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Books > Local Author Showcase > Politics
When Jacob Zuma retires to Nkandla, what will be left behind? South Africa has been in the grip of the “Zunami” since May 2009: Scandal, corruption and allegations of state capture have become synonymous with the Zuma era, leaving the country and its people disheartened. But Jacob Zuma’s time is running out. Whether he leaves the presidency after the ANC’s national conference in 2017, stays on until 2019, or is forced to retire much sooner, the question is: what impact will his departure have on South Africa, its people and on the ruling party? Can we fix the damage, and how? Ralph Mathekga answers these questions and more as he puts Zumaʼs leadership, and what will come after, in the spotlight.
The inspiration for this book was a Summer School on State, Governance and Development presented by distinguished academics from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. Written by young African scholars, the chapters here focus on state, governance and development in Africa as seen from the authors’ vantage points and positions in different sectors of society. The book opens with three forewords by eminent African scholars including Ben Turok, Johan Burger and Mohamed Halfani. The chapters that follow examine rent-seeking, patronage, neopatrimonialism and bad governance. They engage with statehood, state-building and statecraft and challenge the mainstream opinions of donors, funders, development banks, international non-governmental organisations and development organisations. They include the role of China in Africa, Kenya’s changing demographics, state accountability in South Africa’s dominant party system, Somalia’s prospects for state-building, urban development and routine violence, and resource mobilisation. At a time in which core institutions are being tested -- the market, the rule of law, democracy, civil society and representative democracy – this book offers a much-needed multi- and inter-disciplinary perspective, and a different narrative on what is unfolding, while also exposing dynamics that are often overlooked.
The End Of Whiteness aims to reveal the pathological, paranoid and bizarre consequences that the looming end of apartheid had on white culture in South Africa, and overall to show that whiteness is a deeply problematic category that needs to be deconstructed and thoughtfully considered. This book uses contemporary media material to investigate two symptoms of this late apartheid cultural hysteria that appeared throughout the contemporary media and in popular literature during the 1980s and 1990s, showing their relation to white anxieties about social change, the potential loss of privilege and the destabilisation of the country that were imagined to be an inevitable consequence of majority rule. The ‘Satanic panic’ revolved around the apparent threat posed by a cult of white Satanists that was never proven to exist but was nonetheless repeatedly accused of conspiracy, murder, rape, drug-dealing, cannibalism and bestiality, and blamed for the imminent destruction of white Christian civilisation in South Africa. During the same period an unusually high number of domestic murder-suicides occurred, with parents killing themselves and their children or other family members by gunshot, fire, poison, gas, even crossbows and drownings. This so-called epidemic of family murder was treated by police, press and social scientists as a plague that specifically affected white Afrikaans families. These double monsters, both fantastic and real, helped to disembowel the clarities of whiteness even as they were born out of threats to it. Deep within its self-regarding modernity and renegotiation of identity, contemporary white South Africa still wears those scars of cultural pathology.
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.
The Big Fix gives the first detailed account of how South Africa paid $10 million to secure the 2010 World Cup. Between June and July 2010, 64 games of football determined that Spain was the world’s best team at the World Cup in South Africa. South Africans – and the world – celebrated a brilliantly hosted tournament where everything worked like clockwork and the stands were packed with vuvuzela‐wielding fans. But the truth was not yet known. Behind this significant national achievement lay years of corporate skulduggery, crooked companies rigging tenders and match fixing involving the national team. As late as 2015 it was revealed that the tournament’s very foundations were corrupt when evidence emerged that South Africa had encouraged FIFA to pay money to a bent official in the Caribbean to buy three votes in its favour. As Sepp Blatter’s FIFA edifice crumbled, a web of transactions from New York to Trinidad and Tobago showed how money was diverted to allow South Africa’s bid to host the tournament to succeed. In The Big Fix: How South Africa Stole The 2010 World Cup, Ray Hartley reveals the story of an epic national achievement and the people who undermined it in pursuit of their own interests. It is the real story of the 2010 World Cup.
