Human Rights Day 2025

Sikhakhane masterfully unveils a prism through which the social injustices shaping South Africa today are starkly revealed. Drawing from his remarkable career as a Black man navigating the complexities of life in South Africa, he explores the unresolved historical injustices and conflicting interests that have led the nation to its precarious state. He delves into the paradox of liberation, where the pursuit of change is consistently undermined by an entrenched desire to preserve the status quo. Sikhakhane argues that this approach prioritizes safeguarding White privilege and the interests of White capital, often at the expense of true progress. With fervor, he critiques the pervasive hold of White power, the fractured promise of liberation, and the insidious narratives that vilify the oppressed while absolving the real perpetrators of systemic injustice. Rooted in activism and philosophical insight, this thought-provoking and inspirational book offers a captivating exploration of South Africa’s socio-political landscape. Sikhakhane’s journey is as enlightening as it is motivational, providing invaluable lessons for anyone who loves South Africa or seeks a deeper understanding of the intricate power dynamics shaping modern Africa.

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I Write What I Like features the writing of the famous activist and Black Consciousness leader, Steve Biko. Before his untimely death in detention at age 30, he was instrumental in uniting Black Africans in the struggle against the apartheid government in South Africa. This 40th anniversary edition includes a Foreword by Njabulo S. Ndebele, personal reflections on Steve Biko and Black Consciousness, as well as Biko’s first known published piece of writing. In addition, it features all the material of the original Picador Africa edition: a collection of Biko’s columns entitled I Write What I Like published in the journal of the South Africa Student Organisation under the pseudonym of ‘Frank Talk’; other journal articles, interviews and letters written by Steve Biko at the time; an Introduction by Nkosinathi Biko; a preface by Archbishop Desmond Tutu; and a moving memoir by Father Aelred Stubbs, which pays tribute to the courage and power of this young leader, who was to become one of Africa’s heroes.

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Mathews Phosa has been an eyewitness to the changing strands of political power in South Africa. He was involved in the Black Consciousness Movement, the UDF and the ANC, before fleeing into exile in 1985 and becoming an Umkhonto we Sizwe commander in Mozambique. A lawyer by training, he was one of the first ANC members to return to South Africa to prepare the way for negotiations. He was premier of Mpumalanga during the presidency of Nelson Mandela, with whom he had a strong relationship. Under Thabo Mbeki, whom he had known in exile, Phosa was pushed to the sidelines, with false accusations that he was involved in a ‘plot’ to overthrow Mbeki. Phosa had served under Jacob Zuma as an MK field commander in Mozambique, and he became treasurer general of the ANC when Zuma became its president at Polokwane. But Phosa later became a vocal critic of Zuma, and they didn’t speak for years, until the night before Zuma’s resignation. Phosa and Cyril Ramaphosa studied law together at the University of the North in the 1970s, and Phosa played a key role in advising him over the Phala Phala report that threatened to end his presidency. Frank and honest, Witness to Power is a gripping story of a courageous life, and an insider’s account of South Africa’s ruling party and its leaders.

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The ANC has ruled South Africa for three decades during which time the country has gone from the promise of the Rainbow Nation to disfunction and despair. In The Super Cadres, bestselling author Pieter du Toit examines this legacy from the early halcyon days through to the disappointment of the Ramaphosa presidency. Du Toit asks key questions before coming to a critical observation and a damning conclusion: - What was the state of the ANC when it took power? - Was ANC failure inevitable? Did they inherit a country so stricken by apartheid that success was impossible? - When did the first signs of misrule and corruption occur? - How did each of the presidencies perform, from Mandela to Ramaphosa? What role did each play in the road to failure? - What was President Cyril Ramaphosa doing to stop state capture while he was deputy president? Du Toit concludes that at the very centre of ANC – and thus state - failure is ‘cadre deployment’ which the ANC adopted as official party policy under President Thabo Mbeki. He shows how, over time, the appointment of cadres at every level of government inevitably led to the (con)fusion of party and state, the spread of incompetence, and the dire corruption that ate into every part of the country once Jacob Zuma took over.

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Nearly three decades after the dawn of democracy, South Africa has remained a country of ‘two agricultures’. On the one hand we have a subsistence, primarily non-commercial, black farming segment. On the other hand, however, we have a predominantly commercial and white farming sector that is well-resourced and has access to domestic and international trade networks. These disparities can be traced back to South Africa’s painful history where, for decades, black farmers were on the margins of government support and also experienced land dispossession and livestock plunder. A Country of Two Agricultures focuses less on history and more on the present and the future, explaining why these disparities have persisted in the democratic era, and what it will take to overcome them. It aims to contribute to a better understanding of the variety of agricultural forces, taking into account both questions of domestic political economy and external factors, as well as to bring to light new risks and opportunities. Wandile Sihlobo offers insights into the role of agriculture in the South African economy from an agricultural economy perspective, and provides political economy insights that are rooted in the experiences of farming communities on the ground and right through the value chain. Beyond insights on the realities this book offers the government, the private sector, and anyone interested in the betterment of the South African economy, tools to grapple with this duality, and proposes a framework for bolstering the black farming segment for growth and competitiveness – and ultimately food security.

