Books published by Jonathan Ball Publishers SA

A comprehensive work based on personal interviews and insider knowledge - bound to become a classic.

"On 21 March 1960, Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe led a mass defiance of South Africa's pass laws. He urged blacks to go to the nearest police station and demand arrest. Police opened fire on a peaceful crowd in the township of Sharpeville and killed 69 people.The protest changed the course of South Africa's history. Afrikaner rule stiffened and black resistance went underground. International opinion hardened against apartheid.Sobukwe, leader of the Pan-Africanist Congress, was jailed for three years for incitement. At the end of his sentence the government, fearful of his power, rushed the so-called 'Sobukwe Clause' through Parliament, to keep him in prison without a trial. For the next six years, Sobukwe was kept in solitary confinement on Robben Island, the infamous apartheid prison near Cape Town.On his release, Sobukwe was banished to the town of Kimberley with very severe restrictions on his freedom. He died there nine years later in February 1978.This book is the story of this South African hero - the lonely prisoner on Robben Island. It is also the story of the friendship between Robert Sobukwe and Benjamin Pogrund whose joint experiences and debates chart the course of a tyrannous regime and the growth of black resistance. "

** AN ABSOLUTE MUST-READ: A BRAND NEW BIOGRAPHY OF THE WORLD'S RICHEST MAN AND NEW OWNER OF TWITTER! **In 2022 Elon Musk - one of the richest and best-known people on earth - made headlines worldwide with his bid to buy Twitter, and he is often in the news for his entrepreneurial exploits and his controversial tweets. Who is this boundary-pushing billionaire with grand plans of inhabiting Mars, and what lies at the heart of his vision? Why is he so utterly unafraid of risk? As an awkward Pretoria schoolboy who loved comics and science fiction, Musk's early years and singular family background were crucial in forming his stellar ambitions. Journalist and author Michael Vlismas, who attended the same high school as Musk, knows well the environment that shaped him and offers new insights into Musk's development, including his troubled relationship with his father. Tracing his remarkable life, from his South African childhood to his move to Canada at 17 and then to the US - where Musk made millions out of PayPal and built Tesla and SpaceX into two of the world's most famous companies - this is the revealing new story of a man driven to preserve the optimism he sees in humanity and find a future for humans 'out there among the stars'.

Wilderness guide Sicelo Mbatha shares lessons learnt from a lifetime's intimate association with Africa's wildest nature.

A unique anthology containing over five decades of protest poetry.

In his riveting new book, Future Tense, Tony Leon captures and analyses recent South African history, with a focus on the squandered and corrupted years of the past decade. With unique access and penetrating insight, Leon presents a portrait of today''s South Africa and prospects for its future, based on his political involvement over thirty years with the key power players: Cyril Ramaphosa, Jacob Zuma, Thabo Mbeki, Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk. His close-up and personal view of these presidents and their history-making, and many encounters in the wider world, adds vivid colour of a country and planet in upheaval. Written during the first coronavirus lockdown, Future Tense examines the surge of the disease and the response, both of which have crashed the economy and its future prospects. As the founding leader of the Democratic Alliance, Leon also provides an insider view for the first time of the power struggles within that party, which saw the exit of its first black leader in 2019. There is every reason to fear for the future of South Africa but, as Leon argues, ''the hope for a better country remains an improbable, but not an impossible, dream''.

In Foreign Native, political commentator and author RW Johnson looks back with affection and humour on his life in Africa.

Cheslin roared with happiness as the final whistle blew in Yokohama. They were champions! Later, as his captain lifted the 2019 Rugby World Cup trophy into the air, he felt prouder than he''d ever been before - of himself, his team and his country. Cheslin Kolbe tells the story of a kid from Kraaifontein, Cape Town, whose talent took him to international sports stardom, first to Toulouse, France, and eventually to the call-up that would change his life forever: to play for the Springbok 2019 World Cup squad. It''s the heartwarming story of a small player with a big heart whose signature sidestep helped the Springboks win the World Cup trophy for South Africa.Cheslin Kolbe is part of the "Road to Glory" series, which covers some of South Africa''s sporting legends as they set out on their journeys to becoming national and international stars.

A hair-raising account about the ins and outs of practising forensic pathology in Africa.

Toe hy jare gelede vir die eerste keer in Parys aankom, sou die kunstenaar Louis Jansen Van Vuuren nooit kon dink dat hy eendag ╩╝n château in die Franse platteland sou besit nie.In Amper Frans vertel hy hoe hy die plaaslike tradisies en kultuur die afgelope 21 jaar ontdek her – daar is stories oor statige hertoginne en neusoptrekkerige kelners, die berugte Franse burokrasie en dan ook sy talle faux pas in die Fanse taal.Om die vervalle Château de la Creuzette saam met sy lewensmaat, Hardy Olivier, in ╩╝n boetiekhotel te omskep het groot Geduld en uithouvermoë geverg. Talle lesse is op die harder manier geleer, soos dat vier verwarmers nie genoeg s om ╩╝n hele château to verhit nie …Louis verklap ook iets van hul gaste se kaskenades en van hul eie reise soos hulle die land platry agter vlooimarkte en avontuur aan. Die boek is ╩╝n moet vir alle Frankofiele.