Human Resource Management in Government: A South African Perspective On Theories, Politics And Processes explores the many facets of the employment relationship within government institutions. These activities include strategic employment processes, such as talent management, trade union interactions, compensation, human resource governance (metrics) and the future of human resource management.
As a young girl, Ismé Bennie didn’t realize how privileged she was. A white South African growing up during the apartheid era, her life was one of pleasure. She was a child at play under the warm African sun. As she grew, however, and became more aware of the suffering of the black community in her country, she began to understand the evils of apartheid in a way that only those who lived through it can. White Schooldays is a reflection on the relative normalcy of Bennie’s life in the 1940s and 1950s—a life filled with her pets, family, sports, and friends. As a Jew, Bennie was a minority within a minority, but she still enjoyed the benefits of life as a white South African. Her everyday pleasurable experiences stand in stark contrast to the violence, discrimination, and political upheaval that went on around her. As Bennie changed from a girl to a woman, the bliss of ignorance faded away. White Schooldays is Bennie’s homage to a way of life that was special and beautiful for those who were privileged enough to lead it…and a look at the political reality of the times to keep it all in perspective.
Africa is falling. Africa is succeeding. Africa is betraying its citizens. Africa is a place of starvation, corruption, disease. African economies are soaring faster than any on earth. Africa is squandering its bountiful resources. Africa is a roadmap for global development. Africa is turbulent. Africa is stabilising. Africa is doomed. Africa is the future. All of these pronouncements prove equally true and false, as South African journalists Richard Poplak and Kevin Bloom discover on their 9-year roadtrip through the paradoxical continent they call home. From pillaged mines in Zimbabwe to the creation of an economic marketplace in Ethiopia; from Namibia’s middle class to the technological challenges facing Nollywood in the 21st Century; from China’s investment in Botswana to the rush for resources in the Congo; and from the birth of Africa’s newest country, South Sudan, to the worsening conflict in CAR, here are eight adventures on the trail of a new Africa. Part detective story, part report from this economic frontier, Continental Shift follows the money as it flows through Chinese coffers to international conglomerates, to heads of state, to ordinary African citizens, all of whom are intent on defining a metamorphosing continent.
The question was: would he hang? In 1963, when South Africa's apartheid government charged Nelson Mandela with planning its overthrow, most observers feared that he would be sentenced to death. But the support he and his fellow activists in the African National Congress received during his trial not only saved his life, but also enabled him to save his country. In Saving Nelson Mandela, South African law expert Kenneth S. Broun recreates the trial-called the "Rivonia" Trial after the Johannesburg suburb where police seized Mandela. Based upon interviews with many of the case's primary figures and portions of the trial transcript, Broun situates readers inside the courtroom at the imposing Palace of Justice in Pretoria. Here, the trial unfolds through a dramatic narrative that captures the courage of the accused and their defense team, as well as the personal prejudices that colored the entire trial. The Rivonia trial had no jury and only a superficial aura of due process, combined with heavy security that symbolized the apartheid government's system of repression. Broun shows how outstanding advocacy, combined with widespread public support, in fact backfired on apartheid leaders, who sealed their own fate. Despite his 27-year incarceration, Mandela's ultimate release helped move his country from the racial tyranny of apartheid toward democracy. As documented in this inspirational book, the Rivonia trial was a critical milestone that helped chart the end of Apartheid and the future of a new South Africa.
