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'Mark Shaw is the foremost analyst of organised crime in SA.' - Jonny SteinbergAt the dawn of the country's brave new democracy, Cape Town was at war. Pagad, which began as a community protest action against crime, had mutated into a sinister vigilante group wreaking death and destruction across the city. Between 1996 and 2001, there were hundreds of bomb blasts - most infamously at the Planet Hollywood restaurant at the V&A Waterfront - and countless targeted hits on druglords and gang bosses.The police scrambled desperately to respond. The new ANC government was shaken. Citizens of Cape Town lived in fear. Who could save the city?Mark Shaw tells the incredible tale of how former foes - struggle cadres and the apartheid security apparatus - pulled together to break the Pagad death squads. Out of this crisis emerged the elite law enforcement unit, the Scorpions.It is a story that has never been told in full. Now many involved have broken their silence about this pivotal chapter in South Africa's history, which offers far-reaching lessons on how to deal with organised crime today.

Every contact leaves a trace: a single strand of hair or a tiny droplet of blood can be the silent witness at a crime scene.Locard's Exchange Principle underpins all forensic science and holds that the perpetrator of a crime will bring something to the crime scene and leave with something from it.Forensic experts use this principle daily to catch murderers and assailants. In Risking Life for Death, South African forensic pathologist Ryan Blumenthal offers a master class in this singular forensic technique based on real-life case studies. With more than twenty years' experience in the field, Blumenthal explains how to look for clues and traces, and how what he does not find at autopsy is often more important than what he does find. In other words, the absence of evidence can sometimes be of greater value than the presence of evidence.His account also highlights the dangers forensic pathologists are exposed to daily. As they try to unravel the puzzle of someone's death, forensic pathologists often face life-threatening infections, toxic gases and the hazards associated with high-profile cases - in effect, risking their life to solvesomeone else's death.An understanding of Locard's Exchange Principle can help you become a medical detective in your own life, can help you be a happier person and can even provide you with a better philosophy for growing older, Blumenthal argues.

Ever since the springboks won the Rugby World Cup in 1995, South Africans have been passionate about the tournament that is the pinnacle of sporting achievement.Nick Mallett, who coached the Boks at the 1999 World Cup, has become a household name for his incisive and forthright commentary and analysis. Join him as he takes you into the beating heart of the tournament, which kicks off in Paris in September. He tackles the following key questions:· How strong are the Boks going into the RWC?· Who are the favourites to win, and why?· How does one 'play' the referee - both on and off the field?· What are playing conditions like in France, where Mallett coached for a decade?· Can Rassie Erasmus do it again and pull off a double win?Filled with keen insights, opinions and anecdotes of games past, this is a book every fan should read.

Favouring manoeuvre over attrition and often punching above their weight, South African soldiers have become known for their tenacity, dash and ability to defy the odds. Their unique directive command style has also helped them to excel in defining battles and operations, from the campaign in German South West Africa in 1915 to the cross-border operations in Angola during the Border War.In 20 Battles, military historians Evert Kleynhans and David Brock Katz investigate the evolution of South Africa's armed forces over a century from 1913 to 2013. They track the evolution of the doctrine and structure of the defence force, uncovering historical continuity and the lessons learned from past battles and operations.What is clear is that when South African soldiers have the freedom to operate according to their manoeuvre doctrine, as they had in East Africa in 1916 and southern Ethiopia in 1941, they can achieve stunning results. But when hemmed in by rigid doctrine and a top-down command style, as at Delville Wood in 1916 and Tobruk in 1942, the results can be tragic.20 Battles combines both battlefield drama and crisp analysis and in the process provides a much-needed perspective on the South African way of war.