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A dozen years in the making, The Inheritors weaves together the stories of three ordinary South Africans over five tumultuous decades in a sweeping and exquisite look at what really happens when a country resolves to end white supremacy. ]•Political activist Dipuo, who fought to take down history’s strictest segregationist system. •Dipuo’s daughter Malaika, who excels brilliantly after segregation’s collapse but wrestles with her relationship to her mother and her duty to her country. •And Christo, one of the last White South Africans drafted to fight for apartheid as it crumbled around him. All three, and many others, had to remake their own lives while facing huge questions: What do we owe to history? And what will people who care about being good do when the meaning of right action changes nearly overnight? Observing subtle truths about race and power that extend well beyond national borders, Fairbanks explores questions that preoccupy so many of us today: How can we let go of our pasts, as individuals and as countries? How should historical debts be paid? And how can a person live an honorable life in a society that–for better or worse–they no longer recognise? ‘Brave ... ambitious ... [a story of] admirable people, brave in the face of unbearable poverty and determined to rise out of it ... [Fairbanks’s characters] are also capable of savage introspection and, at times, willing to laugh about themselves.’–Rian Malan, Compact Magazine

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South Africa has produced two leaders who achieved global recognition and renown in their respective eras: Jan Christiaan Smuts (Prime Minister, 1919-24 and 1939-48) and Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (President, 1994-99). The former was much celebrated for playing a significant role in reconstructing international architecture after both world wars; the latter remains globally admired for his leading part in drawing South Africa back from racial war and becoming a democracy. As a result, both have attracted multiple biographies. Today, however, whereas Mandela remains a much-admired global icon, Smuts’ reputation is much diminished, with contemporary historians citing his racism and role in constructing the foundations of apartheid South Africa. In this controversial book, Roger Southall provides a re-evaluation of Smuts’ hugely contradictory career by proposing fascinating parallels with the life and political trajectory of Mandela. Both came to maturity as political leaders as freedom fighters – Smuts against the British and Mandela against the apartheid regime. Both played a pre-eminent in founding a new South Africa, the first made for whites at Union in 1910 and the second for all South Africans in 1994. Both aspired to be nation-builders, but while Smuts’ hoped-for South African nation was white, Mandela aspired to bring all of South Africa’s people together. Both came to stride on the international stage, albeit in very different ways and for various reasons. Smuts’ career failed, and he was ejected from office. Mandela retired gracefully from office and continued to be lauded for his well-earned retirement, yet South Africa’s contemporary travails reveal his hopes and policies as unfulfilled. This book makes the case that we cannot fully understand Mandela without first understanding Smuts and how South Africa continues to struggle with the legacy he left behind.

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Since populist factions claim to be the people, judges confronting them do not just decide against the people; they are against the people. The judiciary faces a barrage of attacks not just from the ruling ANC but from other political parties clamouring for power. There comes a predictable phase in the cycle of politics where this is most likely to occur. Dan Mafora provides much-needed insight.

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In Lucas Mangope: A Life, journalist Oupa Segalwe incisively examines the public and private life of this traditional-leader-cum-elected politician, whose rise and fall coincided with the collapse of apartheid and that of the ill-advised homelands project. Segalwe compellingly traces how complex currents of self-enrichment, duty to his people, and serving the interests of all those he was indebted to played out. A balanced account of the life and times of the enigmatic Mangope

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As a young journalist, roped into court reporting to cover Jacob Zuma’s 2006 rape trial, Karyn Maughan could not have known that she would be reporting on Zuma’s legal woes for the next two decades – and would herself become his target. Disarmingly honest and deeply personal, this book takes a razor-sharp look at how powerful men use attacks on individuals who try to hold them accountable, as well as on the media and the courts, to undermine democracy. Adriaan Basson says: 'Brave and brilliant. Jacob Zuma found his match in Karyn Maughan.'

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Nelson Mandela has been written about by many biographers and historians. But his marriage to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela remains largely untold. During his imprisonment, Nelson grew ever more in love with an idealised version of his wife, courting her in his letters as if they were young lovers. But Winnie, every bit his political equal, found herself increasingly estranged from her jailed husband’s politics. Behind his back, she was trying to orchestrate an armed seizure of power, a path he feared would lead to an endless civil war. Steinberg tells the tale of this unique marriage, turning the course of South African history into a page-turning political biography. Winnie and Nelson is a modern epic in which trauma doesn’t affect just the couple, but an entire nation – a Shakespearean drama in which bonds of love and commitment mingle with timeless questions of revolution. Steinberg tells this story with power and tender emotional insight, revealing how far these forever entwined leaders would go for each other, and also where they drew the line. For in the end both knew theirs was not simply a marriage, but a struggle to define anti-apartheid itself.

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On 29 April 1972, Tiro made one of the most consequential revolutionary addresses in South African history. Dubbed the Turfloop Testimony, Tiro’s anti-apartheid speech saw him and many of his fellow student activists expelled, igniting a series of strikes in tertiary institutions across the country. By the time he went into exile in Botswana, Tiro was president of the Southern African Student Movement (SASM), permanent organiser of the South African Student Organisation (SASO) and a leading Black Consciousness proponent, hailed by many as the ‘godfather’ of the June 1976 uprisings.

