Mark Heywood has spearheaded victories for justice in South Africa. One of the founders of TAC, he was key in forcing the government to provide HIV-treatment, and more recently in exposing the textbook crisis in Limpopo and organising the “Zuma must fall” campaign. Here he recounts the personal story behind his public persona in a gripping, readable tale featuring i.a. the Sex Pistols and Chinese dissidents. Honest, urgent and inspirational.

Just who is Radovan Krejcir? Known as “Baas John” to his underlings, he arrived in South Africa in 2007 under a false passport. He was a fugitive, a powerful Czech multimillionaire, who escaped from prison on fraud charges and fled to the good life in the Seychelles. But a bid by the Czech Republic to have him extradited saw Krejcir coming to South Africa. He was arrested at the airport, but an alleged bribe kept him in the country. Within a few years Krejcir had amassed great wealth and his name began being associated with underworld gang members such as Cyril Beeka and Lolly Jackson. It was the murder of Lolly Jackson that brought Krejcir’s name into the limelight and revealed his dealing with crime intelligence boss Joey Mabasa and small time criminal George Louka.

Over the next three years 10 more deaths took place, each one more dramatic than the next. He was also the victim of a bizarre James Bond style shoot out. His business Moneypoint exploded when a bomb left inside a bag blew up, killing two associates. Soon afterward Krejcir was arrested, but in true Krejcir fashion even a jail cell could not hold him down. Police foiled a plan to murder top cop Colonel Nkosana Ximba and forensic investigator Paul O’Sullivan and to stop numerous escape attempts.

He has been found guilty and sentenced for kidnapping, attempted murder and attempted drug possession. He also faces charges for the murder of Sam Issa, the conspiracy to murder investigators and the murder of Phumlani Ncube, a hit man-turned informant. But Krejcir reveals why we have not heard the last of the worst crime boss South Africa has ever seen.

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.

A Darker Shade Of Pale tells the story of life as a person of mixed race in apartheid South Africa.

After the National Party gained power in South Africa in 1948, the all-white government took control by legislating their policies of racial segregation under a system called apartheid. Forced to live among the sand dunes and narrow streets of Council housing estates, through her mixed ancestry Beryl was classified as Coloured, not white enough or not black enough. This allowed the government to shape her life, where she was allowed to live, to attend school, to sit on the train, to work, and who she could marry.

Growing up in council housing estates on the Cape Flats in the 1960s and early 1970s it wasn’t until reaching high school that she discovered a richer life on the other side of the tracks for those classified as white. The stark reality of the inequality towards her skin colour made her question her ancestry and her parents’ acceptance of their classification. She was drawn to joining rallies to fight the government but at home any such discussions were strongly dismissed.

It is a remarkable story of the resilience of her parents, particularly her mother Sarah who recognised that the future for her children was through education. Sarah, faced with many challenges – the death of a young child, a husband suffering ill-health, five children to feed and to keep a roof over their head powered the way forward to increase their chances of a better life should apartheid crumble.

A Darker Shade Of Pale is a moving account of Beryl’s family and community life in segregated South Africa – the injustices, humiliation and challenges and finally finding acceptance when she moved to Australia in the 1980s.

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

Only a dramatic, imaginatively crafted intervention - a massive redistribution programme managed by the private sector, far-reaching policy changes in schooling, housing and health, and better, disciplined governance - will deliver the genuine liberation South Africa's still-poor millions expected from the 1994 settlement. Without it, without the real promise of a free, meritocratic society, South Africa will flounder and fail as corruption, crime, social decay, hopelessness and anger engulf society. This is the compelling thesis of Hlumelo Biko's hard-hitting, thoughtful analysis of South Africa's past, present and future, a sobering assessment of where we stand today, and where we need to go.

At once unnervingly candid and inspiring, The Great African Society demolishes the complacent optimism that underpins much soft thinking about South Africa's future and places at the service of public debate practical, achievable objectives for business, government and civil society. South Africa's challenge, the book argues, is to act now to avoid the mounting threat of revolt and decline that would devalue every political and economic achievement of the past decade-and-a-half and leave Nelson Mandela's feted rainbow nation staring decrepitude in the face.

Biko, the son of two great South Africans, Steve Biko and Mamphela Ramphele, is generous in acknowledging achievements to date, but unsparing in judging the flaws and failures of the ANC-led government, of business, unions and civil society. He offers a comprehensive survey of the profound and continuing devastation visited on the country by its unjust history, and plain, rational proposals for repairing the damage. No debate from here on about the South African future can be taken seriously without weighing Biko's insights and his warnings.

The Great African Society is vividly moral in its intentions, but sober and unsentimental in examining political and economic imperatives. It is guaranteed to make the reader sit up and take stock afresh.

In these conversations with people of a younger generation Mamphela Ramphele responds to the growing despair among young South Africans about the cracks that are appearing in our system of governance and threatening the idealism of the country that reinvented itself with the dawn of democracy in 1994.

She shows incisively how successive post-apartheid ANC governments have betrayed the nation for a culture of impunity among those close to the seat of power, where corruption goes unremarked and accountability has been swept aside. Enduring poverty, inequity and a failing public service, most notably in health and education, are the results.