'A precious and rare publication ... The moving stories of love, longing and suffering provide valuable new insights into tumultuous times that helped shape South Africa.' - Max du PreezIt is nine months this evening since I last saw the light in my own house, when I had to tear myself away from all that is dear to me. And today is also my little son's birthday. Oh, how I long for home. So wrote Michael Muller in 1901 as he gazed at the lights of Cape Town from a ship bound for Bermuda, after months of internment in a British POW camp in Simon's Town. The camps were full, so Boer prisoners were being sent to other parts of the empire. Michael's brothers, Chris and Pieter, were exiled to Ceylon while Lool was held in the Green Point camp in Cape Town.Remarkably, three of the brothers kept diaries, the only known instance of this happening in the Boer War. The scrawled notes of Chris on the evening after the legendary Magersfontein battle, the rain-dashed pages written by Lool in Colesberg, and the angry words penned by Michael about his treatment at Surrender Hill have the urgency of men determined to go on record.When Beverley Roos-Muller began to explore writing about the Boer experience of the war, she read the tiny diary of Michael, grandfather of her husband, Ampie Muller. It led her to the discovery of the other diaries and many more documents. She also records the brothers' difficult return home and examines the consequences for South Africa of the bitterness this strife evoked.This is a beautifully told account of the fellowship of four brothers in war, their capture and eventual recovery.

When Charlene Wittstock married Prince Albert of Monaco in a star-studded wedding watched by millions across the world in 2011, rumours of her getting cold feet and her unhappiness about his love children swirled around the couple.Ever since then, the statuesque Olympic swimmer has been in the eye of the paparazzi and the centre of endless tabloid speculation and malicious rumour-mongering. Is the bubbly, down-to-earth South African lonely in glamorous Monaco? Is it a marriage of convenience? What is the status of her health? These are just some of the questions that roil so publicly around her.Journalist Arlene Prinsloo sifts fact from fiction in this revealing unauthorised biography of Her Serene Highness Princess Charlene. Prinsloo traces her life from humble beginnings in Zimbabwe, Johannesburg and Durban to the Olympic Games, her jet-set romance with the bachelor prince, the fairy-tale wedding and becoming a mother to twins. At its heart, it's the story of a woman in search of happiness for herself and her family - and also of the beginning of Charlene defining her own space amid the royal protocol.

'A fantastic opportunity to drink from the pool of excellence.' - Bonang Mohale, President of Business Unity SACEOs can build up a business from nothing or turn around a company that is on the verge of bankruptcy. Inspiring with their relentless drive, strong leadership and innovation that can turn whole industries on their heads, they are the dynamos of our economy.What is the X factor that ensures a CEO's success?KC Rottok Chesaina seeks to uncover the unique personality traits, business acumen and leadership values that have turned CEOs into captains of industry. Based on extensive research and focused interviews with the leaders of some of South Africa's top companies, including Vodacom, Bidvest, Capitec Bank, RMB, Dis-Chem, Discovery Health, Nedbank, Sanlam, Momentum, Curro, Exxaro, Harmony Gold and MTN, Chesaina's book takes you to the heart of corporate South Africa.With real-life examples, The CEO X factor shows that reaching the top is about much more than money - it requires a very specifi c kind of character, straightforward strategies, a true focus on people and a value-driven approach.

Mother. Nurse. Gold-digger. Cause célèbre. When Daisy de Melker stood trial in 1932, accused of poisoning her son and two husbands, the public couldn't get enough of her. Crowds gathered outside court baying for blood, and she waved to them like a celebrity. Against the backdrop of Johannesburg in its golden age, a booming metropolis of opulence and chaos nicknamed the 'City of Gold' and the 'University of Crime', she had quietly gone about her sinister business while around her sensational crimes grabbed the headlines. There was the marauding Foster Gang, which left at least ten people dead; a dashing German hustler; a local Bonnie and Clyde; an innocent student walking in Zoo Lake park at the wrong time and a man whoescaped death row to become one of South Africa's most revered authors. These interlinking stories are told in the style of a thriller and with riveting, kaleidoscopic detail. In Daisy de Melker, Ted Botha weaves together a fantastic cast of killers and con men, detectives and lawmen, journalists and authors - even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Herman Charles Bosman - to depict a grand and desperate city. For almost twenty years Daisy hid in the shadows but when someone finally spoke up about the suspicious deaths around her, it led to a trial like nothing the City of Gold had ever seen and spread her name across the world.

