Bofelo Learns About Mandela Day follows young Bofelo on a meaningful journey of discovery about the importance of Mandela Day. Through simple and accessible storytelling, children learn about kindness, community service, and how small actions can make a big difference. The book makes important history understandable for young readers and encourages them to make a positive contribution themselves, in the spirit of care and togetherness.
genre: Book Discussions
Die Grafdigter
Mila Kozlowa is a Moscow-based psychotherapist who sits in counselling sessions fantasising about grilled salmon and sex. She also thinks about her frail, old grandmother, Babushka. What is she hiding from her? Did her parents really disappear during a space mission? When Mila meets a South African who shares his war trauma with her, the line between reality and fantasy begins to blur. Where does the dream end and reality begin? And for how long can one believe one’s own lies?
Gerda Taljaard is the author of the novels ’n Engel in die hoenderhok, Kelder, Die laksman se dogter, and Vier susters. Die Laksman se dogter received the kykNET-Rapport Film Prize; Vier Susters won the kykNET-Rapport Fiction Prize and the ATKV Woordveertjie Award for Prose. Her poems and short stories have appeared in various publications, and she has received the Litera and De Compagnie prizes for best short story. She lives in Pretoria.
Dharma-dwaas in Doodloopstraat
The story again follows Biko April, who has three days to find a place to live – broke and without a plan. During this crisis, he meets a Jewish girl at an art exhibition, changing his life. In the early 2000s in Cape Town, amid PAGAD bombings and tension, an unpredictable love story unfolds, offering hope. In Dharma-dwaas in Doodloopstraat, Septembir builds on his debut, blending literary fiction with satire, eroticism, and spirituality to explore desire, identity, faith, and truth.
Sjaka Septembir has worked for three decades as a writer, poet, actor, and director, known for boundary-pushing work blending literature and theatre. His debut novel drew strong reactions and critical acclaim. With Dharma-dwaas in Doodloopstraat, he once again confirms his place as a unique and challenging voice in Afrikaans literature.
Pale toe!
In this lively rugby collection, veteran writer Michael Green celebrates unforgettable characters who have graced the field, including Kwagga Smit, Beast Mtawarira, Percy Montgomery, Chester Williams, and Prince Alexander Obolensky. Alongside their exploits, Green recounts his own colourful experiences: a confrontation with Joost van der Westhuizen, a town that dries up after beating the All Blacks, and a controversial Stellenbosch pub tour. This is no ordinary rugby book, but a rollicking journey of humour, drama, and delight.
Michael Green is a South African writer and rugby enthusiast, known for Pale toe! With a love for the game and an eye for stories, he takes readers through the rugby world – from field to people. His writing blends humour and insight, offering a unique view of the culture, challenges, and unforgettable moments that make rugby special.
The Shadow State
On 23 August 2021, a quiet, hardworking single mom was shot down as she drove home. Her name was Babita Deokaran, chief accountant at the Gauteng Department of Health. The izinkabi paid to kill her were caught, but who ordered her murder, and why? Crime reporter Jeff Wicks’s pursuit of answers would profoundly change, and even endanger, his life. This is an explosive investigation into state capture and a moving tribute to the cost of integrity.
Jeff Wicks is a Johannesburg-based investigative journalist with News24. Over nearly two decades, he has focused on organised crime and targeted killings, leading probes into the murders of Charl Kinnear and Babita Deokaran. A two-time winner of the Taco Kuiper Award for investigative journalism, he received the Nat Nakasa Award for courageous journalism in 2024. He co-authored the bestseller Eight Days in July.
Where to from here?
Tara Roos analyses South African politics in an era of rising populism and uncertainty. She examines structural weaknesses, strategic errors, and party identity crises that have led to unstable coalition politics. Political parties are grouped as winners, losers, or survivors, highlighting successes, failures, and growth patterns. In a democracy still shaped by the promises of 1994, Where to from here? explores how politicians have failed the people and calls on the electorate to demand accountability and better leadership.
Tara Roos is a political analyst and the parliamentary correspondent for Business Day. A former parliamentary researcher, she runs the widely read Tara’s Take Substack newsletter and co-hosts The Bill podcast alongside CapeTalk’s Lester Kiewit.
Rebekka van Kameeldoornplaas
Between wars and worlds, the story follows Rebekka, a camp child of the Anglo-Boer War who grows up poor on Kameeldoorn farm. Bright and eager to learn, she is forced to leave school and is eventually “sold” to the Wright family. In Oxford, she finds her footing as a nanny, gaining knowledge and friendships. But war looms again, and Rebekka struggles with her identity – between Boer and Brit, farm and manor
Irma Joubert is a former teacher, specialist journalist, and unquestionably the doyenne of South African historical fiction. Her books, including the trilogies Tussen Stasies, Pontenilo, and Oorlog, have been local bestsellers, translated into English, Dutch, and German, and published worldwide. Irma lives in the Western Cape, but still enjoys travelling the world to conduct research for her books.
Suiker
Suiker (1958) by Hugo Claus is one of his best and most acclaimed dramas, masterfully blending language, naturalism, melodrama, and humor. In a sugar factory in northern France, five Flemish migrant workers await the end of the season. A love triangle between the cunning Max, the naïve Kilo, and Malou, a young woman, unfolds over a few days to a climax. The story symbolises the loss of paradise and the fleeting nature of dreams, the only way to endure harsh reality.
HP (Hennie) van Coller is an outstanding professor (emeritus) and research fellow at the University of the Free State. He is the author and editor of numerous publications, including the well-known Perspektief en profiel. ’n Literatuurgeskiedenis (2016), and Etienne Leroux: Die rumoerige swart nar. ’n Huldiging (2023). He has received multiple awards, including the Gustav Preller Prize for literary scholarship, the Jan H Marais Prize, and the NP van Wyk Louw Medal from the South African Academy for Science and Arts.
Lyfluister
Lyfluister grew within Gretha van der Merwe over forty years. In her diaries, she writes about challenges such as depression, disappointment, and anxiety attacks that were initially diagnosed as epilepsy, as well as shock therapy and her stay at Stikland. Her turning point came when she began listening to her body. In this book, she shares her journey of spiritual awakening and emotional maturity. She weaves together faith, nature, psychology, and Eastern wisdom, offering practical guidance for all who seek meaning and purpose.
Gretha van der Merwe is an international master certified coach and facilitator. She has been exploring the fields of psychology, consciousness, the mind-body-soul connection, and leadership for nearly twenty years. She is a mentor coach and is credentialed by the International Coaching Federation (MCC-ICF). She partners with private clients and business leaders who are willing to journey inward, bring their whole selves to life, and experience more harmonious relationships.
Die Moord op Liezel de Jager
On 13 October 2021, South Africa was shaken by the news of Reverend Liezel de Jager, beloved pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church South Coast in Amanzimtoti, KwaZulu-Natal, who was murdered in the driveway of the parsonage. The strange events that followed in the days and years afterward, Liezel’s parents’ relentless fight for justice, and the arrest of her husband, who dies under mysterious circumstances in the hospital, are laid bare in this account. The murder remains unsolved.
Anena Burger has been a journalist for 15 years and has been Netwerk24’s senior journalist in the Northern Cape since 2020. She has covered stories such as the sensational Pofadder murder of Leon Brits, the Hartswater triple farm murders, the Kalahari tragedy, and many others that have shaken the country over the past few years.
