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

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

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

A book that taps into the current debate around resource rentals in South Africa, and outlines practical steps that can be taken to a different tax regime.

Land rent can provide jobs for all if we just collect it instead of taxing those who create wealth or seek merely to survive. This rent, or the locational advantage of each piece of land, is owed to the community, whose grant of security of tenure enables the owner to enjoy its man-made and natural advantages. Rent has been a phenomenon since the time of the Physiocrats and Adam Smith, but its potential has been ignored and the world has got lost in an economic jungle of its own making.

This book is based on a very simple proposal: replace most taxation with collection of land and other natural resource rentals. It shows the way to the broad uplands of prosperity for all, and explains why it is time for us to talk about rent! It taps into the current debate in the media and economic and political circles around resource rentals in South Africa, and outlines practical steps that can be taken to a different tax regime. This book is highly relevant and topical, and offers much to stimulate further debate whilst offering something positive and workable.

In August 2016, well-known South African businessman Herman Mashaba became mayor of Johannesburg, heading a razor-thin DA-led coalition in the city. Three years later, in October 2019, he resigned from the party and from his position as mayor. At the time, Mashaba’s approval rating stood at almost 70 per cent and there were calls in overwhelming numbers for him to stay. In this explosive tell-all, his chief of staff, Michael Beaumont, reveals the real story behind these events.

The Accidental Mayor considers the achievements, challenges and controversies of Mashaba’s time in office, and describes what went on behind the scenes in the city and in the multiparty coalition. What was discovered about the previous government’s looting of Johannesburg? How did the ANC take to being in opposition? How challenging was it to work with the EFF? Which party proved the most difficult coalition partner? All these questions and more are explored in detail.

At a time when the DA’s popularity is in decline, The Accidental Mayor highlights the infighting and factionalism within the party and questions whether South Africa’s official opposition has reached the end of the road. Can Herman Mashaba, arguably one of South Africa’s most popular former mayors, offer an alternative for the future?

The issue of land rights is an ongoing and complex topic of debate for South Africans. Rights to Land comes at a time when land redistribution by government is underway. This book seeks to understand the issues around land rights and distribution of land in South Africa and proposes that new policies and processes should be developed and adopted. It further provides an analysis of what went so wrong, and warns that a new phase of restitution may ignite conflicting ethnic claims and facilitate elite capture of land and rural resources.

While there are no quick fixes, the first phase of restitution should be completed and the policy then curtailed. The book argues that land ownership and administration is important to rural democracy and that this should not be placed under the control of traditionalist intermediaries. Land restitution, initiated in 1994, was an important response to the injustices of the apartheid era. But it was intended as a limited and short-term process – initially to be completed in five years.

It may continue for decades, creating uncertainty and undermining investment into agriculture.

HIGHER is Bublé’s first studio album in three years and follows his hugely successful sold out two-year global “An Evening with Michael Bublé Tour” as well as the 10th year of the massive success of his classic Christmas album.

With extraordinary access to the Trump White House, Michael Wolff tells the inside story of the most controversial presidency of our time.

The first nine months of Donald Trump’s term were stormy, outrageous―and absolutely mesmerizing. Now, thanks to his deep access to the West Wing, bestselling author Michael Wolff tells the riveting story of how Trump launched a tenure as volatile and fiery as the man himself. In this explosive book, Wolff provides a wealth of new details about the chaos in the Oval Office.

Among the revelations:

• What President Trump’s staff really thinks of him
• What inspired Trump to claim he was wire-tapped by President Obama
• Why FBI director James Comey was really fired
• Why chief strategist Steve Bannon and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner couldn’t be in the same room
• Who is really directing the Trump administration’s strategy in the wake of Bannon’s firing
• What the secret to communicating with Trump is
• What the Trump administration has in common with the movie The Producers

Never before has a presidency so divided the American people. Brilliantly reported and astoundingly fresh, Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury shows us how and why Donald Trump has become the king of discord and disunion.