This book will surely be the most readable, best informed, most complete account of Harry Oppenheimer's life there is ever likely to be.' - Bill Nasson, historian and authorAs chairman of Anglo American and De Beers, Harry Oppenheimer held sway over his family's gold and diamond empire for a quarter of a century. He combined a passion for commerce with a streak of creative genius.In this, the first comprehensive biography of Oppenheimer, Michael Cardo has produced a vivid portrait based on unrestricted access to his subject's private papers and interviews with Oppenheimer's relatives and associates.Cardo brings to life the places, people and events that shaped Oppenheimer's career at the intersection of business and politics. From the diamond fields of Kimberley, where his father, Ernest, arrived to seek his fortune in 1902, through his long apprenticeship as heir apparent, to Harry Oppenheimer's emergence on the world stage as a magnate and monarch in his own right - the 'King of Diamonds' and the man with the Midas touch - Cardo tells the story of a dynasty.As a financier, philanthropist and public figure, Oppenheimer straddles the history of 20th-century South Africa. In the 1950s the National Party regarded him as a threat to Afrikanerdom, the sinister embodiment of English 'money power'. Forty years later, Nelson Mandela praised Oppenheimer as a nation-builder, a key figure in South Africa's transition to democracy. Yet nowadays, Oppenheimer is demonised in some quarters as the archetype of 'white monopoly capital' and blamed, in part, for democracy's disappointing dividends.Meticulously researched and superbly written, this authoritative work sheds new light on the multifaceted legacy of a renowned South African industrialist.

Three Wise Monkeys presents a startling new way of viewing the entangled, often hidden, economic, political and social dynamics that informed the rise of 20th-century South Africa, often at the expense of neighbouring Mozambique. It is history that transcends state boundaries to take the reader into previously uncharted domains of the recent past. This 3-volume work was published as a box set but is also available as individual volumes.Three Wise Monkeys culminates with volume 3, 'The Quest for Wealth Without Work', a forensic examination of South Africa's long struggle to suppress gambling, and especially lotteries. The opposition of the Calvinist churches - both Afrikaans- and English-speaking - had its counterpart in the eager embrace of games of chance by the white working class on the Witwatersrand. Focusing on the career of Rufe Naylor, an Australian bookmaker, horse dealer and entrepreneur who, with the help of a defrocked Portuguese Catholic priest, ran the Lourenço Marques Lottery, Volume 3 shows how the efforts of church and state to control the leisure time and morals of the working class, intersected with the need to ensure the flow of cheap mine labour from Mozambique. Ultimately, in the suppression of the Lourenço Marques Lottery - and in campaigns against pinball machines, dog racing and other 'social evils' - can be seen the emerging outlines of the apartheid police state.

Three Wise Monkeys presents a startling new way of viewing the entangled, often hidden, economic, political and social dynamics that informed the rise of 20th-century South Africa, often at the expense of neighbouring Mozambique. It is history that transcends state boundaries to take the reader into previously uncharted domains of the recent past. This 3-volume work was published as a box set but is also available as individual volumes.Volume 2, 'Through the Turnstiles of the Mind', explores Catholic Mozambique's role in the leisure economy of Protestant South Africa, as a place where bachelor miners and Randlords alike could project their fantasies of subtropical exotica, whether in the raucous bars and brothels of the port or in the development of the upmarket Polana Hotel and the vision of segregated 'tourist zones' for increasingly race-conscious Rand holidaymakers.Mozambique's liminal place in the leisure and entertainment universe was nowhere better represented than in the rise and eventual fall of Lourenço Marques Radio. For decades, LM Radio beamed the hit songs of the day, and a certain vision of post-war modernity, to white South Africans increasingly in thrall to the stifling rule of Calvinist churches, the National Party and the Broederbond-dominated SABC. The eventual triumph of the SABC in muzzling LM Radio was a foretaste of the administrative and police state that came to imprison South African minds during the 1960s and 1970s.