"For a couple of months in the near perfect summer of 1990/1991, Jacob Zuma came to stay in my house in Norwood, Johannesburg… Twenty five years later, my former house guest has all but morally bankrupted Nelson Mandela's ruling African National Congress. President Zuma's vision-free leadership, corrupt personal behaviour and attempts to use his political power to distort the judicial system render him no better than Italy's corrupt bunga-bunga partying ex-prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi." So begins God, Spies And Lies, the most explosive insider’s account since Mandela came to power, a never-before-seen insider’s account of how South Africa got here -- and how things went wrong. It takes you into the room with Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki, into the Oval Office of the US President and the British Prime Minister’s Chequers country estate, as the fate of southern Africa was being set before and after 1994. Among its revelations are:
John Matisonn has had a bird’s eye view of South Africa’s progress through apartheid and democracy. As a political correspondent, foreign correspondent and one of the pioneers of democratic South Africa’s free broadcasting environment, he interacted with every ANC leader since Oliver Tambo and every government leader from John Vorster to Jacob Zuma. Now for the first time this seasoned and erudite insider reveals the secrets of a 40 year career observing the politicians, their spies and the journalists who wrote about them. As a patriot, he argues that the way to a better future can be found through an unvarnished examination of the past.
In 1998 the South African government was warned that the country was running out of electricity. Despite the warnings, the decision was taken not to invest in new power stations. Had the warnings been heeded, South Africa could have had a new power station up and running by 2006 and load shedding may never have happened. Instead, in 2007, as predicted, South Africa ran out of electricity. Eight years later, the crisis has deepened and despite assurances to the contrary by government leadership, it has the potential to become the biggest post-apartheid crisis in South Africa. By 2015 load shedding cost the South African economy an estimated R2 billion per day. Is the situation getting better or worse? Are the interventions working or is a blackout inevitable? What can be done and what do future scenarios look like? Blackout: The Eskom Crisis provides a look at what’s happening to one of the greatest power utilities in the world, the greatest on the African continent. It deals with everything from load shedding to blackouts and unpacks the issues raging around candlelight dinners in households across South Africa today.
Hoekom kry die DA nie steun onder swart Suid-Afrikaners nie? Is hulle gedoem om ’n wit party te bly? Wat doen die DA dan verkeerd? Kan hulle droom van groter steun in 2014? Eusebius McKaiser is bekend daarvoor dat hy geen doekies omdraai nie. In hierdie vermaaklike, ietwat voor-op-die-wa en soms tong-in-die-kies boek, bekyk Eusebius die DA van naderby. Staan hulle hoegenaamd ’n kans in die verkiesing hierdie jaar? Die boek is geskryf in Eusebius se kenmerkende leesbare en hoogs amusante styl. Sy argumente word aangevul deur kleurryke anekdotes en lewendige, soms onthullende vertelling uit sy eie ervaring. Of jy hom nou bewonder of verafsku, g’n Suid-Afrikaner word koud gelaat deur Eusebius se skerp, soms aspris, insigte nie.
Renowned historian Bill Nasson explores how the complex dynamics of the crisis of war shaped the character of South African politics and the life of its fragmented and frequently turbulent society. His gripping account provides a vivid illustration of the richly varied manner in how the Union's people understood the war, experienced its pressures, responded to its opportunities, and dealt with its burdens. The consequences of the country's entry into war were often fraught and far-reaching, including the shock of a domestic Afrikaner rebellion, the swallowing of German South West Africa, decisive economic change, and wartime habits of violence which lingered on after 1918. Thoughtful, lively and witty, this is an evocative portrait of South African society in its own world of war.
