Rivonia's Children
Rivonia's Children

Author: Glenn Frankel

Publisher: Jacana Media

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 405

ISBN-13: 1431402206

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Rivonia's children is the harrowing and inspiring account of a number of white Jewish activists who risked their lives to battle apartheid when South Africa plunged into an era of darkness in the 1960s from which it has only recently emerged.

Saving Nelson Mandela
Saving Nelson Mandela

Author: Kenneth S. Broun

Publisher: OUP USA

Published: 2012-02-09

Total Pages: 231

ISBN-13: 0199740224

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Discusses the trials of Nelson Mandela and the politics of South Africa.

Umkhonto we Sizwe
Umkhonto we Sizwe

Author: Thula Simpson

Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa

Published: 2016-03-01

Total Pages: 1046

ISBN-13: 177022842X

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The armed struggle waged by the ANC’s military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), was the longest sustained insurgency in South African history. This book offers the first full account of the rebellion in its entirety, from its early days in the 1950s to the inauguration of Nelson Mandela as South African president in 1994. Vast in scope, this story traverses every corner of South Africa and extends throughout southern Africa, where MK’s largest campaigns and heaviest engagements occurred, as well as to the solidarity networks that the rebellion mobilised around the world. Drawing principally from previously unpublished writings and testimonies by the men and women who fought the armed struggle, this book recreates the drama, heroism and tragedy of their experiences. It tells the story of leaders like Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Joe Slovo and Chris Hani, whose reputations were forged in the crucible of the armed struggle, but it is also a tale of martyrs such as Looksmart Ngudle, Ashley Kriel and Phila Ndwandwe, as well as of MK cadres such as Leonard Nkosi and Glory Sedibe, who would ultimately turn against the ANC and collaborate with the state in hunting down their former comrades. Written in a fresh, immediate style, Umkhonto we Sizwe is an honest account of the armed struggle and a fascinating chronicle of events that changed South African history.

Pale Native
Pale Native

Author: Max du Preez

Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa

Published: 2011-02-08

Total Pages: 566

ISBN-13: 1770201416

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Max du Preez has one hell of a story to tell. In his career as a renegade reporter, he’s survived three dismissals, seven libel suits, thirteen criminal cases, four aeroplane crashes, a bombing, two assassination attempts and was a regular on right-wing hit lists. He was in Soweto on 16 June 1976, witnessed the debauched parties of apartheid cabinet ministers, and stepped over dead bodies in a bombed Angolan village. He looked into apartheid killer Dirk Coetzee’s eyes and published his story of police death squads, and when he visited Vlakplaas himself, he was lucky to get out alive. Max is best known as founder and editor of the Afrikaans newspaper Vrye Weekblad, and for his weekly television report on the Truth Commission and the programme Special Assignment. His story takes you on a remarkable journey, from the contradictions of history to the triumphs and troubles of the present, from the halls of parliament to the desert of Namibia, from burning townships to the headquarters of covert operations. You’ll meet generals and guerrillas, presidents and hit men. And its all reported with the straight-shooting, uncompromising, outspoken frankness that has won him admiration and got him into trouble with the new government as well as the old. Pale Native is a story filled with drama, about the risks of investigative journalism in the front line. It’s controversial, because Max, as always, is not afraid to expose what others want hidden from view. It’s insightful, giving a fascinating analysis of southern African politics from a skilled reporter who has seen it first hand.

Precedent & Possibility
Precedent & Possibility

Author: Dennis Davis

Publisher: Juta and Company Ltd

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 9781770130227

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Not a day goes by in present South Africa when the role of law, the rule of law, the independence of the judiciary and the future of constitutional democracy is not debated. This book will take the reader into the heart of the legal system, the understanding of which is necessary when wrestling with these pressing questions. The book examines a series of key cases over the past 60 years, the judgements in which changed the political or social landscape of the country. The choice of cases for inclusion in the book was made both to tell compelling and significant historical stories, as well as to illustrate the possibilities inherent in law, and the potential for its abuse and use. All of the chosen cases were ones where the country held its collective breath before judgement was delivered. Through the stories told, the reader will not only engage with critical aspects of South African history, but will be exposed to the manner in which the possibility of our new constitutional democracy is linked to the legal precedents, traditions and culture which were built up over the past century.

The Bram Fischer Waltz
The Bram Fischer Waltz

Author: Harry Kalmer

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2016-11-01

Total Pages: 63

ISBN-13: 1776146441

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Although widely known as the Afrikaner communist who saved Nelson Mandela from the gallows, very little is known about Bram Fischer the man. Fischer was a respected Senior Advocate at the Johannesburg Bar who chose to side with the oppressed and went underground to join the armed struggle. He was arrested on 5 November 1965 after almost ten months on the run. ‘I owed it to the political prisoners, to the banished, to the silenced and to those under house arrest not to remain a spectator, but to act.’ These words spoken by Bram Fischer in his statement from the dock during his treason trial were followed by a life sentence. Scion of a proudly Afrikaner family that included a prime minister and a judge president of the Orange Free State, he would seem to be an unlikely hero of the liberation movement. Uncompromising in his political beliefs and driven by an unshakeable integrity and a commitment to the dream of a non-racial democracy, Fischer was also humorous, fun-loving and a family man, devoted to his wife and children. The many facets of this remarkable man are reflected in The Bram Fischer Waltz, Harry Kalmer’s lyrical tribute. A brief and intense work, with the protagonist as narrator, this one person play takes the audience through a roller coaster of emotions as it tells Fischer’s story. The play won The Standard Bank Silver Ovation Award when it premiered in English at 2013 the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown and was awarded the Adelaide Tambo Award for Human Rights in the Arts in 2014. The text is supplemented by a foreword by George Bizos and an introduction by the playwright, reflecting on the path that led him to write the play, and an afterword by Yvonne Malan, entitled ‘The Power of Moral Courage’.