Three Wise Monkeys presents a startling new way of viewing the entangled, often hidden, economic, political and social dynamics that informed the rise of 20th-century South Africa, often at the expense of neighbouring Mozambique. It is history that transcends state boundaries to take the reader into previously uncharted domains of the recent past. This 3-volume work was published as a box set but is also available as individual volumes.Volume 1, 'The Making of an African Economic Tragedy', looks at the Portuguese colonisation of Mozambique, and the gradual transformation of the colony into a reservoir of cheap labour, first during the Atlantic slave trade and then during the rise of the voracious Rand mining industry. In a relatively short period during the late 19th century, Mozambique went from being a sleepy imperial backwater, its economy focused on the Indian Ocean, to a weak client feeding into the South African economy, which was being transformed by the discoveries of first diamonds and then gold. The desperately poor Sul do Save region in southern Mozambique became the hunting ground for agents recruiting labour for the Witwatersrand mines, and a grim trade in black bodies defined this unequal relationship. A profound imbalance was created between the two territories, with Mozambique locked into financial dependence on its neighbour to the west. In effect, the South African mining industry got to own a large part of the harbour infrastructure in the capital, Lourenço Marques. The story of Mozambique's finances, and particularly of its 'central bank', the Banco Nacional UItramarino, illustrates how the colony's commercial economy and sluggish administration were no match for the power of the Rand mining houses and British sterling. Mozambique was colonised twice over - first by Portugal and then by South Africa.

'This is a South African story of an unsung hero, a man forgotten by history - though not by me, nor by the people who knew and respected him ...' When his grandfather gave sermons, he was 'capable of shaking mountains', a church leader tells journalist and author Lesley Mofokeng. 'Ntate Mofokeng pulled people towards God with the great and rare talent of a motivator.' In this revealing book, Mofokeng investigates the life of his grandfather, Mongangane Wilfred Mofokeng, a prominent Dutch Reformed Church evangelist. In the 1950s, as Black South Africans were being evicted from the cities to live in reserves and homelands, Mongangane set out to build a community at a dusty cattle post in the far North West province. There he managed to establish a resilient community that mostly lived outside the repressions of the apartheid regime. The journey takes the author from Johannesburg's Marabi-soaked townships of the 1930s to his childhood home of Gelukspan near Lichtenburg and then to rural Free State and the mountain kingdom of Lesotho. In what becomes a spiritual quest, he traces the inspirational footsteps of his ancestors and the legendary King Moshoeshoe. Mofokeng also explores the politics and history of the Dutch Reformed Church's Black constituency and uncovers why to this day it is called Kereke ya Fora - or 'Church of the French' - and its hymns are sung across denominations and in social spaces outside the church.

For many years, UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi was known for his charisma, charm and brio: he convinced millions of his fellow countrymen and also international statesmen that he was Angola's and the West's best hope for democratic rule. More than 30 years after writing a sympathetic biography of Savimbi, Fred Bridgland sets the record straight. Based on new evidence that has come to light, he reveals the rebel leader's murderous legacy. In the 1970s and 1980s, when Angola was a hotbed of the Cold War, few people would have believed that Savimbi was a manipulative and paranoid tyrant prepared to kill anyone he viewed as a threat to his power. Tito Chingunji, the brilliant young foreign secretary of Savimbi's UNITA movement, who approached Bridgland to write the original biography in the early 1980s, risked his life to help Bridgland tell the true story of what was going on behind the scenes. This is an account of the intense friendship that developed between the two men, the adventures they shared and the terrifying challenges they faced as they revealed Savimbi's true face.

After an exceptionally wild Mother's Day where she danced like there was no tomorrow, picked a fight with a stranger and collided with the floor, Johannesburg scriptwriter and author, Pamela Power, is forced to take a hard look at her drinking habits. She realises that although she does not need to find an AA group immediately, she might be a serial binge drinker and needs to take back control.In this honest, yet humorous account of her year of not getting sh*tfaced, Pamela examines her long relationship with alcohol. She is shocked to realise just how much of a crutch alcohol has been for her. There is always a bottle of wine or prosecco around to help her manage the many demands of life as a freelancer and a parent.Pamela starts her journey to sobriety at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic as her family faces financial troubles and life in the suburban parks of Johannesburg isn't so blissful anymore. Through her, we experience all the frustration, irritation and surprising benefits of going dry.In dealing with her dependence on alcohol, Pamela also confronts her troubled relationship with her parents. While many other sober-curious books portray sobriety as the only answer, in the end Pam finds a sweet spot between total sobriety and binge drinking: moderation.