For as long as we both shall live? A pulse-racing standalone thriller by the #1 bestselling author of The Secrets She Keeps, now a major TV series

Philomena McCarthy has defied the odds and become a promising young officer with the Metropolitan Police despite being the daughter of a notorious London gangster. Called to the scene of a domestic assault, she rescues a young woman, Tempe Brown, the girlfriend of a decorated detective. The incident is hushed up, but Phil has unwittingly made a dangerous enemy with powerful friends.

Determined to protect each other, the two women strike up a tentative friendship. Tempe is thoughtful and sweet and makes herself indispensable to Phil, but sinister things keep happening and something isn't quite right about the stories Tempe tells. When a journalist with links to Phil's father and to the detective is found floating in the Thames, Phil doesn't know where to turn, who to blame or who she can trust.

This exhilarating thriller from the bestselling author - whose books have sold more than 6 million copies - is Michael Robotham's finest page-turner yet.

An intimate, powerful, and inspiring memoir by the former First Lady of the United States

In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America - the first African-American to serve in that role - she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history, while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare.

In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her - from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world's most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it - in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations - and whose story inspires us to do the same.

Cyrus Haven and Evie Cormac return in Robotham’s latest psychological thriller, which finally unlocks the secrets of Evie’s past and reaffirms why Stephen King has proclaimed this author “an absolute master.”

The mystery of Evie Cormac’s background has followed her into adulthood. As a child, she was discovered hiding in a secret room where a man had been tortured to death. Many of her captors and abusers escaped justice, unseen but not forgotten. Now, on a hot summer’s day, the past drags Evie back as she watches the bodies of seventeen migrants wash up on a Lincolnshire beach.

There is only one survivor, a teenage boy, who tells police their small boat was deliberately rammed and sunk. Psychologist Cyrus Haven is recruited by the police to investigate the murders—but recognizes immediately that Evie has some link to the tragedy. By solving this crime, he could finally unlock the secrets of her past.

But what dark forces will he set loose? And who will pay the price?

Ever since their saga started on the streets of L.A.’s underground racing scene, Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his family have overcome impossible odds to outsmart, out-nerve and outdrive every foe. Yet when the team took down a nefarious kingpin back in Brazil, they had no idea his son Dante (Jason Momoa) was watching from the shadows.

More lethal than any other enemy they’ve faced, Dante now rises as a terrifying new nemesis who’s fueled by revenge and determined to shatter their family and destroy everything and everyone Dom loves. From London and Brazil to Antarctica and Rome, new alliances are forged and old enemies resurface.

But everything changes after Dom discovers his 8-year-old son is Dante’s ultimate target.

Inspired by Steven Spielberg’s own childhood, rediscover the magic of movies in The Fabelmans, a coming-of-age story about a young man uncovering a shattering family secret and the power of film and imagination to help us see the truth about ourselves and each other.

With a star-studded cast, The Fabelmans tells a timeless tale of heartbreak, healing, and hope for the dreamer inside all of us.

In an inspiring follow-up to her critically acclaimed, #1 bestselling memoir Becoming, former First Lady Michelle Obama shares practical wisdom and powerful strategies for staying hopeful and balanced in today’s highly uncertain world.

There may be no tidy solutions or pithy answers to life’s big challenges, but Michelle Obama believes that we can all locate and lean on a set of tools to help us better navigate change and remain steady within flux. In The Light We Carry, she opens a frank and honest dialogue with readers, considering the questions many of us wrestle with: How do we build enduring and honest relationships? How can we discover strength and community inside our differences? What tools do we use to address feelings of self-doubt or helplessness? What do we do when it all starts to feel like too much?

Michelle Obama offers readers a series of fresh stories and insightful reflections on change, challenge, and power, including her belief that when we light up for others, we can illuminate the richness and potential of the world around us, discovering deeper truths and new pathways for progress. Drawing from her experiences as a mother, daughter, spouse, friend, and First Lady, she shares the habits and principles she has developed to successfully adapt to change and overcome various obstacles—the earned wisdom that helps her continue to “become.” She details her most valuable practices, like “starting kind,” “going high,” and assembling a “kitchen table” of trusted friends and mentors. With trademark humor, candor, and compassion, she also explores issues connected to race, gender, and visibility, encouraging readers to work through fear, find strength in community, and live with boldness.

