101 Remarkable South African Women brings together, for the first time, 101 extraordinary women who shaped the country’s past and present. From the prehistoric Eve of the West Coast and Krotoa to Olive Schreiner, Miriam Makeba, Thuli Madonsela, and Tyla, their stories span centuries of history, politics, art, music, sport, and activism. Inspiring and accessible, this book celebrates our ancestresses while showcasing contemporary role models too often left out of the record.
Lizette Rabe, emeritus professor of journalism at Stellenbosch University, is a former magazine editor with over 20 years’ industry experience, a PhD, and a long academic career as head of the US journalism department. She has authored and edited significant works on South African media and has received multiple top teaching and research awards, including the Chancellor’s Award and the Stals Prize.
Musicians are travellers, adventurers, always on the move to unknown destinations, new places, and new people. It is an adventure, a journey full of surprises and wonder. An adventure, however, is not only a physical journey, but also an inner journey of growth and self-discovery. This collection of short stories about some places in South Africa offers a different kind of journey through our country … one in which Rocco de Villiers shares his experiences and adventures at some of his concert destinations.
Rocco de Villiers (1965) was born in Harrismith, Free State. He is a pianist, entertainer, composer, and writer based in Cape Town. Each year, he gives more than a hundred performances across South Africa.
Little do the civil servants Pixley and Joubert know what awaits them when a minister instructs them to investigate and remove apartheid and colonial monuments across the country. As they travel to assess this loaded history, they also become entangled in their own personal stories. Family, love, and even the supernatural begin to interfere, and as secrets come to light, the questions about the past and heritage become increasingly complex.
Theo Kemp obtained his master’s degree in creative writing at Stellenbosch University. He has been involved with various projects in the arts before in his role as, among others, project manager of the Woordfees, advertising coordinator at NB Publishers, programme manager at the KKNK as well as at the Vrystaat Literature Festival and as executive director of the Breytenbach Centre in Wellington.
In mathematics, “show your work” means demonstrating how a solution is reached – an idea central to Bitterkomix Sketchbooks and Journals, a personal collection by Conrad Botes and Anton Kannemeyer. The volume reveals their creative process behind the notorious satirical comic Bitterkomix. Divided into three sections, it features selections from about 120 sketchbooks spanning their school years to their artistic careers. The collection shows their development, problem-solving, and the origins of decades of provocative work.
Anton Kannemeyer obtained an MA in Fine Arts in 1997 and lectured until 2006. He has exhibited widely internationally and is represented by galleries in major global cities. His work is published and included in collections such as MoMA. Pappa in Afrika won an international award in 2015.
Conrad Botes obtained a diploma in The Hague and an MA at Stellenbosch. He has exhibited internationally since the 1990s, with solo and major group exhibitions worldwide. His comics are published internationally. His latest collection, Les Pays de Judas, was published in France in 2023.
The devil is on the loose at the monastery of Saint William, Patron Saint of the Metaverse. The monastery, situated in the once fertile maize triangle in the Free State, annually stages a passion play on which they pin all their hopes for survival. But JC van Schouwenburg, who plays the lead role, has inexplicably disappeared. Dapper de Wet, rosarian, gourmand, and seasoned harbour pilot, is desperate to track him down. An evasive Mother Superior and a beautiful teacher complicate things.
Anton Roodt obtained an MA in Creative Writing from the University of the Free State. He is a professional architect and has received several awards for his firm’s work. He is also a visual artist. His debut novel, Weerlose meganika, was awarded the Jan Rabie Rapport Prize. He and his wife, Zarine, live in Bloemfontein.
For eight years, the Station Strangler terrorised the Cape Flats as 22 young boys disappeared without a trace from 1986 to 1994. Some bodies were found buried in dunes with their hands tied behind their backs, but most of the murders remain unsolved. A primary school teacher was convicted of one murder, leaving many unanswered questions. Seasoned journalist and author Julian Jansen follows the trail of the Station Strangler, investigating this dark mystery that continues to haunt families and communities.
Julian Jansen is an award-winning investigative journalist who worked as a reporter for Rapport for 18 years and currently freelances for Netwerk24and Kuier. He is the author of the bestselling books Die De Zalze-moorde, Moord op Stellenbosch, and Die moord op Deveney Nel.
Zama Zama exposes the hidden workings of South Africa’s illicit gold trade through interviews with miners, syndicate insiders, intelligence agents, and law enforcement agents. It explores a violent underworld of gang wars, corruption, and brutal enforcement, detailing how gold is smuggled, laundered, and reintroduced into the global market via private refineries, fake permits, and VAT scams. The book also traces the illicit gold trade’s international reach, showing the links between underground mining and organised crime, terrorism financing, and global corruption networks.
Graham Coetzer is an award-winning South African investigative journalist and television producer. His work has taken him on many adventures across Africa. He won the National Press Club Journalist of the Year Award and was shortlisted for the prestigious Taco Kuiper Award, as well as the Global Shining Light Award. He lives in Pretoria.
Lina Spies is one of the most celebrated and beloved Afrikaans poets, with a rich body of iconic poems such as “On the Death of Riëtte”, “A Paternoster for South Africa”, “Song of the Children” and “Rembrandt”.
We are convinced that the most fitting tribute is one paid through the poetry of fellow poets.
The title of the collection is derived from a line in one of Spies’s poems, namely “Kringloop” (included in Sulamiet, 2016), and points to the merging of remembrance and continuation. Each of the fifty-four poems included in the collection contains points of connection.
Some poems enter into a clearly identifiable dialogue with specific poems by Spies. In addition to these direct engagements, other poems connect in a more subtle and broadly defined way with thematic codes in Spies’s repertoire, such as children, cats, artistic creation and death.
We hope that this tribute collection will encourage poetry readers to explore the poetry of Lina Spies with renewed interest and to reflect on her enduring impact on Afrikaans poetry.
Alwyn Roux and Neil Cochrane are affiliated with the Department of Afrikaans and General Literary Studies at Unisa. They are the editors of Merang (2025), a collection of 182 new Afrikaans poems. Roux’s debut collection, Weerskyn (2024), was shortlisted for the Ingrid Jonker Prize.
Die Tyd van Verwoerd does not seek to justify or condemn apartheid or Dr Hendrik Verwoerd (1901–1960), but to describe and contextualise it honestly. LJ Bothma traces history from Jan van Riebeeck to the 1948 election and beyond. He portrays the rise of the National Party as a chess game between conflicting ideals, with Verwoerd at its center. Tensions culminate dramatically at Sharpeville in 1960.
LJ Bothma is a South African author and independent publisher specialising in military history, particularly the South African Border War and the experiences of soldiers in the army. His work, known for thorough research and firsthand accounts, offers insight into soldiers’ experiences and historical context. His published works include Die Buffel Struikel.
After the world’s most civilised divorce, Juna Ferreira finds herself in a small town without a plan for her future. When she recognises a unique scar on a person’s cheek, it sends her in the opposite direction – far into the past. She revisits her childhood on the Free State goldfields, a time she remembers as carefree and happy. But was it really? How many secrets lie trapped in the ruins of the once stately Limestone House?
Zelda Bezuidenhout is a writer of youth fiction, short stories, radio dramas, columns, advertising copy, and adult fiction. Her first novel for adults, Die dekonstruksie van Retta Blom, was published in 2019, followed by her second, Die waarde van stil bure, in 2021. In 2020, she and Lunéll Kruger won first place in Netwerk24’s radio drama competition with Koppelkat. She lives in Parys in the Free State.
