Local Non-Fiction Bestsellers

In 1976 Max du Preez witnessed the first stones thrown and the first shots fired in Soweto on June 16 as a young newspaper reporter. Having grown up in the heart of Afrikaner nationalism, it was the end of his normal. It was also the end of normal for white South Africans, most of whom were living in blissful ignorance. The events of 1976 set in motion a continuous series of developments that led to the ruling National Party and the main liberation movement reaching a settlement in 1994 that brought democracy to South Africa for the first time. Over the last fifty years, Du Preez has had a front-row seat witnessing South Africa’s darkest and brightest moments as a journalist. He paints a colourful story as a child of apartheid, doing his military service, studying at Stellenbosch University and starting his career at Afrikaans newspapers. But what he experienced and had to report on, eventually led him to rebel and become a traitor to his volk and a media terrorist exposing apartheid’s darkest secrets. In The End of Normal he explores how otherwise decent people came to implement and support an evil system like apartheid. He examines the long-term impact of June 16 and takes a hard look at white and black attitudes today, in particular the resurrection of Afrikaner nationalism A raw and honest account spiced with fascinating anecdotes, confessions and revelations.

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Through exclusive interviews with zama zamas, syndicate insiders, intelligence operatives, and law enforcement officials, Zama Zama sheds light on the hidden mechanics of this shadow economy. The book delves into the violent and treacherous underworld where gang wars, brutal enforcement tactics, and corruption are rampant.

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For the final decade of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s life, one woman remained at her side through it all. Zodwa Zwane was not a politician, a freedom fighter or a public figure. She was Mrs Mandela’s personal assistant- a constant presence beside one of the most scrutinised figures of modern history. What began as employment soon became an enduring friendship. In My Boss, Mrs Mandela, Bonga Percy Vilakazi brings to life the extraordinary story of the woman who stood closest to Winnie in her final years. Through Zodwa’s eyes, we encounter a rarely seen version of Winnie: mischievous yet formidable, deeply wounded yet fiercely resilient- a woman both revered and profoundly misunderstood. But this is also Zodwa’s story. From her childhood in apartheid-era Soweto, through loss, hardship and matters of faith, to the moment she finds herself working for the Mother of the Nation, Zodwa’s life becomes an intimate lens through which we witness history unfolding.

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Forensic pathologist Ryan Blumenthal works in a world few people are ever exposed to . . . the mortuary. He spends his days among the dead, uncovering how they died and whether a crime was committed. To date, he has performed over 13 000 autopsies. In Trace, Ryan takes readers behind the scenes of some of the strange death scenes he has attended, such as a shallow grave beside a river where a body was found with an amputated finger.

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Discover the ground-breaking, must-read history of Africa, the Sunday Times bestseller charting the epic story of the oldest inhabited continent in the world from the perspectives of Africans themselves. Shortlisted for the Nero Book AwardsPicked as a best paperback by the Sunday Times, Guardian and I paperRadio 4 Book of the WeekAs recommended on The Rest is PoliticsEveryone is originally from Africa, and this book is therefore for everyone. For too long, Africa’s history has been dominated by western narratives of slavery and colonialism or simply ignored. Now, award-winning journalist and broadcaster Zeinab Badawi sets the record straight. In this fascinating book, Badawi guides us through Africa’s spectacular history – from the origins of humanity, through ancient civilisations and medieval empires, to the miseries of conquest and the elation of independence.Visiting more than thirty African countries to interview countless historians, anthropologists, archaeologists and local storytellers, Badawi weaves together a gripping new history of the oldest inhabited continent on the planet, told through the voices of Africans themselves.

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In the next twenty-five years, Africa’s population is predicted to double in size to 2.5 billion, so that by 2050 one in four people on earth will be African. How can Africa accommodate and benefit from this huge demographic shift? In The Invisible People, former MTN CEO Phuthuma Nhleko calls for a new African renaissance based on three pillars. The first involves building a confident common identity, rooted in Africa’s long and rich history, and celebrating its fundamental contributions to modern civilisation, religion and culture. The second is unleashing the kind of economic development that has so far eluded Africa, by leveraging its significant assets and resources, abandoning outdated and inadequate economic models, and carving a new path grounded in a Pan-African vision and based on technological and economic leapfrogging. The third pillar involves bolstering Africa’s geopolitical influence, by redefining its relationship with the US and China, and embracing a strategic path in its own interests, to take its rightful place in world affairs as home to a quarter of humanity. An insightful and inspiring journey through history, economics and geopolitics, The Invisible People will change the way that people view the future of Africa and the world.