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Law as a profession was not Dikgang Moseneke’s first choice. As a small boy he told his aunt that he wanted to be a traffic officer, but life had other plans for him. At the young age of 15, he was imprisoned for participating in anti-apartheid activities. During his ten years of incarceration, he completed his schooling by correspondence and earned two university degrees. Afterwards he studied law at the University of South Africa. Practising law during apartheid South Africa brought with it unique challenges, especially to professionals of colour, within a fraught political climate. After some years in general legal practice and at the Bar, and a brief segue into business, Moseneke was persuaded that he would best serve the country’s young democracy by taking judicial office. All Rise covers his years on the bench, with particular focus on his 15-year term as a judge at South Africa’s apex court, the Constitutional Court, including as the deputy chief justice. As a member of the team that drafted the interim Constitution, Moseneke was well placed to become one of the guardians of its final form. His insights into the Constitutional Court’s structures, the personalities peopling it, the values it embodies, the human dramas that shook it and the cases that were brought to it make for fascinating reading. All Rise offers a unique, insider’s view of how the judicial system operates at its best and how it responds when it is under fire. From the Constitutional Court of Arthur Chaskalson to the Mogoeng Mogoeng era, Moseneke’s understated but astute commentary is a reflection on the country’s ongoing but not altogether comfortable journey to a better life for all.

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"Highly relevant today as prosecutors deal with the aftermath of State Capture. Fascinating from the first page to the last." - Albie Sachs, Former Justice, Constitutional Court Courageous, yet contested, Bulelani Ngcuka has always stood up for what he believes in. His decision in 2003 as National Director of Public Prosecutions not to prosecute then deputy president, Jacob Zuma, is a decision he still stands by to this day. In this sweeping biography, based on many hours of interviews with Ngcuka, author Marion Sparg uncovers the roots of his fearless activism and tells his side of the story. She goes back in time to his modest beginnings in the Eastern Cape, to his lawyering years with the formidable Griffiths Mxenge, his various periods of detention, exile, and his homecoming. Ngcuka played a critical role in establishing the National Prosecuting Authority, the elite crime-busting unit the Scorpions, and other mechanisms to tackle the country's crime and corruption problems. Soon he faced one of his most difficult tasks - confronting former comrades who had become involved in illegal activities. The Sting in the Tale is a first-hand account of our most recent legal and political history. It is also an intriguing story about political manoeuvrings, bombings and hijackings, urban-terror and "whispering" campaigns, lies, murder, alleged spies, intrigue, family, and love.

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President Cyril Ramaphosa is South Africa’s fifth post-apartheid president. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as the founder of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). When Nelson Mandela was released from prison in February 1990, Ramaphosa was at the head of the reception committee that greeted him. Chosen as secretarygeneral of the African National Congress in 1991, Ramaphosa led the ANC’s team to negotiate the country’s post-apartheid constitution. Thwarted in his ambition to succeed Mandela, he exchanged political leadership for commerce, ultimately becoming one of the country’s weathiest businessmen, a breeder of exotic cattle and a philanthropist. This fully revised and extended edition charts Ramaphosa’s earlylife and education, and his career in trade unionism, politics and constitution-building. Extensive new chapters explore his contribution to the NationalPlanning Commission, the effects of the Marikana massacre on his political prospects and the real story behind his rise to the deputy presidency of the country in 2014. They set out the constraints Ramaphosa faced as Jacob Zuma’s deputy, and explain how he ultimately triumphed in the election of the ANC’s new president in 2017. The book concludes with an analysis of the challenges Ramaphosa faces as the country’s fifth post-apartheid president. This commanding biography tells the full story of this enigmatic leader’s life and political career for the first time. It is based on numerous personal conversations with Ramaphosa over the past decade, and on rich interviews with many of the subject’s friends and contemporaries.

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Winner of the 2022 Humanities and Social Sciences Award for Best Non-Fiction Monograph South Africa was born in war, its growth has been marked by crises and ruptures, and it once again stands on a precipice.            History of South Africa explores the country’s tumultuous journey from the aftermath of the Second Anglo-Boer War to the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on never-before-published documentary evidence – including diaries, letters, eyewitness testimony and diplomatic reports – the book follows the South African people through the battles, elections, repression, resistance, strikes, insurrections, massacres, economic crashes and health crises that have shaped the nation’s character.            Tracking South Africa’s path from colony to Union and from apartheid to democracy, History of South Africa documents the influence of key figures including Pixley Seme, Jan Smuts, Lilian Ngoyi, H.F. Verwoerd, Nelson Mandela, Steve Biko, P.W. Botha, Thabo Mbeki, Jacob Zuma and Cyril Ramaphosa. The book gives detailed accounts of definitive events such as the 1922 Rand Revolt, the Defiance Campaign, Sharpeville, the Soweto uprising and the Marikana massacre. Looking beyond the country’s borders, it sheds light on the role of people such as Mohandas Gandhi, Winston Churchill, Fidel Castro and Margaret Thatcher, and unpacks military conflicts such as the World Wars, the armed struggle and the Border War. The book explores the transition to democracy and traces the phases of ANC rule, from the Rainbow Nation to transformation, state capture to ‘New Dawn’. It examines the divisive and unifying role of sport, the ups and downs of the economy, and the impact of pandemics from the Spanish flu to AIDS and COVID-19.            With South Africa currently facing a crisis as severe as any in its history, the book shows that these challenges are neither unprecedented nor insurmountable, and that there are principles to be found in history that may lead us safely into the future.