“When we are able to recognize our own light, we become empowered to use it,” writes Michelle Obama. A rewarding blend of powerful stories and profound advice that will ignite conversation, The Light We Carry inspires readers to examine their own lives, identify their sources of gladness, and connect meaningfully in a turbulent world.

The traditional image of a political assassin is a lone wolf with a gun, aimed squarely at the head of those they wish to kill. But while there has been enormous speculation on what lay behind notorious individual political assassinations – from Gaius Julius Caesar to John F. Kennedy – the phenomenon itself has scarcely been examined as a special category of political violence, one not motivated by personal gain or vengeance.

Now, in Day of the Assassins, acclaimed historian Michael Burleigh explores the many facets of political assassination, explaining the role of historical precedent, why it is more frequent in certain types of society than others and asking if assassination can either bring about change, or prevent it, and whether, like a contagious disease, political murder can be catching. Focusing chiefly on the last century and a half, Burleigh takes readers to the Congo, India, Iran, Laos, Rwanda and South Africa and revisits notable assassinations in Europe, Russia, Israel and the United States.

Throughout, the assassins themselves are at the centre of the narrative, whether they were cool, well-trained professional killers, like the agents of the NKVD or the KGB, or men motivated by the politicization of their private miseries. Even some of those who were demonstrably mad had method in the madness and acted for comprehensible political motives.

Combining human drama, questions of political morality and the sheer randomness of events, Day of the Assassins is a riveting insight into the politics of violence.

This stunning depiction of geology in Namibia combines searingly beautiful photography with clear explanations of how the varied landscapes formed.

Arranged chronologically (starting 13.8 billion years ago), the chapters each deal with a particular event or process that has resulted in the formation under discussion. These include the early beginnings of the Earth, meteorites, canyons and limestone caves, vast desert landscapes, moonscapes and bizarrely-shaped rocks, and Namibia’s astonishing underwater lakes and reservoirs.

Picture-driven, with accessible text, this book features all the highlights of Namibian landscapes and landforms. A treat for travellers real and virtual – those on the road as well as those in armchairs.

That morning, Michelle presented her Psychology honours thesis on men's perceptions of rape. She started her presentation like this, “A woman born in South Africa has a greater chance of being raped than learning how to read …” On that same evening, she goes to a party to celebrate attaining her degree. She and a friend go to the beach; the friend has something she wants to discuss. They are both robbed, assaulted and raped. Within minutes of getting help, Michelle realises she'll never be herself again. She's now "the girl who was raped."

This book is Michelle's fight to be herself again. Of the taint she feels, despite the support and resources at her disposal as the loved child of a successful middle-class family. Of the fall-out to friendships, job, identity.

It's Michelle's brave way of standing up for the women in South Africa who are raped every day.

Combining the talents of two of our greatest storytellers, James Patterson and Michael Crichton present an engrossing event thriller about a volcanic eruption in Hawaii.

A history-making volcanic eruption is about to destroy the big island of Hawaii. But a secret held for decades by the military is more terrifying than the volcano.

Michael Crichton, creator of Jurassic Park and Westworld, had a passion project he'd been pursuing for years ahead of his untimely death in 2008. Knowing how special it was, his widow held back his notes and the partial manuscript till she found the right author to complete it. The author she chose is the world’s most popular storyteller: James Patterson. Eruption brings the pace of Patterson to the concept of Crichton—the most anticipated mega-thriller in years.

Winner of the Golden Man Booker Prize! This special once-off award crowns the best work of fiction from the last five decades of the Man Booker Prize, as chosen by five judges and then voted for by the public.

The final curtain is closing on the Second World War and in an abandoned Italian village Hana, a nurse, tends to her sole remaining patient. Rescued from a burning plane, the anonymous Englishman is damaged beyond recognition and haunted by painful memories.

The only clue Hana has to unlocking his past is the one thing he clung on to through the fire - a copy of The Histories by Herodotus, covered with hand-written notes detailing a tragic love affair.

