Interesting reading matter for autumn days

With autumn upon us the time has come to wipe clean those reading glasses, book your favourite armchair and  and start stocking up on some fascinating reading matter.

Here are some books really worthwhile catching up with.

En kom ons begin sommer by Stellenbosch se bekendste kuns-uitvoerproduk: Portchie. Die meester het onlangs sy 60ste verjaardag gevier en nou is sy lewensverhaal ook in boekvorm beskibaar sodat elkeen wat dit lees vir Portchie as’t ware huis toe kan neem.

Portchie – Van Tweeling tot Trafalgar Square

Portchie is een van Suid-Afrika se suksesvolste kunstenaars, maar wie is die man wat agter die kleurvolle skilderye skuil? Waar kom die naam Portchie vandaan? En hoe en wanneer het Jan Hendrik Viljoen van die klein dorpie Tweeling in die Vrystaat, aangemeld om die wêreldbekende kunstenaar Portchie te word? Met sy verbysterende sukses kan daar met reg na Portchie verwys word as ‘n grensverskuiwende kunstenaar, maar langs die pad was daar oorgenoeg bitterbekke, skerp tonge en suur druiwe. Ten spyte van sommige se kritiek, het hierdie veelvlakkige persona ‘n eenvoudige resep wat aanhou om kunsliefhebbers- en versamelaars te betower. Portchie: Van Tweeling tot Trafalgar Square, wat die persoonlike met die kreatiewe versoen, kombineer Portchie se inspirerende verhaal met foto’s, staaltjies en selfs resepte. Dit vertel die storie agter die storie: onopgesmuk, sonder tierlantjies, maar met ‘n tikkie flair. Portchie se verhaal is een van hoop, van liefde en deernis, en van treffende eenvoud. Hierdie memoir kombineer Portchie se inspirerende verhaal met foto’s, 60 skilderye, 12 beelde en selfs sy gunstelingresepte.

Upstart

Second up is the newest offering called Upstart – brilliant book and even more brilliant author. Alexandria Procter is amazing – so full of energy and ideas including information about the startup called DigsConnect International – student accommodation which is similar to Air B&B but for students!

At 25, Alex became SA’s youngest startup tech wunderkind. During her December break from UCT in 2018, she came up with the idea for DigsConnect. She was deeply affected by the student protests on university campuses in 2016 and so created a website that would address the student housing crisis. In 2019 DigsConnect disrupted the local tech terrain by raising R12 million in its first seed fundraising round. DigsConnect has subsequently transformed from being a local student startup, to catapulting into the global fourth industrial revolution.

Hier is ook ‘n paar Afrikaanse titels tussenin:

‘n Boek word gebruik om hulde te bring aan Fatima Sydow van wie daar met ’n swaar hart afskeid genem word. Sy is op 19 Desember 2023 oorlede ná ’n lang en dapper stryd teen kanker. Fatima Sydow, ’n kok en gewese spysenier, het ’n sonderlinge talent gehad om mense met haar kos bymekaar te bring. Haar aansteeklike liefde vir sowel kosmaak as haar medemens het uit elke gereg gestraal, en vreugde verskaf aan aanhangers reg oor Suid-Afrika. Haar Facebookblad, waar sy haar resepte gulhartig gedeel het, het duisende volgelinge gelok en haar ’n geliefde kosikoon gemaak. In 2020 het Fatima ’n nuwe kulinêre reis aangepak – ’n YouTube-kanaal wat gou groot aanhang verwerf het en nou reeds 67 000 intekenare het. Haar gawe om met haar gehoor te kommunikeer het haar liefde vir kosmaak en haar passie om haar kennis met ander te deel na vore gebring.

