Search results for ""Author Ronnie Kasrils""

Ronnie Kasrils’s memoir reflects on compelling questions as to what turned a white youngster from a modest background into a life-long revolutionary of note. A tiny minority who abandoned a life of privilege were the antithesis of conventionality and toeing the line. What made those such as Kasrils break all the rules and confront white power with such courage, unbridled spirit and yearning for the truth? This is a challenging and fascinating conundrum but Kasrils will claim he is no aberration of history. The answers to that question, which unravel through twenty years, will beguile readers as he peers back with endearing frankness into the origins and experiences of his formative years. A Yeoville-born boykie with Yiddish roots; heartfelt empathy for the underdog; an instinctive rejection of authoritarianism in school and wider society were influences informing his adult life as revolutionary activist. With a remarkable memory and flair for the written and spoken word the narrative revels in the social, sexual and political awakening of a roguish boy’s adventures with girls, rock music, bohemian culture and leaping across the colour barrier. Kasrils’s tadpoles of the memoir’s title represent the submerged often illusive tracts of memory he searches for as he delves into the mystery of his metamorphosis. This stylistic element adds to the creativity of this fourth memoir.

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Ronnie Kasrils's insights into Jacob Zuma, both shocking and revelatory, are vividly illuminated through this story—from their shared history in the underground to Kasrils's time as minister of intelligence and his views on South Africa now. This fast-paced, thriller-style memoir outlines the tumultuous years that saw Mbeki's overthrow and replacement by Zuma, Nkandlagate, the growing militarization of the police and the Marikana Massacre, the outrageous appointment of flunkies to high office, the ""state capture"" report and his relationship with the Guptas. We relive the Schabir Shaik corruption trial, Kasrils's relationship with Fezeka Kuzwayo (Khwezi), Zuma's rape trial accuser, the email and spy tapes saga, conspiracy, and betrayal. While Kasrils explains the enigmatic contradictions of Jacob Zuma, he also explains that corruption and the abuse of power did not begin with him. His story points to the compromised negotiations of the 1990s, which he refers to as a ""Faustian Pact."" This is a story told from the inside, exploring the many machinations of power and how one man's struggle for the truth can have such an impact on the political outcomes of a nation.

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It is 1963. South Africa is in crisis and the white state is under siege. On 19 August the dreaded Security Police swoop on Griggs bookstore in downtown Durban and arrest Eleanor, the daughter of the manageress. They threaten to 'break her or hang her' if she does not lead them to her lover, 'Red' Ronnie Kasrils, who is wanted on suspicion of involvement in recent acts of sabotage, including the toppling of electricity pylons and explosions at a Security Police office in Durban. Though she comes under intense pressure during interrogation, Eleanor has her own secret to conceal. She has been acting as a clandestine agent for the underground ANC and must protect her handlers and Ronnie at all costs. Astutely, she convinces the police that she is on the verge of a nervous breakdown and, still a prisoner, is sent off to a mental hospital in Pietermaritzburg for assessment. It is here that she plots her escape ...This remarkable story of a young woman's courage and daring at a time of increasing repression in apartheid South Africa is told here for the first time with great verve and elan by Eleanor's husband, Ronnie Kasrils, who eventually became South Africa's Minister of Intelligence Services in 2004. He is the author of a bestselling autobiography, Armed and Dangerous.

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We hear for the first time from internationalists who secretly worked for the ANC’s armed wing, Umkhonto We Sizwe (MK), in the struggle to liberate South Africa from apartheid rule. They acted as couriers, provided safe houses in the neighbouring states and within South Africa, helped infiltrate combatants across borders, and smuggled tonnes of

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