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History of South Africa: From 1902 to the Present

South Africa was born in war, has been cursed by crises and ruptures, and today stands on a precipice once again. This book explores the country's tumultuous journey from the Second Anglo-Boer War to 2021. Drawing on diaries, letters, oral testimony and diplomatic reports, Thula Simpson follows the South African people through the battles, elections, repression, resistance, strikes, insurrections, massacres, crashes and epidemics that have shaped the nation.

Tracking South Africa's path from colony to Union and from apartheid to democracy, Simpson documents the influence of key figures including Jan Smuts, Nelson Mandela, Steve Biko, P.W. Botha, Thabo Mbeki and Cyril Ramaphosa. He offers detailed accounts of watershed events like the 1922 Rand Revolt, the Defiance Campaign, Sharpeville, the Soweto uprising and the Marikana massacre. He sheds light on the roles of Gandhi, Churchill, Castro and Thatcher, and explores the impact of the World Wars, the armed struggle and the Border War. Simpson's history charts the post-apartheid transition and the phases of ANC rule, from Rainbow Nation to transformation; state capture to 'New Dawn'. Along the way, it reveals the divisions and solidarities of sport; the nation's economic travails; and painful pandemics, from the Spanish flu to AIDS and Covid-19.

Simpson, Thula

Reinforcing Constitutional Values in the 6th term: We are running out of time!

The book reminds South Africans about the Constitutional values which are pillars against which human rights and constitutional obligations lean and how they guide deeper understanding of constitutional principles.

The book serves to help the public to understand the Constitution and its imperatives better – to understand what went wrong in the past 27 years (actions and omissions) in relation to the upholding of constitutional values – and to understand what ought to have been done! And how that ought to have been done.

It identifies the conduct that delayed and delays performance of constitutional obligations especially owing to lack of diligence and disregard for constitutional values and principles by those occupying public office.

It reminds all citizens and office bearers that the Constitution is not a document of convenience. And exposes how those occupying public office including public servants fail to: use and abide by the law; and uphold the Constitution to ensure the realisation of human rights and perform constitutional obligations.

Parliament, provincial legislatures, municipal councils, the Executive, boards, members of commissions, accounting officers, managers and employees are recounted what they out to have done and how they ought to have conducted themselves.

Court judgments, investigation reports and reports of commissions of enquiry are used to evince and expose how constitutional values were disregarded and weakened.

The book assesses and encourages a high standard of ethics, professionalism, integrity, good governance and constitutionalism, and diligence in the performance of constitutional obligations.

It further suggests interventions and recommendations inter-alia the restructuring of the constitutional and legislative framework of certain constitutional bodies and statutory bodies such as Chapter 9 institutions and PANSALB towards a diligent and speedy realisation of human rights and service delivery, and thus uphold constitutional values.

Sedupane, Kgositoi Aubrey

The Unlikely Mr Rogue: A life with Ivan Pillay

Pillay speaks here for the first time, of the days of exile and working with Oliver Tambo; of Operation Vula; the return home; and most tellingly of his time at SARS and the insidious campaign against him and others in the top layers of what once was a world-class tax institution.
The story pulls back the curtains on a party and state which once held the moral high ground, but was debased.

Groenink, Evelyn

Mandela: In Honor of an Extraordinary Life

A tribute to her father, Makaziwe Mandela shares the most definitive portrait of Nelson Mandela to date, revealing the man behind the anti-apartheid movement that changed the world.

Mandela, Makaziwe

Know Your Nation: South African History, Culture and Geography in an easy-to-read format; vol 1

Know Your Nation, is the first of several volumes that explore South Africa’s history, culture and geography, in an easy-to-read format. Know Your Nation is the brainchild of Tim Mostert, the Speedy cartoonist from the Daily Sun newspaper. Know Your Nation approaches learning from a different paradigm, from the mind of a cartoonist. That means it’s short and to the point, with a bit of levity and comic strips thrown in, and it never gets boring. Each article is one page long with strong visuals.

Mostert, Tim

Poli Poli

Poli Poli is a remarkable history that speaks to African identity, close family bonds, belonging, struggle and sacrifice, women's rights and femininity, and is written with the lyricism and transporting detail of one of the country's greatest wordsmiths.
Barbara Masekela powerfully conveys the realities of life under apartheid and illustrates the features and characteristics of life in a coal mining community like KwaGuqa in the 1940s, Alexandra township in the 1950s, and one of the oldest girls-only schools in KwaZulu-Natal, Inanda Seminary. The memoir follows her grandmother, a beer brewer and seller who lived through the aftermath of the South African War; her professional parents' determination to secure opportunities and safety for their children at a time when the state was shutting doors on the black people; and her university stint in Lesotho and departure into exile to Ghana in 1963.