As a leading political journalist and newspaper editor, Ray Hartley had the best seat in the house for the unfolding drama of the new South Africa, as well as privileged access to many key players, including Nelson Mandela himself. On a cold Highveld morning in May 1994, Nelson Mandela took the oath of office to become South Africa’s first democratically elected president. A new era had begun. The promise of those heady days of political transition soon gave way to a more sober view on the magnitude of the challenges facing the new government. Under Mandela and his successor, Thabo Mbeki, the country grappled with the restructuring of the state, massive inequality and poverty, rising crime, battles over economic policy, the arms deal, the HIV/AIDS crisis, the BEE era, the cancer of political corruption and the rise of a new and predatory political elite. With the removal of Mbeki, followed by the interregnum of Kgalema Motlanthe, the stage was set for the coming to power of the controversial Jacob Zuma. These are all key threads in Ray Hartley’s rich and complex narrative history of the democratic era. Admirably concise but rich in detail, drawing on a wide spectrum of interviews, documents and experiences, Ragged Glory offers a bracingly critical look back at the achievements and the failures of two turbulent decades, during which South Africa took its place at the table
"It is a gruesome tale - how we have moved so rapidly from the era of hope to the bleak landscape ushered in by Zuma's ascent to power …" Yet Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, acclaimed author and international expert on reconciliation, wants to rekindle our hope. As a clinical psychologist who has worked for the TRC, in Rwanda and with Holocaust survivors, she offers unique perspectives on healing the wounded South African nation. In this selection of her best local and international writing, she explores our unfinished business, Afrikaner rage, the politics of revenge, why apologies are not enough and how Zuma has corrupted the soul of South Africa. Gobodo-Madikizela offers a lucid and compelling argument that it is only in facing up to our painful past that we can find hope - and a meaningful future.
This is the book that Alex Boraine never wanted to write. As a native South African and a witness to the worst years of apartheid, he has known many of the leaders of the African National Congress in exile. He shared the jubilation of millions of South Africans when the ANC won the first democratic elections in 1994 and took up the reins of government under the presidency of Nelson Mandela. Now, two decades later, he is forced to wonder what exactly has gone wrong in South Africa. Intolerance and corruption are the hallmarks of the governing party, while the worsening state of education, health, safety and security and employment strengthen the claim that South Africa is a failing state. Boraine explores this urgent and critical issue from the vantage point of wide experience as a minister, parliamentarian, co-founder of the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA) and Vice Chairperson of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Committee. He digs deep into the history of the ANC and concludes that both in exile and today, the ANC is slavishly committed to one party as the dominant ruling factor. All else - the Executive, Parliament, the Judiciary, civil society and the media - take second and third place. The ANC, Boraine claims, seeks to control every institution. What's Gone Wrong? pulls no punches, but it also goes beyond strong criticism and offers a number of constructive proposals, including the re-alignment of politics as a way of preventing South Africa becoming a failed state. As South Africa mourns the loss of Mandela and embarks on another national election, with the ANC likely to begin a third decade of rule, this incisive, detailed critique is required reading for all who are interested in the fate of this young nation.
Tony Leon has written a book of unique insight into an unexplored aspect of the presidency and leadership of Nelson Mandela. Opposite Mandela relates the untold stories of how South Africa's first democratic president related to his political opponents. Leon served as leader of the Democratic Party during Mandela's presidency. Although they clashed, sometimes fiercely, on great issues of the day, Leon enjoyed an unusually warm relationship with Mandela and had direct access to the president's office. In this first-hand account, he relates some of the more consequential moments of those momentous times in South Africa's history-in-the-making through the lens of the opposition. Although this is a personal account, it also explores some of the major themes, from reconciliation to corruption, which not only marked that period but also laid the basis for the current challenges which confront South Africa today, nearly two decades after Mandela assumed the country’s highest office, the very moment when Leon's political leadership began. Insightful, and simultaneously serious and amusing, it lifts the veil on many unknown or unexplained benchmarks from that era: the personal animosity between Mandela and FW De Klerk, the decision of the Democratic Party to reject Mandela's offer of a seat in his cabinet and whether the extraordinary outreach of Mandela to the minorities was the shrewd calculation of a latter-day Machiavelli or the genuine impulses of a secular political saint. This highly readable and first-hand account considers in a balanced manner both the golden moments and the blind spots of one of the most consequential presidencies and leaders of the modern democratic age.
