaten – Davies’ new book offers a unique blend of astute analysis and personal experience. It is a must read.” – Jeremy Cronin, Former South African Deputy Minister of Transport.

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.

Dan Moyane was 10 years old when he lay on his back on a patch of grass at his parents’ home in White City Jabavu, Soweto, looking at the moon and thinking, ‘I don’t want to die unknown.’

The year was 1969, and Neil Armstrong and his team had recently achieved immortality by completing the first moon landing. It was the knowledge that the astronauts would be remembered as long as the world turned that made Dan realise that he, too, would like to be remembered by people outside of his immediate community; just as he would like to find out more about what lay beyond his horizon. Dan’s insatiable curiosity and love of learning have ensured that his name has, indeed, become known throughout South Africa.

This is the story of how he achieved his goal – from his days as a student at the apex of South Africa’s political turmoil, to his years in exile in Mozambique and his first job in media, and the trajectory of a career that would see him become one of South Africa’s most highly regarded and influential broadcasters. It is a career that led Dan to interview prominent leaders in Mozambique and South Africa and become acquainted with the likes of Nelson Mandela and Graça Machel, and saw him cover the country’s birth into democracy, and help shape South Africans’ understanding of the changed world around them.

I Don’t Want To Die Unknown delves into these experiences, giving a glimpse into the inquisitiveness and desire to know more, do more and be more that has driven Dan Moyane. It offers a rare insight into the man behind the microphone – his ambitions, trials, and motivations.

Part memoir, part legacy, this book bears testimony to the fact that far from dying unknown, Dan is one of South Africa’s most important, high profile media players and his story provides the framework for his next significant question: How best to use his public profile to benefit his countrymen.

In spite of Cyril Ramaphosa's "new dawn", there are powerful forces in the ruling party that risk losing everything if corruption and state capture finally do come to an end. At the centre of the old guard's fightback efforts is Ace Magashule, a man viewed by some as South Africa's most dangerous politician.

In this explosive book, investigative journalist Pieter-Louis Myburgh ventures deeper than ever before into Magashule's murky dealings, from his time as a struggle activist in the 1980s to his powerful rule as premier of the Free State province for nearly a decade, and his rise to one of the ANC's most influential positions. Sifting through heaps of records, documents and exclusive source interviews, Myburgh explores Magashule's relationship with the notorious Gupta family and other tender moguls; investigates government projects costing billions that enriched his friends and family but failed the poor; reveals how he was about to be arrested by the Scorpions before their disbandment in the late 2000s; and exposes the methods used to keep him in power in the Free State and to secure him the post of ANC secretary-general.

Most tellingly, Myburgh pieces together a pack of leaked emails and documents to reveal shocking new details on a massive Free State government contract and Magashule's dealings with a businessman who was gunned down in Sandton in 2017. These files seem to lay bare the methods of a man who usually operated without leaving a trace.

Gangster State is an unflinching examination of the ANC's top leadership in the post-Jacob Zuma era, one that should lead readers to a disconcerting conclusion: When it comes to the forces of capture, South Africa is still far from safe.