Masekela, Barbara

Amakomiti: Grassroots Democracy in South African Shack Settlements

Can people who live in shantytowns, shacks and favelas teach us anything about democracy? About how to govern society in a way that is inclusive, participatory and addresses popular needs? This book argues that they can. In a study conducted in dozens of South Africa's shack settlements, where more than 9 million people live, Trevor Ngwane finds thriving shack dwellers' committees that govern local life, are responsive to popular needs and provide a voice for the community. These committees, called 'amakomiti' in the Zulu language, organise the provision of basic services such as water, sanitation, public works and crime prevention especially during settlement establishment. Amakomiti argues that, contrary to common perception, slum dwellers are in fact an essential part of the urban population, whose political agency must be recognised and respected. In a world searching for democratic alternatives that serve the many and not the few, it is to the shantytowns, rather than the seats of political power, that we should turn.

Ngwane, Trevor

I am A Man: A Memoir

Dr Jerry Mofokeng wa Makhetha always felt like an outsider in his family. At the age of 58 he discovers who his real father is. Suddenly his search for identity makes sense. He gives us a glimpse into his family life; his love for his wife and kids, as well as tracing the highlights and disappointments in his career. Along the way he learns some very important lessons on manhood. This is a memoir, but also a challenge to South African men to live out their masculinity in a responsible way.

Mofokeng wa Makhetha, Jerry

Nelson Mandela 100 Centenary 2018

This book is a tribute to the thousands of people around the world who marked the 2018 centenary of Nelson Mandela's birth. They did do in a great range of ways, modes and idioms - from community-based projects to celebrity events, from innovative new initiatives to the deepening of well-established programmes.

Nelson Mandela Foundation (NMF)

Diplomacy of Change from Apartheid to Democracy

The author's memoir reflects the journey of a fellow traveller through a certain period of time - it is not about an individual but about the journey. Jacobs Dawie's journey will resonate with some, and perhaps not with others. The memoir connects with the fields of history that he ended up traversing. There is both humour and pain, two vital ingredients of life. An honest memoir should draw a smile as well as a tear.

Jacobs, Dawie

I know this to be true about Nelson Mandela

In this book, two former colleagues of Nelson Mandela, Sello Hatang and Verne Harris, share little-known stories from his life as they explore the qualities and disciplines that enable him to lead a country through seemingly insurmountable challenges. With excerpts from Mandela's own reflections, this book is a moving reminder of his legacy and encourages every reader to find and nurture the leader within.

Hatang, Sello Koos

Robben Island Rainbow Dreams: The making of Democratic South Africa's First National Heritage Institution

The book offers the first intimate, behind-the-scenes account of the ongoing saga of the making of democratic South Africa's first national heritage institution. In doing so, it draws on the perspectives of historians, architects, visiting artists, ex-political prisoners, residents of the island and a host of heritage professionals, including debates on Mandelarisation and commemorating Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe.

Lekgotla laga Ramoupi, Neo

Breakthrough: The Struggles and Secret Talks that Brought Apartheid South Africa to the Negotiating Table

Breakthrough sheds new light on the process that led to the formal negotiations. Focusing on the years before 1990, the book reveals the skirmishes that took place away from the public glare, as the principal adversaries engaged in a battle of positions that carved a pathway to the negotiating table. Drawing from material in the prison files of Nelson Mandela, minutes of the meetings of the ANC Constitutional Committee, the NWC and the NEC, notes about the Mells Park talks led by Professor Willie Esterhuyse and Thabo Mbeki, communications between Oliver Tambo and Operation Vula, the Kobie Coetsee Papers, the Broederbond archives and numerous other sources, the authors have pieced together a definitive account of these historic developments. While most accounts of South Africa's transition deal with what happened during the formal negotiations, Breakthrough demonstrates that an account of how the opposing parties reached the negotiating table in the first place is indispensable for an understanding of how South Africa broke free from a spiralling war and began the journey to democracy.