‘Only Anton Harber, a pioneer of independent journalism in south Africa and one of the keenest observers of the media around, could have written the thriller that is this book.’ – Jacob DlaminiVeteran journalist Anton Harber brings all his investigative skills to bear on his very own profession, the media. For two years he conducted dozens of interviews with politicians, journalists, policemen, state security agents and ‘deep throats’, before piecing together two remarkable tales.The first is a chilling story of police death squads, rogue units and renditions, and how South Africa’s biggest newspaper was duped into doing the dirty work of corrupt politicians. The second starts with a broken and discarded hard drive and evolves, with many near misses, into the exposure of the depths of the Guptas’ influence over the ruling party.Harber’s two tales reveal the lows and highs of journalism during an era of state capture. His book is both a disquieting exposé of how easily the media can be duped by a conniving cabal for its own selfish ends, and a celebration of brilliant investigative reporting by brave and ethical journalists. 

In Foreign Native, RW Johnson looks back with affection and humour on his life in Africa. From schooldays in Durban - fresh off the aeroplane from Merseyside - to later years as an academic, director of the Helen Suzman Foundation and formidable political commentator.

You're never too young to start saving. Manage Your Money Like a Grownup, by bestselling author Sam Beckbessinger, aims to get younger readers thinking about the basics of money, laying a solid foundation in financial education that most grownups today never had.With illustrations, jokes and fun facts designed to appeal to even the most easily bored reader, this book covers all the basics South African teenagers need to know about money, such as: The relationship between earning, saving and spending; How investing works; Why compound interest is a superpower; Why we pay taxes; and The ethics of money.Informed by discussions with real teens and their parents, this book equips readers with practical tips for earning and investing money at any age, as well as providing questions to spark lively dinner-table conversations.

Die ontdekking van ’n dooie baba in ’n skuur op ’n Amiese plaas in Amerika dreig om ’n jong vrou se lewe te verwoes. Omstandigheidsgetuienis dui daarop dat die 18-jarige Katie Fisher, ’n ongetroude Amiese meisie en die pasgeborene se ma, vir die moord verantwoordelik is. Katie hou vol: sy het nie die baba vermoor nie.Terselfdertyd vlug Ellie Hathaway, ’n ontnugterde advokaat, na familie wat in dieselfde streek woon om haar kop skoon te maak. Haar tannie is verwant aan Katie en kort voor lank stem Ellie teensinnig in om Katie to verdedig.Ellie word as Katie se toesighouer aangestel terwyl sy op borgtog is en moet boonop by die Fishers intrek. Om Katie to verdedig, moet Ellie haar nie net diep ingrawe in ’n wêreld wat radikaal van haar eie verskil nie, maar ook ’n manier vind om Katie volgens háár verwysingsraamwerk te verstaan. Wanneer ’n man uit haar verlede weer sy verskyning maak, word Ellie terselfdertyd gedwing om haar eie vrese begeertes te konfronteer. 

The man who would have been her first client turns around to his clothes on the coat hangers against the wall.''I have to get out of here . . . sir, I am just a child, sir! Please call the police so they will come and fetch me!''''I don''t believe it,'' he says, shaking his head. ''I bloody well don''t believe what I''m hearing right now! Do you know . . . do you know that . . .'' Then he''s out the door.''Help me, sir! Please, help me!'' Engela calls after him as he swiftly disappears down the passage. Sixteen-year-old Engela flees to Bloemfontein because the leader of the Satanic Group 13 wishes to kill her. Her path crosses with Pieter, a friend of her brother''s, who turns her over to the owner of a brothel in return for money he owes him. After a desperate and impoverished childhood Engela, as a rebellious teenager, becomes mixed up with Satanism, alcohol and drugs and is eventually kept as a sex slave. Her only wish is to escape, but how? Every night the club''s doors are shuttered. Her final shot at freedom is the young student Jacques who works in the club''s reception area. But then he also disappears from the scene following a mysterious accident in the Drakensberg . . . In the second part of the book Elanie shares with the reader her awful experiences. She relates how she learned to cope with her feelings of despair, loneliness, pain and humiliation from a Christian perspective. She reaches out to other former victims of sex trafficking and encourages them to open their hearts in order to achieve emotional healing. She talks about the power of forgiveness and acceptance, and also offers essential practical advice for parents and their children.

In the world of espionage, truth is the first victim and nothing is as it seems. Here, for the first time, South Africa''s most notorious apartheid spy Olivia Forsyth lays bare the story of her remarkable life. Olivia Forsyth was a romantic young woman in search of adventure when she joined the Security Police with visions of international derring-do. But Craig Williamson, her unit head, had other ideas and Olivia was trained to spy on students before being dispatched to Rhodes University, a supposed ''hotbed'' of anti-apartheid radicalism.It wasn''t long before Olivia had infiltrated various student organisations, feeding vital information back to her handler. She came to hold prominent positions on campus and, as reward, was promoted to Lieutenant. Having reached the end of her studies, Olivia set her sights on a much more ambitious - and dangerous - target: the ANC in exile. But what should have been her greatest triumph as a spy turned into disaster when the ANC threw her into Quatro, the notorious internment camp in Angola. This is a riveting story set in the final years of apartheid.