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Imtiaz Sooliman, a medical doctor practising in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, visited a Shaikh in Istanbul in 1992. The Sufi teacher gave him a message that would dramatically change the lives of countless people. ‘To my absolute astonishment he told me I would help people for the rest of my life. He then instructed me to form a humanitarian organisation called the “Gift of the Givers”, and repeated the phrase “the best among people are those who benefit mankind”.’ Almost 30 years later Gift of the Givers, Africa’s largest humanitarian and disaster agency, has a reputation for speedy responses to floods, war, famine, fires, tsunamis, kidnapping and earthquakes. Well known for their interventions in South African and international disasters, teams of volunteers have undertaken missions to places such as Bosnia, Palestine, Japan, Haiti, Indonesia, Malawi and Mozambique. In the last few years they have turned their attention to the poorest South Africans - they have put up hospitals, run clinics, dug wells, drilled boreholes, built houses, offered scholarships and provided shelter, food and psychological succour to millions. Originally published in 2014, the book has been brought up to date to continue the extraordinary tale of an organisation that has become a South African legend – the first to intervene in so many devastating situations and bring hope to those who have lost everything. Gift of the Givers’ reputation for direct, honest and non-partisan solution-finding has become a beacon of hope in South Africa.

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Coloured as an ethnicity and racial demographic is intertwined in the creation of the South Africa we have today. Yet often, Coloured communities are disdained as people with no clear heritage or culture — ‘not being black enough or white enough. Coloured challenges this notion and presents a different angle to that narrative. It delves into the history of Coloured people as descendants of indigenous Africans and a people whose identity was shaped by colonisation, slavery, and the racial political hierarchy it created. Although rooted in a difficult history, this book is also about the culture that Coloured communities have created for themselves through food, music, and shared lived experiences in communities such as Eldorado Park, Eersterus, and Wentworth. Coloured culture is an act of defiance and resilience. Coloured is a reflection on, and celebration of Coloured identities as lived experiences. It is a call to Coloured communities to reclaim their identity and an invitation to understand the history and place of Coloured people in the making of South Africa’s future.

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We have a lot to be positive about in South Africa.            With all our problems, it’s easy to feel bleak. But hold those thoughts, because Legends might be just the tonic you need to drive off the gloom. This book tells the stories of a dozen remarkable people – some well known, others largely forgotten – who changed Mzansi for the better.            Most South Africans are proud of Nelson Mandela – and rightly so. His life was truly astounding, but he’s by no means the only person who should inspire us.            There’s King Moshoeshoe, whose humanity and diplomatic strategies put him head and shoulders above his contemporaries, both European and African. And John Fairbairn, who brought non-racial democracy to the Cape in 1854. Olive Schreiner was a bestselling international author who fought racism, corruption and chauvinism. And Gandhi spent twenty years here inventing a system of protest that would bring an Empire to its knees.            Legends also celebrates Eugène Marais’s startling contributions to literature and natural history (despite a lifelong morphine addiction); Sol Plaatje’s wit, intelligence and tenacity in the face of racial zealots; Cissie Gool’s lifetime fighting for justice and exposing bigots; and Sailor Malan’s battles against fascists in the skies of Europe and on the streets of South Africa.            Legends also celebrates Eugène Marais’s startling contributions to literature and natural history (despite a lifelong morphine addiction); Sol Plaatje’s wit, intelligence and tenacity in the face of racial zealots; Cissie Gool’s lifetime fighting for justice and exposing bigots; and Sailor Malan’s battles against fascists in the skies of Europe and on the streets of South Africa.            And then there’s Miriam Makeba, who began her life in prison and ended it as an international singing sensation; Steve Biko, who shifted the minds of an entire generation; and Thuli Madonsela (the book’s only living legend), who gracefully felled the most powerful man in the land.            Engagingly written and meticulously researched, Legends reminds South Africans that we have a helluva lot to be proud of.

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Discover the gripping tale of Together Apart: The Story of Living in Apartheid, that explores South Africa’s struggle against one of history’s most notorious systems of racial segregation. Through the reflections of an elder who lived through it, this book invites readers to dive into the complex and heartbreaking history of apartheid, a time when courage and resilience shone brightly in the face of oppression. What was lifelike under apartheid? How did colonisation erase the rich histories and cultures of the indigenous people? From the denial of voting rights to the harsh segregation laws that controlled people’s daily lives − where they lived, worked, and even who they could marry − it spread through every aspect of life from education to sports. In the world of work, apartheid created a system of migrant labour and domestic slavery. Meet the brave individuals and organisations that fought tirelessly for equality and justice and whose stories of strength, love and revolution are woven together showing the triumph of the human spirit against overwhelming odds. While apartheid may have officially ended, its impact still resonates today. This book serves as a vital reminder of the sacrifices made and the ongoing journey toward a truly inclusive society. Together Apart is more than just a history book − it’s a call to action for a new generation to understand the past and shape a better future.