Have South Africans changed in any significant way since 1994? Or are black and white simply repeating old patterns? American-born journalist Donna Bryson found answers to these questions on the University of the Free State campus in Bloemfontein. In 2008 this sleepy city was thrust into the international spotlight by a racist video made by students from Reitz residence. Bryson went to investigate. As she started speaking to students and university staff, including two former rectors, she realised the university was a microcosm of what was happening in the rest of the country. Since the 1990s, black and white were forced to learn how to live together on campus – as elsewhere. It has not always been easy. Now under the leadership of the university’s new rector – the charismatic Jonathan Jansen – real change is finally taking place. Most inspiring are the stories Bryson uncovers about individual transformations. From the white theology student who decides to learn Sotho to the black accountancy student who realises she does not share her parents’ mistrust of whites. Bryson offers a story of hope in a country desperate for good news.
When De Wet Potgieter wrote in the Daily Maverick that Al Qaeda was operating within borders of South Africa, there were howls of protest, he was forced to write a retraction and was fired. After the Westgate terror attack in Nairobi, in the aftermath of which South Africa was named as a conduit country for Al Shabaab, who claimed responsibility, media from all around world suddenly wanted interviews with De Wet. The fact is that compelling evidence points to Al Qaeda being here, and his book will show where they might be operating (on a farm, known to the local people, and photographed) and most importantly how and why. It will show the unwillingness of Government to act on their own intelligence, and how our porous borders and corruption ridden state machinery make this country the ideal entry point for terrorism. Based on two years' investigations and numerous interviews, this book will give details of the secluded farm and surveillance of it, showing the involvement of the secret Muslim paramilitary organisation called the Fordsburg Group; expose the workings of the Pakistani Mafia in South Africa and how their members were never prosecuted after being arrested here; the payment of millions in state funds to a terrorist organisation for security during the 2010 World Cup; more money changing hands; and the rendition of Pakistani national from South Africa. The South African passport of the so called "White Widow" implicated in the terrorist attack has been documented. This book also tells of a South African woman called the "Black Widow" with ties to both the right wing and Muslim extremists.
Hierdie boek is verpligte leesstof vir alle Suid-Afrikaners wat op soek is na oplossings vir die probleme wat ons demokrasie in die gesig staar. Adam Habib bied ’n oorspronklike analise van die politieke en ekonomiese oorgang in die postapartheidera deur die institusionele beperkinge en die magsbalanse wat ’n rol speel in die Suid-Afrikaanse politieke arena, bloot te lê. Habib pak dilemmas aan soos die dienslewerings- en verantwoordbaarheidskrisis, die skuiwe in ekonomiese beleid, die rol van die burgerlike samelewing en die lewensvatbaarheid van ’n sosiale verdrag, en ondersoek so die faktore wat politieke en beleidsuitkomste beïnvloed. Dit sluit die mag en hefboomkrag van politieke partye, die sakesektor, buitelandse beleggers, vakunies, organisasies in die burgerlike samelewing asook globale mag en instellings in. Hy glo dat individue en instellings met ’n bietjie verbeelding, kan optree téén die grein van ’n gegewe historiese oomblik en die gemeenskap in sy geheel verander. South Africa’s Suspended Revolution: Hopes and Prospects het in 2013 verskyn. Rewolusie op Ys: Suid-Afrika se Vooruitsigte is ’n verkorte en vertaalde weergawe van die oorspronklike Engelse uitgawe en dien as ’n ideale inleiding vir enigeen wat geïnteresseerd is in Suid-Afrika se vooruitsigte.
A magistrate put Glenn Agliotti among the ‘snitches, pimps, rats who would sell their soul to evade a long prison term’. The press called him a drug trafficker and a drug dealer. He was. He’d admitted to these crimes and signed a plea bargain to blow the whistle on an associate. He was also known as the Landlord, which made him sound like a mafia boss. He was too a facilitator between those in high places, think Jackie Selebi, and businessmen on the make, think Brett Kebble. He was known as a fixer, the go-to guy who commanded fees of R100 million to organise connections. This is the story of the man who did business in coffee shops and met associates in car parks and underground garages. It is the story of the man who bought shoes for the national commissioner of police. The man accused of the murder of Brett Kebble. This is the story of Glenn Agliotti, one of Johannesburg’s sons of the underworld.