Fatima en haar tweelingsuster, Gadija, was die gewilde aanbieders van hul eie kookprogram, Kaap, kerrie & koesisters, op die TV-kanaal Via. Die dinamiese duo het warmte en geur na huishoudings gebring en ’n blywende impak op die foodie-landskap gemaak. Dit was vir NB-Uitgewers ’n eer om deel te kon wees van Fatima se literêre reis, wat begin het met die publikasie van haar en Gadija se eerste gesamentlike kookboek, Kaap, Kerrie & Koesisters, in sowel Afrikaans as Engels. Hierna het Fatima voortgegaan om haar kennis te deel in Fatima Sydow Cooks en haar mees onlangse boek, Fatima Sydow, Cape Malay Cooking.

Fatima se uitgewer, Lindy Samery, sê: “Fatima was meer as ’n skrywer, sy het ’n goeie vriendin geword. Ons het ’n pad gestap van haar eerste boek af – wat ’n merkwaardige mens. Ek voel geëerd om haar te kon ken. Vlieg hoog, my liefste Fati, tot ons mekaar weer sien.”

Die hoof-uitvoerende beampte van NB-Uitgewers, Eloise Wessels, sê: “Fatima was ’n kok van ongeëwenaarde bekwaamheid, ’n wonderlike skrywer, en die lieflikste mens. Ons dink aan haar geliefdes in hierdie hartseer tyd van onbeskryflike verlies.”

Fatima Sydow se dood laat ’n baie groot leemte. Haar ruimhartigheid van gees, aansteeklike passie en talent sal deur aanhangers, kollegas en almal wat sy aangeraak het, gemis word.

Ground up

GroundUp lead journalists on the Thabo Bester prison escape story, Marecia Damons and Daniel Steyn, have been honoured with the prestigious 2023 Nat Nakasa Award for Media Integrity. The award ceremony took place recently  and recognised their exceptional dedication to investigative journalism and their role in uncovering the shocking escape of Thabo Bester from Mangaung prison. The Nat Nakasa Award citation applauded Damons and Steyn for their unwavering commitment to ‘rocking the boat of corruption’ at Mangaung prison. Their groundbreaking reporting exposed how Thabo Bester managed to escape from the prison with the assistance of Nandipha Magudumana. Bester and Magudumana were apprehended in Tanzania nearly a year after their escape and subsequently brought back to South Africa. They, along with prison officials allegedly involved in their escape, are now facing trial.

How to Steal a Gold Mine: The Aurora Story

In October 2009, Aurora Empowerment Systems – a black-owned, politically connected business – made a bid to rescue the liquidated Pamodzi Gold mines. Former President Jacob Zuma’s nephew, Khulubuse Zuma, his lawyer Michael Hulley and former president Nelson Mandela’s grandson Zondwa Mandela, were listed as directors of Aurora. On paper the company looked almost too good to be true – promising to turn the mines into a new business that would offer stellar benefits to workers, while also expanding into Africa. Soon after the acquisition, the first cracks appeared. More than 5 000 workers and suppliers, who depended on their employment to keep themselves and their families alive, went unpaid. Over the next few years, Aurora-managed mines were stripped of assets, as illicit payments went to the families of the “connected”, while workers starved. Despite a litany of evidence of Aurora’s dishonesty, to this day little has been done to bring the perpetrators to book.

Dianne Hawker has worked as a legal journalist and editor in many South African news organisations. She helped set up Newzroom Afrika. She has worked in radio and online news and is currently the Multimedia Editor at Timeslive. She is a seasoned media trainer and coaches through her company, iNtatheli Media. She lives in Johannesburg.

Anton Rupert – Die lewe van ‘n sakelegende

Die verstommende storie van ’n sakelegende wat een van Afrika se welvarendste maatskappye uit niks opgebou het. Anton Rupert was ‘n Karooseun wat in die Depressie grootgeword het, en dit skaars kon bekostig om te gaan studeer, maar sy Rembrandt groep word uiteindelik ʼn wêreldleier in o.m. luukse goedere. Wat was Rupert se geheim? Rupert se oorspronklike sienings oor die skepping van werk en welvaart in ‘n sukkelende ekonomie is sy blywende nalatenskap met diepgaande lesse vir Suid-Afrika vandag. Sy storie is meer relevant as ooit. Hier vertel die gesoute sakeskrywer Ebbe Dommisse die volle verhaal, vol kleur en anakdotes, in dié opgedateerde uitgawe van sy hoogaangeskrewe biografie van Rupert.