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Mandala J. Radebe has written the first, full account of the South African revolutionary, Jabulani Nobleman ‘Mzala’ Nxumalo. Intimate and analytical, this powerful and searching biography of one of the liberation movement’s chief critical thinkers, writer and constant questioner, The Lost Prince of the ANC traces Mzala’s life from birth to his untimely death in London in 1991, at the age of 35. Radebe’s insightful life of Mzala, is the story too, of the radical tradition of the liberation movement, which flourished during its underground days. This revolutionary book, of an intellectual who had much to offer the post-apartheid South Africa, does more than fill a gap in our history: its insight opens a door for the reader to imagine politics and society anew.

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In October 1941 a young boy and his father disembarked at Durban harbour from a large liner commissioned into emergency service by the Allies. They were Greek refugees from their German-occupied motherland. They spoke no English. They had little money and no prospects. They were heroes, but no one knew that. Some months earlier, father and son, together with two other Greek men and seven New Zealand soldiers, had set off in an open boat in an attempt to escape the German invaders. For two days and nights, sailing by instinct and the stars, battered by fierce winds, their food stocks running low, their water bottles almost empty, they ploughed across the Mediterranean towards Crete, little knowing that the island was soon to capitulate to the Germans. Fortunately the escapees sailed into an Allied fleet while it was still light and were rescued. Had they encountered the fleet in darkness their fate might have been dire, as, sometimes, in the horrors of war no prisoners were taken – a reality the young boy discovered not many nights later. The boy who stood on the Durban docks, appalled at the sight of Zulu men doing the work of animals by pulling rickshaws, would become one of the leading human-rights lawyers in the country that his father had chosen because the pavements were allegedly paved with gold. The boy was George Bizos. Today George Bizos is a legendary name, renowned throughout the legal profession and beyond. More than that, he is a figure recognised in townships across South Africa. For as an advocate, Bizos is associated with the Treason Trial of the late 1950s; the subsequent Rivonia Trial where his colleague, client and friend Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment; the trial of Bram Fischer; that of the Namibian Toivo ja Toivo; a host of major human-rights trials through the 1970s and 1980s right up to the amnesty hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission; and, in 2004, with the treason trial of the Zimbabwean opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, in that country. A consummate lawyer, a self-styled street fighter with a quiet tone of voice and a beguiling smile who, in cross examination, would slice through the evidence of security police and apartheid apologists alike, Bizos haunted the courtrooms of the apartheid regime. For four decades he exposed State lies and hypocrisy, State brutality, and murder. In response the State badgered and threatened him, bugged his phone, obstructed his hearings. But the advocate was not to be intimidated. In this compelling and long-awaited autobiography, George Bizos reveals the drama, the heartache and the moments of triumph, the fears and the frustrations of his long career as an advocate. He writes, moreover, about himself and his family, and the domestic moments that made bearable the brutal years. He revels in his return to his beloved Greece, his joy at the Athens Olympic Games and his love of modern Greek poetry. Above all, his is a warm and compassionate account, related by a raconteur of note.

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South Africa’s transition to a post-apartheid democracy has been widely celebrated as a triumph for global human rights. Yet, less than a generation after the achievement of freedom, the future of human rights and constitutionalism in South Africa is uncertain. This book seeks to explain how and why the apartheid government and the ANC both ‘discovered’ human rights in the mid-1980s. It does so by exploring several rights ‘regimes’ over two centuries: African nationalist, liberal, and republican. Although fragmented and episodic, these traditions help explain why rights discourse and constitutionalism gained broad acceptance in the last decade of the twentieth century, and momentarily aligned South Africa with broader global trends.

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The thing that looms largest in South Africa’s future is South Africa’s past – most especially the nearly five decades of division and conflict at the heart of one of the twentieth century’s most infamous social experiments. Apartheid: An Illustrated History examines the defining experience of modern South Africa’s transition from colonialism to democracy. What began in May 1948 as an ambitious project to engineer white supremacy at the expense of the country’s black majority spawned 46 years of repressive authoritarianism and bitter resistance, which claimed the lives of thousands and pushed the country to the brink of civil war. Journalist Michael Morris draws on the work of scholars and historians, as well as contemporary reporting in an unsentimental and highly readable account, vividly complemented by photographs and cartoons. A provocative postscript examines apartheid’s stubborn afterlife in the years since 1994, highlighting the need for South Africans to avoid simplistic views of the past.

