Nuclear Armageddon
IT’S exactly sixty years since the Cuban missile crisis ‒ known to Russians as the Caribbean crisis. The climax lasted thirteen days and historians judge it to be the closest the world has come to […]
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The Sting in the Tale: Bulelani Ngcuka
Marion Sparg, The Sting in the Tale: Bulelani Ngcuka (Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball, 2022) PREDCTABLY, this book opens with a question: why if there was a prima facie case of corruption against Jacob Zuma as a […]
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A country run by thugs
FEW people outside Tshwane (Pretoria) will have heard of Kalafong Hospital in Atteridgeville. But it recently, and surprisingly briefly, hit the headlines when a neo-fascist vigilante outfit calling itself Operation Dudula (force out in Zulu) […]
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From Georgian to Elizabethan and now Carolean
ONE does not need to be an ardent monarchist, or even a very tepid one, to recognise the significance of the end of the 70-year-long reign of Elizabeth Regina. Its events have framed my life […]
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Spoilt Ballots: The Elections that Shaped South Africa from Shaka to Cyril
Matthew Blackman and Nick Dall, Spoilt Ballots: The Elections that Shaped South Africa from Shaka to Cyril (Johannesburg: Penguin, 2022) THERE are numerous points in this book where it feels as if journalists Matthew Blackman […]
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State capture report … what next?
POST-APARTHEID South Africa has produced some first-class heroes. Two of them are former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela and current Chief Justice Raymond Zondo. It was Madonsela’s work investigating the corruption of Jacob Zuma’s administration that […]
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The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation
Rosemary Sullivan, The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation (London: William Collins, 2022) ANNE Frank, author of the famous diary about life in hiding in wartime Amsterdam, was arrested on 4 August 1944, […]
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Clare: The Killing of a Gentle Activist
Christopher Clark, Clare: The Killing of a Gentle Activist (Cape Town: Tafelberg, 2022) THERE is a myth that still circulates out there, one of legions about South Africa’s history: that the transition from apartheid to […]
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Count me out … the census that wasn’t
APPARENTLY, earlier this year South Africa held a decennial national census. Well, so we thought. In tune with the times, I registered us online and identified our house on Google Maps. Then, in spite of […]
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Nuclear: Inside South Africa’s Secret Deal
Karyn Maughan and Kirsten Pearson, Nuclear: Inside South Africa’s Secret Deal (Cape Town: Tafelberg, 2022) ONE of several wives of the president tries to poison him at the behest of the CIA, but he is […]