What are the real roots of the student protests of 2015 and 2016? Is it actually about fees? Why did the protests turn violent? Where is the government while the buildings burn? Former Free State University vice-chancellor Jonathan Jansen delves into the unprecedented disruption of universities that caught South Africa by surprise. In frank interviews with eleven of the VCs most affected, he examines the forces at work, why the protests escalate ...
'Bending the Rules' is a colourful collection of anecdotes from Rafique Gangat’s extraordinary life. South Africa’s first diplomat of colour, Gangat first worked for Foreign Affairs under the NP and then for the ANC government, straddling the transition.This book documents Gangat’s battles against bigotry and prejudice, but also includes a healthy dose of sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll: illicit liaisons across the colour bar, experiments ...
When Jacob Zuma retires to Nkandla, what will be left behind? South Africa has been in the grip of the ?Zunami? since May 2009: Scandal, corruption and allegations of state capture have become synonymous with the Zuma era, leaving the country and its people disheartened. But Jacob Zuma’s time is running out. Whether he leaves the presidency after the ANC’s national conference in 2017, stays on until 2019, or is forced to retire much sooner, the ...
"We must dare to invent the future. Everything man is capable of imagining, he can create." When Thomas Sankara gained power in Burkina Faso in 1983, he saw his first task as expunging the effects of colonialism. A dedicated pan-Africanist, he believed that Africa could sustain itself. He rejected all foreign aid and nationalised land and mineral wealth. This book brings us Sankara in his own words, with a selection from his writings and in ...
From the serious to the lighthearted, this book presents a snapshot of what smart young South Africans think about living in South Africa today. From black tax, whitesplaining and colourism, all the way to hip hop and kinky sex, it is provocative, fearlessly honest and often very funny. Shaka Sisulu tackles being black and privileged, Simphiwe Dana pleads for mother tongue education, Yolisa Qunta shares lessons learnt from taking the taxi, while ...
TWO WORLD-RENOWNED revolutionary icons, Nelson Mandela and Fidel Castro, meet for the first time in Cuba in 1991, and speak together at a rally. Their speeches from that historic day are contained in this book. Mandela praises Cuba’s assistance to incapacitate the US-backed South African army, accelerating the end to apartheid. Castro in turn acknowledges the particular contribution of South Africans to the world wide fight for freedom from oppr ...
“A revolutionary government is one that carries out an agrarian reform that transforms the system of property relations on the land – not just giving the peasants land that was not in use, but primarily giving the peasants land that 'was' in use, land that moreover had been stolen from the peasants in past epochs.” An international symbol of resistance to oppression, Che Guevara’s influence continues decades after his death. His life a ...
“With the victory of the present struggle, political control must pass from a government that rules in order to further only the interests of the capitalists, to one that is representative of the people: ‘The People shall govern.’” Never intended for publication, Govan Mbeki’s prison writings, collected here, originated and were preserved in Robben Island prison. They were meant to be read by other prisoners. Their aim: to educate politically. T ...
“Throughout the ages, man has fought and struggled to free himself from one kind of serfdom or another. The history of man to emancipate himself from slavery by man is well known. It is the story of Europe after the French Revolution, of England after 1215, of South Africa after 1833, of Russia after 1917, of India, Egypt and Indonesia today.” When a group of young political activists met in 1944 to launch the African National Congress Youth Lea ...