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Most South Africans have strong views on our past and present, often based on how we have been personally affected by history, and an understanding of the challenges that face us as a country. But how well-examined and solid are these positions? Have your views been properly thought through? Are you correctly informed? Do you even have the facts straight? Rattling the Cage takes the reader on an informed tour of the South African reality: from the highs and lows, the successes and failures, FW de Klerk’s gaffes to Fees Must Fall, the Oscar Pistorius trial, the 2010 FIFA World Cup, triple BEE, global warming, the Covid-19 pandemic, gay rights in Africa, and veganism. Among the questions Meersman asks are: Do South Africans still believe in their Constitution and democracy? Why do so many young South Africans say Nelson Mandela was a sell-out and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was a dismal failure? Is outlawing hate speech and criminalising racist behaviour really a good idea? Why do communities still burn down their schools? How did the Marikana massacre happen in the democratic era? Why are African immigrants increasingly unwelcome in South Africa? Can our media be trusted to tell us the truth? And how do we embrace climate change? History, big-picture philosophy, grassroots journalism and a novelist’s eye – animated by a genuine sense of moral indignation at the current state of the nation – come together in these essays to provide critical perspectives on and insights into South Africa’s recent past and current political, economic and social undercurrents. No matter what your views are, you are sure to find your understanding of the country deepened, challenged and sometimes changed.

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The fact is that the role, relevance and contribution of the Black Consciousness philosophy is more warranted now than ever. See, Black Consciousness does not die. It remains relevant even when it is apparently dormant. Its approach and method are always readily available to be used by the oppressed when the need arises to confront particular and universal challenges posed by institutional racism and violence. Black Consciousness has turned up the heat against oppressive rule, exploitation and racism in South Africa and around the world, as young people and politicians, academics and campaigners reconfigure a global socioeconomic revolution. Long linked with universal freedom movements, Black Consciousness has a particularly profound and proud history in the country that gave birth to Steve Biko. An intrinsic part of international solidarity actions, it still captures the imagination of resistance fighters young and old. Embracing African liberation, the Black Panthers, Black Power in England, Marxism in the Caribbean and remarkable links even to Mao Tse-tung’s Cultural Revolution, it remains at the centre of struggles for people’s power. First published in 2017, the year of the 40th anniversary of Biko’s murder by the apartheid regime, The Black Consciousness Reader has been revised and updated as an essential collection of history, interviews and opinions about the philosophy. A contribution to the world’s Black cultural archive, it examines how the proper acknowledgement of Blackness brings a greater love, a broader sweep of heroes and a wider understanding of intellectual and political influences. Although Biko is a strong figure within this history, the book documents many other significant Black Consciousness personalities and actions, as it predominantly focuses a South African eye on its influence on power, feminism, land, art, music, society and religion. Keorapetse ‘bra Willie’ Kgositsile and his son, American rap prodigy Earl Sweatshirt are inside it. So too Onkgopotse Tiro, Vuyelwa Mashalaba, a young Nomzamo Winnie Mandela, Bobby Seale, Assata Shakur, Neville Alexander, Thomas Sankara, Walter Rodney, Lefifi Tladi, Ready D, Ntsiki Biko, Nina Simone, Barney Pityana, Zulaikha Patel and many others. It looks at links between K-Pop and Black Consciousness, militancy in Harlem and the uprisings in Soweto, Black theology and the bible’s red commandments. This amalgam of facts, ideas, images and moving pictures is written and compiled by political journalist Baldwin Ndaba, culture writers Therese Owen and Masego Panyane, columnist and poet Rabbie Serumula, author and political analyst Janet Smith and multimedia specialist and church leader Paballo Thekiso.

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Jacana is delighted to announce the forthcoming publication of a new pocket biography of Nelson Mandela by the renowned South African historian, Colin Bundy. Writing with his characteristic elegance, insight and striking turn of phrase, Colin Bundy sets out to extricate the person of Mandela from a pervasive sense of Mandela; distinguishing between the actual, historical Mandela and a generalised and essentially mythical Mandela. There are two main elements in this task. The first involves locating Mandela’s life, his character and actions, in South African history, which Bundy does in five masterly chapters. The second element, the subject of the first and the final chapters, asks a different set of questions, about memory and remembering; about legacy in the long term. This book will undoubtedly establish itself as the finest introduction to Mandela’s life available. It is not only a skilful overview and summary of the 20th-century icon but a fresh and engaging look, each page revealing new insights and original observations expressed in felicitous prose.

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The apartheid security juggernaut met its Battle of Stalingrad in the townships of Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage in 1985 and 1986. This is the blazing story of how the people’s resistance – in the church, in the civic structures, underground – fought that war. Up until these insurrections, the brutal force of the apartheid state successfully crushed all attempts at revolt. Yet in the townships of Port Elizabeth, where they threw everything they had at the uprisings, the people stood and fought, and fought and stood. Riordan, a human rights activist during the years of high apartheid, draws a line connecting the story of Thozamile Botha, the Zwide and KwaZakhele Residents’ Associations and the Port Elizabeth Black Civic Association (PEBCO) of 1979, the subsequent demise of PEBCO, and the February 1990 unbanning of the ANC and the movement at large. What had happened in the intervening ten years to effect this once unimaginable change? Apartheid’s Stalingrad tells us what had happened.