A practical and inspiring self-help guide to encourage anyone feeling apprehensive or uncomfortable about starting a conversation to step into their power, talk about their mental health and help them to support themselves as well as others in the same situation.

Let's be honest, it can be really awkward talking about your mental health. In this hugely relatable practical and inspiring self-help guide, Michelle Morgan, Ambassador for Mental Health First Aid England provides a roadmap to encourage anyone feeling apprehensive or uncomfortable about starting a conversation about how they feel to step into their power, talk about their mental health to support themselves as well as others in the same situation.

Blending a much sought-after balance of information and inspiration with the personal and practical Own Your Awkward elegantly marries the lived experience with expert advice around the topic of mental health in an accessible and approachable tone.

Michelle introduces the reader to her highly successful tried and tested frameworks, BRAVE - being brave and having the courage to ask for help, and SENSE - using common sense and sensitivity to offer help, which she uses with her clients around the world. Michelle will show you step-by-step how to use the different techniques outlined as well as sharing her self-care M-Plan. By owning her awkward, she'll help you to own yours, so that others can own theirs, and together we'll get comfortable feeling uncomfortable and smash the stigma of talking about our mental health.

This book will show you not only how to transform panic into your greatest power and help others to do the same, but also how to turn awkward into your greatest asset yet.

Now in its fifth edition, Wärnich’s Human Resource Management in South Africa provides the complete introduction to Human Resource Management in the challenging business world of modern day South Africa.

Dramatic changes in both the external and internal environment of organisations in South Africa since the beginning of the twenty-first century have resulted in employees increasingly expecting to be part of the decision-making process. This change, combined with developments in technology, means that human resource (HR) managers are now faced with new and important challenges.

In this situation, increasing pressure is being exerted on HR managers in South Africa to make a more significant contribution to the success of their organisations – how can organisations in South Africa deal with the complexity, speed and magnitude of these changes and still create and achieve a competitive advantage?

Features:

• Provides a thorough and comprehensive introduction to Human Resource Management in the challenging business world of modern day South Africa, thus ensuring that students develop a comprehensive understanding.
• The new edition fully addresses the latest human resource management (HRM) legislation, techniques, procedures and practices which are needed to successfully address the challenges faced by companies and aspiring HR professionals. This provides invaluable real-life contextualisation for students.
• Throughout, the new edition emphasises to students, the crucial importance of the well-being of employees to any organisation’s chances of ultimate success, and how people are the most important asset to a business.
• The practical examples and extensive case studies presented in this book fully illustrate the diversity and the richness of current initiatives used to improve the science and practice of human resource management in South Africa, thus ensuring that students can directly relate their studies to the reality of working life in South Africa.
• The balanced mix of chapters, emphasising diverse approaches and practices from leading organisations, enables students to draw lessons and guidelines from the experiences shared in this book and so further enrich their knowledge and understanding.

In April 2019 Lord Ashcroft published the results of his year-long investigation into South Africa's captive-bred lion industry. Over eleven pages of a single edition of the Mail on Sunday he showed why this sickening trade, which involves appalling cruelty to the 'King of the Savannah' from birth to death, has become a stain on the country.

Unfair Game features the shocking results of a new inquiry Lord Ashcroft has conducted into South Africa's lion business. In the book, he shows how tourists are unwittingly being used to support the abuse of lions; he details how lions are being tranquilised and then hunted in enclosed spaces; he urges the British government to ban the import of captive-bred lion trophies; and he demonstrates why Asia's insatiable appetite for lion bones has become a multimillion-dollar business linked to criminality and corruption, which now underpins South Africa's captive lion industry.

Knocked Up
They say that opposites attract. Well, for slacker Ben (Seth Rogen) and career girl Alison (Katherine Heigl), that's certainly the case - at least for one intoxicated evening. Two months and several pregnancy tests later, Ben and Alison go through a hysterically funny, anxious and heartwarming journey that leads to huge laughs in this outrageous comedy hit!