At once challenging and encouraging, Ramphele urges young South Africans – our future leaders – to set aside their fears; to take control of their rights and responsibilities as citizens in upholding the values of the constitution; and to confront the growing inequality that is undermining good governance, social justice and stability.

Death Of An Idealist: In Search Of Neil Aggett is the story behind the only white detainee to die in custody of apartheid's security police.

A medical doctor who worked most of the week as an unpaid trade union organiser, Neil Aggett's stark non-materialism, shared by his partner Dr Elizabeth Floyd, aroused the suspicions. When their names appeared on a list of 'Close Comrades' prepared for ANC leaders in exile they were among a swathe of union activists detained in 1981. Beverley Naidoo traces the transformation of the youngest child born to settler parents in Kenya at the height of Mau Mau resistance to colonial rule.

The book explores the metamorphosis of a high-achieving, sports-loving white schoolboy into the 28-year-old whose coffin was followed by thousands of workers through Johannesburg to his grave. The extraordinary funeral and the preceding national work stoppage were a watershed for trade union unity. First-hand interviews reveal the fraught, intense world of activists inside the country in the late '70s and early '80s as the ANC-in-exile pushed to link with emerging black unions. Neil's non-materialism and his concern about to whom union organisers should be democratically accountable still demand engagement today.

Poignant, personal stories run through this fully-referenced biography of a stoic, stubborn, principled thinker who became a militant yet gentle activist. They include the huge rift with a dominant father who later ploughed his savings into his son's inquest, funding a top legal team led by George Bizos SC who offers the foreword to Death of an Idealist.

Drawing on the wide-ranging artistic experience gained in his years of acting and writing for theatre, Sol first ventured into poetry in 1977. Here he found he could more intensely express the thoughts and feelings garnered from his acute sense of observation.

People, their interaction with the environment and the socio-political and cultural times, the pains and hopes of a generation and the multi-facetted world of an evolving Johannesburg are the inspiration of his deeply-felt poems and ballads. Ordinary activities, every-day occurrences, a chance conversation overheard between two street-cleaners, the brutal death of a young political activist at the hands of security police, observations on the crime, violence and morals of naked Soweto - all are evoked in haunting, nostalgic and sometimes ironic reminiscences which recreate a period slowly fading from memory.

He turns a blistering spotlight on some incidents, encapsulated in a few, searing words. Others he treats with tenderness, understanding and an empathy which resounds within the reader's own emotions. Life at its most basic is counterbalanced by deep philosophic probings. There are unspoken challenges to question and to act as did the young people of those chaotic '70s.

Z Pallo Jordan is the quintessential man of political letters on the one hand, and an astute literary historian in his own inimitable way, penning flowing observations, interspersed with pithy and yet colourful descriptions on the other hand – while cutting to the bone in analyses and breath-taking insights, informed by meticulous reading amassed over nearly half a century of struggle. Letters to Friends and Comrades is the ultimate collection of his piercing and yet embraceable thoughts and inquiries. This treasure trove of the writings of Z Pallo Jordan could not have been more timely in this critical – or should we say unfortunate – period of the promise that was the New Democratic Republic of South Africa, and published as it is on the eve of the African National Congress’s general elective congress in December 2017, and interestingly in the aftermath of the watershed municipal elections of 3 August 2016.

Though much has been written on South African censorship, there has been little historical or theoretical analysis. This text examines why the South African state in the post-war period required such a massive system of thought control.

Dare To Believe is a poignant narrative of resilience, courage and hope in the face of adversity. Mmusi Maimane invites readers on a journey through his personal experiences, from the hardships of Apartheid-era Soweto to the corridors of power in post-liberation South Africa.

With insights drawn from his political career and a deep commitment to justice, Maimane shares the travails of party politics, the difficult task of transforming the DA, and his vision for a South Africa where all races can live and prosper together.

This book challenges us to confront the realities of inequality and division while daring to envision a nation united in prosperity and peace. It is a call to restore democracy back to the people and a compelling articulation of Maimane's belief in the transformative power of unity and the promise of a better tomorrow.

South Africans have been poorly served by the economic choices their governments have made.

The consequences of these choices are everywhere to be seen but most importantly in unemployment and poverty. In this book Brian Kantor advances spirited economic arguments for freer markets and less government intervention and regulation of the South African economy; the book will add significantly to a layman’s understanding of how our economy works. It offers a succinct review of all the key drivers that determine a modern economy’s performance as well as the key institutions of a modern economy.

The book presents an insightful review of the challenges facing the South African economy and its policy makers.

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.

Dr Xolela Mangcu has earned a reputation as one of South Africa’s most vibrant and engaging public voices.

This new book is a collection of his columns written for local and international newspapers over the past fifteen years.

Vivid, polemical and poignant, it records the initial excitement – and growing disillusionment – of a leading black intellectual about post-apartheid government, notably the administrations of Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma, and the growing realisation that achieving real liberation in South Africa will require an even longer struggle than he had once believed.