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At dusk, on a warm evening in 2016, a group of forty men gathered in the corner of a dusty field on a farm outside Parys in the Free State. Some were in a fury. Others treated the whole thing as a joke – a game. The events of the next two hours would come to haunt them all. They would rip families apart, prompt an attempted suicide, and lead to breakdowns, divorce, bankruptcy, threats of violent revenge and acts of unforgivable treachery. These Are Not Gentle People is the story of that night, and of what happened next. This is a courtroom drama, a profound exploration of collective guilt and individual justice, and a literary thriller. It traces the impact of one moment of collective barbarism on a fragile community – exposing lies, cover-ups, political meddling and betrayals, and revealing the inner lives of those involved. The book is also a mesmerising examination of a small town trying to cope with a trauma that threatens to tear it in two – as such, it is as much a journey into the heart of modern South Africa as it is a gripping tale of crime, punishment and redemption.

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Kwa Mai Mai is the embodiment of everything Johannesburg is meant to be – the City of Gold, a place where dreams deferred come true. It is a constellation of people’s cultures, imbued with beautiful memories of life in villages left behind but cherished by those who refuse to forget. This book tells the story of how cultural memory, sacredly preserved and transported to new geographies, can be used both as a cultural weapon to resist subjugation and as an economic weapon to turn those priceless traditions into tradeable commodities. The book explores how the keepers of cultural memory can use it not only to survive but to invoke the entrepreneurial and creative spirit buried deep within their souls. Moreover, it builds on the assumption that if cultural memory can be stored and retrieved through artefacts, sites, ceremonies, myths and rituals, then Kwa Mai Mai is the place where these elements converge in inspiring displays of craftsmanship, worship and healing. Yet, Kwa Mai Mai has a darker side. It is a place of painful memories and ignored pleas – where its members are in a constant battle to be acknowledged by the city that created it. This book reveals how the subversive, socio-economic order that epitomised Kwa Mai Mai turned class theory upside down. In an interesting reversal of roles, the Kwa Mai Mai community, who used to be a migrant working class, wrested the power and control over the means of production from the dominant class. Through their heightened cultural consciousness, this marginalised migrant community has reimagined new economic realities and possibilities, forever distancing themselves from the painful, repressive past.

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What can be learned from black South Africans who achieved success before South Africa became a democracy in 1994? What are the challenges they faced, and how did they overcome them? And, today, how have South Africans benefited from the country’s democratic system of governance? These are the questions Phumlani M. Majozi explores and attempts to answer in Lessons from Past Heroes. He traces black people’s success and political activity back to the early 1900s; successful men and women who spearheaded the struggle against the segregationist, colonialist government and devoted their lives to advancing the interests of their communities. Phumlani explores the careers,challenges, and successes of people such as Pixley ka Isaka Seme, John Langalibalele Dube, Sol Plaatje and Josiah Tshangana Gumede. During the apartheid years, South Africa produced black men and women who overcame the odds to succeed in their fields of business, entertainment, science, and politics. They excelled in the face of an oppressive government system, and their stories should inspire every South African today. After exploring the history of South Africa, Phumlani delves into the presentand the future; evaluating the challenges South Africans face and proposes solutions that can speed up their economic progress. He argues that much of South Africa’s history has portrayed the majority as victims of the minority, and that the inspirational stories of those people who overcame adversity are not being told widely enough.

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Written from the maxim “it takes a lawyer, an activist, and a storyteller to change the world", The Revolution Will Not Be Litigated shows how the law and social movements can reinforce each other in the struggle for justice and freedom.In these vibrant narratives, 25 of the world’s most accomplished movement lawyers and activists become storytellers, reflecting on their experiences at the frontlines of some of the most significant struggles of our time. In an era where human rights are under threat, their words offer both an inspiration and a compass for the way movements can use the law – and must sometimes break it – to bring about social justice.The contributors here take you into their worlds: Jennifer Robinson frantically orchestrating a protest outside London’s Ecuadorean embassy to prevent the authorities from arresting her client Julian Assange; Justin Hansford at the barricades during the protests over the murder of Black teenager Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri; Ghida Frangieh in Lebanon’s detention centres trying to access arrested protestors during the 2019 revolution; Pavel Chikov defending Pussy Riot and other abused prisoners in Russia; Ayisha Siddiqa, a shy Pakistani immigrant, discovering community in her new home while leading the 2019 youth climate strike in Manhattan; Greenpeace activist Kumi Naidoo on a rubber dinghy in stormy Arctic seas contemplating his mortality as he races to occupy an oil rig.The stories in The Revolution Will Not Be Litigated capture the complex, and often-awkward dance between legal reform and social change. They are more than compelling portraits of fascinating lives and work, they are revelatory: of generational transitions; of epochal change and apocalyptic anxiety; of the ethical dilemmas that define our age; and of how one can make a positive impact when the odds are stacked against you in a harsh world of climate crisis and ruthless globalization. Contributors: Phelister Abdalla, Alejandra Ancheita, Joe Athialy, Baher Azmy, Pavel Chikov, Ghida Frangieh, Njeri Gateru, Mark Gevisser, Robin Gorna, Justin Hansford, Mark Heywood, Benjamin Hoffman, David Hunter, Ka Hsaw Wa, Julia Lalla-Maharajh, Kumi Naidoo, Nana Ama Nketia-Quaidoo, Katie Redford, Jennifer Robinson, Ayisha Siddiqa, Eimear Sparks, Klementyna Suchanov, Marissa Vahlsing, Krystal Two Bulls, David Wicker, Farhana Yamin and JingJing Zhang.