Superbad
Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera) want nothing more than to hook up with girls they like before they head off to college. To do that, though, they need to get alcohol for the big party that night. With the help of their friend Fogell, a.k.a. McLovin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), and his fake I.D., the three of them go on a hilarious chase for that elusive booze, dodging incompetent cops (Seth Rogen and Bill Hader) while attempting to reverse a lifelong losing streak in one hilarious night.

The 40 Year Old Virgin
40-year old Andy Stizer (Steve Carell) has done quite a few things in his life. He's got a cushy job at an electronics superstore, a nice apartment with a proud collection of action figures. But there's just one thing he hasn't gotten around to doing yet... Andy's never, ever had sex - not even by accident. A big deal? Well, for Andy's buds at the store, it sure is. Although they think he's a bit of an oddball, they consider it their duty to help Andy out of his dire situation.

Talladega Nights
NASCAR stock car racing sensation Ricky Bobby (Will Ferrell) is a national hero because of his 'win at all costs' approach. He and his loyal racing partner, childhood friend Cal Naughton Jr. (John C. Reilly), are a fearless duo known as 'Shake' and 'Bake' by their fans for their ability to finish so many races in the #1 and #2 positions, with Cal always in second place. When flamboyant French Formula One driver Jean Girard (Sacha Baron Cohen) challenges 'Shake' and 'Bake' for the supremacy of NASCAR, Ricky Bobby must face his own demons and fight Girard for the right to be known as racing's top driver.

Your gut is astonishingly clever. It contains millions of neurons - as many as you would find in the brain of a cat - and is home to the microbiome, trillions of microbes that influence your mood, your immune system, and even your appetite.

In this groundbreaking book, Dr. Mosley takes us on a revelatory journey through the gut, showing how junk food and overuse of antibiotics have wiped out many good gut bacteria, leading to a modern plague of allergies, food intolerances, and obesity.

Drawing from the latest cutting-edge research, Dr. Mosley provides scientifically proven ways to control your cravings, boost your mood, and lose weight by encouraging a more diverse microbiome and increasing the good bacteria that keep you healthy.

Packed with delicious, healing recipes, meal plans, checklists, and tips, The Clever Guts Diet includes all the tools you need to transform your gut and your health, for life.

Worlds collide in The Flash when Barry Allen uses his superpowers to travel back in time in order to change the events of the past. But when his attempt to save his family inadvertently alters the future, Barry becomes trapped in a reality in which General Zod has returned, threatening annihilation, and there are no Super Heroes to turn to.

That is, unless Barry can coax a very different Batman out of retirement and rescue an imprisoned Kryptonian… albeit not the one he’s looking for.

Ultimately, to save the world that he is in and return to the future that he knows, Barry’s only hope is to race for his life. But will making the ultimate sacrifice be enough to reset the universe?

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.

From the #1 bestselling author of The Big Short and Flash Boys comes the high-octane story of the enigmatic figure at the heart of one of the 21st century's most spectacular financial collapses

'I asked him how much it would take for him to sell FTX and go do something other than make money. He thought the question over. "One hundred and fifty billion dollars," he finally said-though he added that he had use for "infinity dollars"...'

Sam Bankman-Fried wasn't just rich. Before he turned thirty he'd become the world's youngest billionaire, making a record fortune in the crypto frenzy. CEOs, celebrities and world leaders vied for his time. At one point he considered paying off the entire national debt of the Bahamas so he could take his business there.

Then it all fell apart.

Who was this Gatsby of the crypto world, a rumpled guy in cargo shorts, whose eyes twitched across TV interviews as he played video games on the side, who even his million-dollar investors still found a mystery? What gave him such an extraordinary ability to make money - and how did his empire collapse so spectacularly?

Michael Lewis was there when it happened, having got to know Bankman-Fried during his epic rise. In Going Infinite he tells us a story like no other, taking us through the mind-bending trajectory of a character who never liked the rules and was allowed to live by his own. Both psychological portrait of a preternaturally gifted 'thinking machine', and wild financial roller-coaster ride, this is a twenty-first-century epic of high-frequency trading and even higher stakes, of crypto mania and insane amounts of money, of hubris and downfall. No one could tell it better.