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Behind the façade of South Africa lies a brutal shadow-world ruled by mafias, cartels, and crime syndicates locked in a ruthless war over South Africa’s riches. There’s the tobacco mafia. The water tanker mafia. The taxi mafia. The hospital mafia. The construction mafia. The kidnapping mafia. Each one feeds off a vast web of patronage and extraction that stretches from street level to the highest echelons of government. Their bloodsucking tentacles reach deep into municipalities, stateowned enterprises, political parties, the police, and even the National Prosecuting Authority. Those who resist them are silenced in cold blood. This is not a criminal underworld lurking in the shadows. It is part of the system itself. Where does organised crime end and the state begin? Are the two so intertwined that it has become near impossible to distinguish the one from the other? Has South Africa become a mafia state? Multi-award-winning investigative journalist Kyle Cowan sets out to answer these and other questions, revealing the dark underbelly of a country where the thin blue line has all but disappeared. Mafia Land is the hair-raising tale of twelve of South Africa’s most dangerous cartels, and how they will stop at nothing in their deadly, devastating plunder of our country.

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I could not put down Ntate Sam Montsi’s ‘Defying Barriers’! It is a book of wisdom. – Prof Bonang Mohale - Chancellor of the University of the Free State Sam Montsi’s memoir is a compelling story of a life lived with courage and intent. Born in 1945 in Soweto South Africa, the first son of Basotho migrants, family relocation to Lesotho at the end of 1956 places Sam on a trajectory of realising his potential in a country about to become independent. As a young economics and business graduate,  Sam thrives in this non-racialised environment. Nevertheless, he is not Mosotho ‘enough’  and needs the facilitation of local, politically connected friends to gain employment in the civil service. After a few years leading the Central Planning and Development Office,  followed by his position as Managing Director of the Lesotho National Development  Corporation he was well prepared for entrepreneurial exploits. Forced out of Lesotho by a  threat from the military regime, Sam returns to South Africa, the country of his birth, only  to find he is now not South African ‘enough’. Re-entering South Africa in the late 1980s  with his family as the first black General Manager of South African Breweries in the  Western Cape, they experience the underbelly of South African apartheid. His ‘outsider’  status in both countries strengthens his resolve. Defying Barriers is the story of how he did this. As a visionary and a pioneer, his journey from SAB to the successful family business Montsi Investments is nothing short of inspiring.

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A must-read from one of the leading thinkers of the next generation. Tara Roos cuts through the political noise with this analysis of South African politics that argues that we have entered the age of uncertainty as populism is on the rise. She delves into the structural weaknesses, strategic miscalculations and political-party identity crises that have ushered South Africa into a new and unstable coalition era. Parties are categorised into three groups: Winners, Losers and Survivors as Roos lays out what they are getting right, where they are failing and why some have found growth while others have collapsed. In a democracy still grappling with the promises of 1994, Where to From Here? is an account of how politicians have failed the people and how the electorate, in turn, must now demand better. This is an indispensable book for anyone wanting to understand the future of South African politics and the choices that will define it.

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Morning CFO, I am just worried that the guys in Tembisa are going to realise we are onto something. Our lives could be in danger On 23 August 2021, Babita Deokaran – a hardworking single mother and chief accountant at the Gauteng Department of Health – was shot down in a hail of bullets outside her home in Mondeor, Johannesburg. She had just dropped off her daughter at school. The izinkabi paid to kill her were caught, but the question remained: Who ordered her murder, and why? Investigative journalist Jeff Wicks set out to find the answer. This quest would profoundly change – even endanger – his life, as he bravely followed the leads Babita had left behind. Leads that the Hawks, who were officially investigating her assassination, had failed to act on. In The Shadow State Wicks uncovers an audacious web of crooked officials, criminal syndicates and ANC politicians, siphoning away billions meant for patients in Gauteng’s public hospitals. An explosive, fast-paced investigation into greed and state capture, this book is also a moving tribute to the courage of one woman who, when confronted by powerful wrongdoers, refused to keep quiet.

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