PRAVIN GORDHAN has been at the centre of many of the political storms that have torn through South Africa’s political landscape. He has been investigated by the Hawks, fired as finance minister, accused of running a ‘rogue unit’ at SARS and come up against the public protector, to name a few.Seasoned journalists Jonathan Ancer and Chris Whitfield take a magnifying glass to someone at the centre of this tumultuous period to try to understand the man behind the public image. They go ...

An outrageous miscellany of serious and light-hearted lies, myths, untruths, fibs and fabrications that tells the tall tale of South Africa.The fibs come thick and fast, like a burst sewerage pipe:Why everything we’ve learnt about Shaka Zulu, ‘Africa’s Napoleon’, is a pack of lies.Back in the darkest of ages (the 1970s!), citizens were told that there were satanic messages if you played some of The Beatles songs backwards.National ...

What does it take to deceive those closest to you? How do you lead a double life and not lose yourself? Is there ever a point of return? These are the themes – and more – that Jonathan Ancer explores as he tells the tales of some of South Africa’s most unusual and successful spies: from the navy superspy on the Russian payroll to the party girl who fell in love with Cuba, from the accidental mole in the heart of Pretoria’s war on the frontline states to the idealistic students used and abu...

An outrageous miscellany of serious and light-hearted lies, myths, untruths, fibs and fabrications that tells the tall tale of South Africa. The fibs come thick and fast, like a burst sewerage pipe: • Why everything we've learnt about Shaka Zulu, 'Africa's Napoleon', is a pack of lies. • Back in the darkest of ages (the 1970s!), citizens were told that there were satanic messages if you played some of The Beatles songs backwards. • National icon Hansie Cronje was a paragon of virtue, and i...

The Three Comma Club is the most exclusive club in the world.Its members include pop stars and politicians, inventors and industrialists, media magnates and mining moguls, heirs and heirs-in-waiting.Each has crossed a threshold marked by nine zeroes separated by three commas. Each is blessed or burdened with more money than they could spend in a dozen lifetimes. There are just over 3,000 of them, a minuscule sliver of humanity.And yet they wield enormous power over ...