Soul Mandate

The extraordinary life of a property maverick

Lew Geffen was destined to have an eventful life. Driven by a maverick spirit, he embarks on a wild ride of success, securing the local Sotheby’s International Realty license to become a major player in the property market. Along the way he’s fired by his mother, sells Mandela’s house and navigates the fallout of a murder at his company’s annual convention. Lew’s extraordinary life is told with candour, warmth and laced by his wicked sense of humour. Definitely a business memoir like no other.

Lew Geffen has been in the real estate industry since 1972 and is recognised as one of the leading experts in property in South Africa. Lew and Sandy Geffen opened their flagship office, Lew Geffen Estates, in 1982 in Johannesburg. Over the next 20 years, the company became a market leader in Johannesburg, with over 200 agents operating in 12 branches.

Geffen was also responsible for negotiating the Master Franchise for Sotheby’s International Realty Master Franchise for South Africa and holds many directorships in associated real estate and allied industries.

Now exploring new territory, Geffen has written an autobiography that’s currently on the shelves at Exclusive Books.

Capture in the Court

In Defence of Judges and the Constitution

Dan Mafora

Since populist factions claim to be the people, judges confronting them do not just decide against the people; they are against the people.
The judiciary faces a barrage of attacks not just from the ruling ANC but from other political parties clamouring for power.
There comes a predictable phase in the cycle of politics where this is most likely to occur. Dan Mafora provides much-needed insight.

The judiciary faces a barrage of attacks not just from the ruling ANC but from other political parties clamouring for power. There comes a predictable phase in the cycle of politics where this is most likely to occur. Why does it benefit political parties to deflect from their failure to deliver with calls for parliamentary sovereignty? Why do so many myths circulate about the nature of our courts and constitution?  Read it al now in this fantastic book.

Power and faith

In this memoir and analysis, Pontsho Pilane investigates the dangers of uninterrogated belief in Pentecostal churches and how these beliefs affect our everyday lives. Rather topical in this timeframe as many churches are being accused of using religious gatherings for party political canvassing.

‘What if I were to tell you that I used to belong to a religious cult? I’d tell you it was one of those evangelical churches, and then leave you to fill in the gaps yourself . . . Did I eat grass? Or maybe a snake? Was I sprayed with Doom?

‘Talking about spending most of my twenties serving in a white-led multi-racial megachurch feels like stepping on a piece of Lego. The pain was, is, obliterating. It demands my attention. It never leaves. It ebbs and flows. I am a former member of what I will call The Family.’

Journalist Pontsho Pilane’s experience at a powerful evangelical church changed the trajectory of her life and began her journey of deconstructing her faith. Part memoir, part social commentary, Power and Faith lays bare the myth that our constitutional values are safe from the tentacles of religious power.

Soul of a nation

There is lament about how and why the ANC have so quickly become preoccupied with material enrichment.

Former exile, business leader and political commentator, Oyama Mabandla, excavates the values that created a steady flow of pioneering South Africans under impossible circumstances, bolstered a liberation ethic and championed a leadership that made individual nobility and excellence aspirational.

Oyama Mabandla is a perhaps little-known treasure, and this book will be a treasure too.
Soul of a Nation is an eloquent frolic through 40 years of our turbulent history, told without a flicker of rancour. Having joined the struggle against apartheid as a teenager, leaving his home and family for a difficult exile, Mabandla now finds himself wondering why it hasn’t all turned out better and what might be done about it.
In his bewilderment, he reveals himself the fearless thinker his friends will all recognise. Oyama Mabandla’s great strength, in all the time I have known him, is that he is not afraid of ideas and this book proves it once more.

These values, in retreat since 94, can still recapture the nation’s best trajectory.