• Capture in the Court: In Defence of Judges and the Constitution

    Dan Mafora, Capture in the Court: In Defence of Judges and the Constitution (Cape Town: Tafelberg, 2023) THIRTY years down the line from its first democratic elections, the political landscape of South Africa may best […]

     
  • 20 Battles: Searching for a South African Way of War, 1913-2013

    Evert Kleynhans and David Brock Katz, 20 Battles: Searching for a South African Way of War, 1913‒2013 (Johannesburg: Delta Books, 2023) THE PURPOSE of this book, written by military scientists and historians, is to identify […]

     
  • The Thabo Bester Story: The Facebook Rapist, the Celebrity Doctor and the Escape from Cell 35

    Marecia Damons and Daniel Steyn, The Thabo Bester Story: The Facebook Rapist, the Celebrity Doctor and the Escape from Cell 35 (Cape Town: Tafelberg, 2023) IT is tempting to regard this story as truth stranger […]

     
  • Back to the Front: A Memoir

    Leon Levy, Back to the Front: A Memoir (Johannesburg: Jacana, 2023) BOOKENDING a life seems an appropriate approach to memoir, although in this case Leon Levy does it unevenly. Born in 1929, he left South […]

     
  • Blood has a Voice: Stories from the Autopsy Table

    Hestelle van Staden, Blood has a Voice: Stories from the Autopsy Table (Cape Town: Tafelberg, 2023) SHE describes herself as a normal middle-aged, suburban woman; but her profession would be regarded by many as highly […]

     
  • Statues and Storms: Leading through Change

    Max Price, Statues and Storms: Leading Through Change (Cape Town: Tafelberg, 2023) THERE’S a song in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance that has the refrain ‘A policeman’s lot is not a happy one …’ […]

     
  • Eskom: Power, Politics and the (Post) Apartheid State

    Faeeza Ballim, Eskom: Power, Politics and the (Post) Apartheid State (Johannesburg: Jacana, 2023) FOR many years a joke has gone the rounds. Satan is visiting South Africa and is sitting at a bar. ‘And who,’ […]

     
  • Rhoda: A Biography

    Joel B. Pollak, Rhoda: A Biography: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order!’ (Johannesburg: UJ Press, 2023) CONTRARIAN is the word Joel Pollak chooses to best describe the complex Rhoda Kadalie. Her life moved from […]

     
  • Standing up for Science: A Voice of Reason

    Salim S. Abdool Karim, Standing up for Science: A Voice of Reason: South Africa’s Chief Covid-19 Adviser at the Frontlines of the Pandemic (Johannesburg: Macmillan, 2023) OUR first authoritative assessment of the Covid-19 pandemic, autobiography, […]

     
  • Zondo at your Fingertips

    Paul Holden, Zondo at your Fingertips (Johannesburg: Jacana, 2023) STATE capture amounted to treason: not only did it involve massive theft of national resources, but the deliberate subversion of the South African constitution and the […]