In his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela describes his house at 8115 Vilikazi Street, Soweto, as '"...identical to hundreds of others... it had the same standard tin roof, the same cement floor, a narrow kitchen, and a bucket toilet at the back". Little did Mandela know when he first moved into the house in 1946 that it would become the stage for some of the most important political events in South Africa's turbulent history and, in recent times, a cultural landmark visited by thousands of tourists each year. Renowned photographer and close family friend Alf Kumalo captured the day-to-day life of the Mandelas - the raids by the security police and intimate family moments, both of joy and sorrow, as well as Mandela's return to his home after his release from prison in 1990, twenty-eight years after he had left it. Using this unassuming house as the setting, 8115: A Prisoner's Home collects some of Kumalo's most historically important and beautiful images of the Mandela family and their home, giving us a unique insight into the life of the family who would have a profound effect on South Africa's political landscape.
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!
It's a scene most South Africans are familiar with; something that adds that oomph to your social status as a South African woman. This is a laugh-out-loud take on a woman's home, but is as serious as the security guards in gated communities. It is a quirky look at the women in our lives; our mothers, our sisters, our cousins, our friends, us. It's the relationship between maids and their madams. Maid In South Africa takes a lighter look at one of South Africa's most important yet most often overlooked relationships of all: that between a domestic worker and her madam. Seen from both perspectives, the book takes on real conversations with both helpers and employers. This delightful book offers a never-before-seen description of types of madams and their families on one hand, and types of helpers on the other. Through these introductions and distinctions, you will not only learn the differences between the city or town helper, but also about the quirks of the Malawian or Zimbabwean helper. In addition, you discover invaluable truths about maid-madam relationships, including why helpers leave; how to tell the difference between old money and the nouveau riche; and that there is only one type of black madam - the middle-class African madam, because the rich African madam, as well as her Indian and white counterparts, have transcended race.
Carte Blanche burst onto the scene in 1988 as a genre never before seen on South African television: a trail-blazer, a blend of sociological awareness, sophistication and audacity. When pay channel M-Net came up with this different and daring weekly eye-opener that pushed the envelope, it brought promise of freedom and creativity and ended a period in our history in which television news and current affairs were limited to the state broadcaster. Twenty-five years on, the familiar Carte Blanche melody has become an institution, announcing the end of the weekend and the start of an hour that resists the mundane and stimulates debate. What's become a Sunday night ritual began in a make-shift studio with a small team of firebrands, led by an arrogant, fearless talent, a showman with scant respect for the conventions of the time: Bill Faure was the most dynamic director of his day, a visionary who shared his passionate love of television with the world. He set the stage for what has become South Africa's longest running investigative current affairs show and the most valuable real estate in broadcasting. Faure passed the baton on to an extraordinary generation of journalists that created a vault of diverse memories, brought into homes across the country and into Africa, stories of delight and daring, cheek and chutzpah, heartbreak and heroism, of the weird and whacky. It's said that his spirit still guides Carte Blanche into shaking complacency and bringing to the screen a social and ecological conscience, be it the cruelty meted out to the Tuli elephants, the selfless courage of Sally Trench, or blast off with Mark Shuttleworth. It's enabled us all to chase car thieves across our borders, catch out rogue mechanics and find out what security guards and plumbers do and don't do in our homes. It's brought to our screens a host of unforgettable characters from the transsexuals of Beaufort West to the shady directors of Aurora. Carte Blanche: 25 years dips into an era of quality journalism through the eyes of the producers and presenters who have so effectively measured the national mood and recognized defining moments. It's a show that has become part of our landscape and promises to survive another quarter of a century. |
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