'This is an excellent portrayal of the Chris I knew. Not one word of exaggeration, so large was Chris. His contribution to our freedom is inestimable.' - Mavuso Msimang, ANC veteran and former member of the military high command of uMkhonto we Sizwe Chris Hani's assassination in 1993 gave rise to two of South Africa's greatest political questions. If he had survived, what impact would he have had on the ANC government? And could this charismatic man have risen to become president of the country?In the 30th anniversary year of his murder by right-wing fanatics, this updated version of the seminal biography of Hani re-evaluates his legacy and traces his life from his childhood in rural Transkei to the crisis in the ANC camps in the 1980s and the perilous last 36 months he spent back home rallying for South Africa's freedom. Drawing on interviews with those who knew him, this vividly written book provides a detailed account of the life of a hero of South Africa's liberation, who was both an intellectual and a fighter.

Business tycoon Patrice Motsepe is never shy to shake up the status quo. He has always followed his instincts to stay ahead of the curve. An icon of corporate South Africa, he is as much known for his leadership in the world of football as for his philanthropy.He was a top lawyer when he pursued his dream of being an entrepreneur, making a deal with Anglo American in the late 1990s that marked the beginning of a series of unique relationships which today define his African Rainbow Minerals empire.As the owner of Mamelodi Sundowns, he led it to becoming one of the most accomplished clubs in Africa. Then came the powerful seats of president at the Confederation of African Football and vice-president of FIFA, football's global governing body, in 2021.Yet questions linger about his political ambitions because of his close links to the ANC and particularly his brothers-in-law, Cyril Ramaphosa and Jeff Radebe.In this unauthorised biography, best-selling author and journalist Janet Smith mines public archives, academic papers and international media to find what lies behind this hugely successful, intensely private man, and what may lie ahead.

'I know that what I've learnt in the past two years will help me for the rest of my life. My hope is that you will see yourself reflected in my own journey, and . . . consider who you will become in this new world of ours. Who we all might become.'If you're suffering from a crisis of meaning, you're not alone. In this powerful new book, future strategist John Sanei shares how he found ways to cope with the uncertainty that has been all around us in the past two years. Lockdown meant his career came to a screeching halt. He was living with his parents and then had to battle loneliness until he started to reassess who he was and what he wanted from life.Infused with empathy and personal anecdote, Who Do We Become? explores our individual responsibility to evolve into more decent, dynamic versions of ourselves, our businesses and humanity as a whole - especially in times of crisis.The book is divided into three sections. In Part 1: ANGUISH, John explores how to courageously mourn the loss of our 'normal' pre-COVID world. Part 2: ABNORMAL, shows us how to understandthis new environment and recognise that uncertainty is the new normal. Then, in Part 3: ADVENTURE, John provides a toolkit for us to forge out into the new world, to succeed and recognise the signs of rebirth and renewal.Travel with John as he maps out our strange, new world and lays down a path to reframe our thinking, to recognise our discomfort, to survive and thrive.

"Highly relevant today as prosecutors deal with the aftermath of State Capture. Fascinating from the first page to the last." - Albie Sachs, Former Justice, Constitutional CourtCourageous, yet contested, Bulelani Ngcuka has always stood up for what he believes in. His decision in 2003 as National Director of Public Prosecutions not to prosecute then deputy president, Jacob Zuma, is a decision he still stands by to this day.In this sweeping biography, based on many hours of interviews with Ngcuka, author Marion Sparg uncovers the roots of his fearless activism and tells his side of the story. She goes back in time to his modest beginnings in the Eastern Cape, to his lawyering years with the formidable Griffiths Mxenge, his various periods of detention, exile, and his homecoming.Ngcuka played a critical role in establishing the National Prosecuting Authority, the elite crime-busting unit the Scorpions, and other mechanisms to tackle the country's crime and corruption problems. Soon he faced one of his most difficult tasks - confronting former comrades who had become involved in illegal activities. The Sting in the Tale is a first-hand account of our most recent legal and political history. It is also an intriguing story about political manoeuvrings, bombings and hijackings, urban-terror and "whispering" campaigns, lies, murder, alleged spies, intrigue, family, and love.