Die gevierde historikus Hermann Giliomee beskou die val van wit regering in Suid-Afrika uit ’n prikkelende nuwe hoek: Pleks van onpersoonlike magte, of die vindingrykheid van ’n onstuitbare weerstandsbeweging, beklemtoon hy die rol van die Nasionale leiers en hul uitgesproke kritikus, Van Zyl Slabbert. Wat het die laaste Afrikanerleiers, van Verwoerd tot De Klerk, aangevuur? Hoe het hulle sekuriteit, ekonomiese groei en wit bevoorregting probeer versoen met die eise van ’n immer meer uitgesproke swart leierskap – en met foutiewe volkskattings?

In sy verkenning van elke leier se agtergrond, denke en persoonlikheid, neem Giliomee stelling in teenoor die idee dat Suid-Afrika in 1994 onafwendbaar op ’n ANC-oorwinning afgestuur het. Hoewel hy die belang van strukturele magte erken, argumenteer hy dat historiese toevallighede en die gehalte van leierskap die landspolitiek radikaal beïnvloed het.

Openhartige gesprekke met ’n magdom betrokkenes en talle primêre bronne werp dramatiese nuwe lig op sleutelmomente: Verwoerd se aanbod in 1950 aan stedelike swart leiers, die inval in Angola in 1975, die onverwagte deurbraak wat die arbeidshervormings moontlik gemaak het, Botha se geheime poging in 1984 om ’n ooreenkoms met die Sowjetunie aan te gaan, die agtergrond tot die rampspoedige Rubikon-toespraak, tronkgesprekke met Mandela, bosberade waar die kabinet taktiek beplan het – en hoe die Nasionale Party in die onderhandelinge nie sy beloftes kon nakom nie.

Giliomee bied ’n prikkelende politieke geskiedenis. Eerder as om te veroordeel, probeer hy verstaan waarom die laaste Afrikanerleiers opgetree het soos hulle het, en hoekom hul eie beleid hulle uiteindelik in die steek gelaat het.

Renowned historian Hermann Giliomee challenges the conventional wisdom on the downfall of white rule: Instead of impersonal forces, or the resourcefulness of an indomitable resistance movement, he emphasises the role of Nationalist leaders and of their outspoken critic, Van Zyl Slabbert. What motivated each of the last Afrikaner leaders, from Verwoerd to De Klerk? How did each try to reconcile economic growth, white privilege and security with the demands of an increasingly assertive black leadership and unexpected population figures?

In exploring each leader’s background, reasoning and personal foibles, Giliomee takes issue with the assumption that South Africa was inexorably heading for an ANC victory in 1994. He argues that historical accidents radically affected the course of politics.

Drawing on primary sources and personal interviews, this book sheds dramatic new light on many key moments: Verwoerd’s offer to the urban black leadership in 1950, the incursion into Angola in 1975, the unexpected breakthrough that made possible the labour reforms, Botha’s secret attempt in 1984 to forge a pact with the Soviet Union, the background to the disastrous Rubicon speech and the National Party backtracking in the negotiations.

Giliomee offers a fresh and stimulating political history which attempts not to condemn, but to understand why the last Afrikaner leaders did what they did, and why their own policies ultimately failed them.

This book is written as an attempt to understand what psycho-historical factors played a dominant role and undoubtly contributed to Afrikaners creating apartheid in 1948.

The main factors are humiliation by the British, and unprocessed grief due to the Anglo-Boer War when the women and children were put into British concentration camps, leaving the survivors with a deep fear of survival as a people, in a country where they were far outnumbered by black people. The book follows their tracks from 1795 till 1948.

The book is not about apartheid, it's about what determined it's creation in 1948 from a psychological perspective. It's a psycho-historical study.

We Are No Longer At Ease is a collection of personal articles, essays, speeches and poetry mainly from voices of young people who were part of the student-led protest movement known as #FeesMustFall which began in 2015. It tells the journey of a youth that participated in a movement that redefined politics in post-apartheid South Africa and is the evidence of a “born free” generation telling their own story and leading discourse as well as action on transforming South Africa.

The collection includes works by the young student leaders turned academic and public commentators such as David Maimela, Thapelo Tselapedi and Sisonke Msimang; student newspaper journalists that were covering the protests like Natasha Ndlebe; public writing commentators with aims to inform and teach the broader South African society about the aspects of the movement like Yamkela Spengane and Rofhiwa Maneta; lecturers who were assisting the students articulate and find clarity in the way they shaped and voiced their ideas such as Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni and then of course others were foot soldiers on the ground leading students through the police brutality of rubber bullets and pepper spray like Loverlyn Nwandeyi, Ntokozo Qwabe and Ramabina Mahapa.

This book lifts the veil on what it’s like to cross a chasm in South Africa - from newspaper editor opposing apartheid repression to adviser in the Presidency and government in democracy.

It is the personal story of Tony Heard, former Editor of the Cape Times, moving from journalist to spin-doctor, consultant, speechwriter and other official business.

His new career covers a decade in the Presidency as a special adviser (2000-2010), and a dozen years in 3 government ministries/departments. In all, he serves governance for 22 years (June 1994 to June 2016), most of the first quarter century of his country’s freedom.