Maharaj, Mac

Reassessing Mandela

The book reconsiders aspects of Mandela's life and makes an important contribution to the historiography of the anti-apartheid political struggle.
This book provides a scholarly counter weight both to uncritical celebration of Mandela and also to a simplistic attribution of post-apartheid shortcoming to the person of Mandela.

Bundy, Colin

Prisoner 913: The Release of Nelson Mandela

Stemmet and co-author Riaan de Villiers bring some of the most compelling secrets to light. Among others, it reveals that the covert collaboration between Mandela and the last NP government went way further than is generally known, and included an attempt by Mandela to broker a deal between the apartheid regime and the ANC in exile prior to his release. It also reveals that F.W. de Klerk made Mandela an offer that, if accepted, would have fundamentally changed the latter's role in the South African transition. Prisoner 913 casts new - often startling - light on the hidden dynamics behind one of the most important events in South Africa's political history."

de Villers, Riaan

A Lawyer's Odyssey: Apartheid, Mandela and Beyond

Henry brown tells his story. His early law experience in Cape Town cast him into the eye of the Struggle when he represented key anti-apartheid activists, including Nelson Mandela on Robben Island, Winnie Mandela, Albie Sachs, and many others.

Brown, Henry

A Plan for the People: Nelson Mandela's Hope for his Nation

As Nelson Mandela lived and worked under the unjust system of apartheid, his desire for freedom grew. South Africa separated people by races, oppressing the country's non-white citizens with abusive laws and cruel restrictions. Every day filled Mandela with grief and anger. But he also had hope--hope for a nation that belonged to everyone who lived in it.

From his work with the African National Congress, to his imprisonment on Robben Island, to his extraordinary rise to the presidency, Nelson Mandela was a rallying force against injustice. This stirring biography explores Mandela's long fight for equality and the courage that propelled him through decades of struggle. Illustrated in the bold, bright colors of South Africa, A Plan for the People captures the spirit of a leader beloved around the world.

McDivitt, Lindsey

Lie on your Wounds: The prison correspondence of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe

This book of approximately 300 letters provide access to the voice of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe via the single most poignant resource that exists: his prison letters. Not only do the lettera evince Sobukwe's storytelling abilities, they convey the complexity of a man who defied easy categorisation. More than this: they are testimony to both the desolate conditions of his imprisonment and to Sobukwe's unbending commitment to the cause of African liberation.

Hook, Derek

The Nation's Gift in Nelson Mandela

The book looks into the strategies and tactics used by Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela when leading his South African contemporaries into the liberation struggle against the evil system of apartheid from 1941 until his arrest near Howick in the Kwa-Zulu Natal province, on 5th August 1962.

Motsepe, Hlabirwa Japhet

46664 BANGLE

Publication on the making of the 46664 Bangle.

46664 bangle

Legacies of Power : Leadership change and Former Presidents in African politics

It was a widely dominant perception until the early 1990's that African rulers do not vacate their office alive. But even in the brutal reality of African politics, transition takes place and various former presidents have dealt with how to maintain power and privilege very differently. With new case studies examining the post-presidential years of the iconic Mandela in South Africa, Daniel Arap Moi in Kenya, Nyerere in Tanzania, Rawlings in Ghana, Charles Taylor in Liberia as well as the experiences of Botswana, Zambia, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Malawi and Nigeria, this volume explores the dilemmas which demands for presidential transitions impose upon incumbent rulers and analyses the relationships which are evolving between new regimes and their predecessors. The contributors discuss the hybridal political systems that exist in post-independence Africa; the role allotted to or pursued by former African presidents; transitional politics and justice; and political stability. The book stimulates careful further observation and analyses concerning progress in this contested arena of institutionalised political power in Africa.

Melber, Henning

Flying with pride : The story of the South African flag

Flying with Pride tells the tale of the birth and universal adoption of the new South African national flag. This tale, told by author and journalist Denis Beckett, holds together a collection of art works, artifacts and photographs from throughout South Africa. These images tell, in their own powerful way, of how the new flag has been woven into the very fabric of South African society. And, as Flying with Pride shows, this has been done in more ways than with any other flag in the world!

Beckett, Denis

For their triumphs and for their tears : Women in apartheid South Africa

This historic and educational book: For Their Triumphs and for Their Tears Women in Apartheid South Africa , it explains how the oppression and exploitation of the majority of South African women--as women, as workers and above all as black people--is an integral part of the apartheid system.

Bernstein, Hilda

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