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Twenty-five years have passed since South Africans were being shot, hacked or burned to death in political conflict. The memory of the trauma has faded where some 20 500 people were killed between 1984 and 1994. Conventional wisdom claims that they died at the hands of a state-backed Third Force. The more accurate explanation is that they died as a result of the peoples war the ANC unleashed. After the peoples war began in September 1984, intimidation and political killings rapidly accelerated. At the same time, a remarkably effective propaganda campaign put the blame for violence on the National Party government and its alleged Inkatha surrogate. Sympathy for the ANC soared, while its rivals suffered crippling losses in credibility and support. By 1993 the ANC was able to dominate the negotiating process, as well as to control the militarily undefeated police and army and bend them to its will. By May 1994 it had trounced its rivals and taken over government. Many books have been written on South Africa's political transition, but none deals adequately with the people's war. This book does. It shows the extraordinary success of the peoples war in giving the ANC a virtual monopoly on power, as well as the great cost at which this was done. Apart from the terror and killings it sparked, the peoples war set in motion forces that cannot easily be tamed. Contemporary South Africa and the problems it confronts cannot be fully understood without a knowledge of the scars and damaging legacy of the peoples war. For this new edition of her seminal work, Anthea Jeffery has revised and abridged her book. She has also included a brief overview of the ANCs National Democratic Revolution, for which the peoples war was intended to prepare the way. Since 1994, the NDR has incrementally been implemented in many different spheres. It is also now being speeded up in its current and more radical phase.

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In his annual presidential address on 8 January 1986, ANC president Oliver Tambo called on South Africans to make apartheid ungovernable through armed action and militant struggle. But unknown to the world, on that very day, the quiet-spoken mathematics teacher and aspirant priest turned reluctant revolutionary had also set up a secret think tank in Lusaka, which he named the Constitution Committee, giving it an ‘ad hoc unique exercise’ that had ‘no precedent in the history of the movement’. Knowing that all wars end at a negotiating table, and judging the balance of forces to be moving in favour of the liberation movement, Tambo wanted the ANC to hold the initiative after the fall of apartheid. Assisted by Pallo Jordan, he instructed his new think tank to formulate the principles and draft the outlines of a constitution that could unite South Africa when the time came to talk in the fledgling days of freedom and democracy. The seven-member team, including Albie Sachs, Kader Asmal and Zola Skweyiya, started deliberating and reporting to Tambo. In correspondence, they typically addressed him as ‘Dear Comrade President’.Drawing on the personal archives of participants, Dear Comrade President explains how the purposeful first steps were taken in the making of South Africa’s Constitution. Why and how did this process happen? What were the first written words? When and where were they put on paper? By whom? What values did they espouse? And how did the committee’s work fit into the broader struggle? This book answers these questions in new, paradigm-shifting ways.

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The apartheid state was at war. For two decades before 1994, while internal resistance grew, mandatory sanctions prohibited the sale of strategic goods and arms to South Africa. The last white regime was confronted with an existential threat. A global covert network of nearly 50 countries was constructed to counter sanctions. In complete secrecy, allies in corporations, banks, governments and intelligence agencies helped move cash, illegally supply guns and create the apartheid arms money machine. Whistleblowers were assassinated and ordinary people suffered. This is an exposé of that machinery created in defence of apartheid and the people who made this possible: heads of state, arms dealers, aristocrats, plutocrats, senators, bankers, spies, journalists and members of secret lobby groups. They were all complicit in a crime against humanity. Motivated by ideology or kinship most sought to simply profit from the war. Many have until now relied on lingering silence to erase the uncomfortable truth. This meticulously researched book lifts the lid on some of the darkest secrets of apartheid’s economic crimes, weaving together material collected in over two-dozen archives in eight countries with an insight into tens of thousands of pages of newly declassified documents. Interviews with spies, businessmen, politicians, sanctions busters and freedom fighters provide eyewitness accounts. Networks of state capture persist in our democratic political system because the past and present are interconnected. In forging its future a new generation needs to grapple with the persistent silence regarding apartheid-era economic crime and ask difficult questions of those who benefited from it. This book provides the evidence and the motivation to do so.

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The Land Is Ours tells the story of South Africa’s first black lawyers, who operated in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In an age of aggressive colonial expansion, land dispossession and forced labour, these men believed in a constitutional system that respected individual rights and freedoms, and they used the law as an instrument against injustice. The book follows the lives, ideas and careers of Henry Sylvester Williams, Alfred Mangena, Richard Msimang, Pixley ka Isaka Seme, Ngcubu Poswayo and George Montsioa, who were all members of the ANC. It analyses the legal cases they took on, explores how they reconciled the law with the political upheavals of the day, and considers how they sustained their fidelity to the law when legal victories were undermined by politics. The Land Is Ours shows that these lawyers developed the concept of a Bill of Rights, which is now an international norm. The book is particularly relevant in light of current calls to scrap the Constitution and its protections of individual rights: it clearly demonstrates that, from the beginning, the struggle for freedom was based on the idea of the rule of law.

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