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Thanks for listening to this episode of Pagecast, brought to you by Jonathan Ball Publishers. 

Today’s episode features the phenomenal Nozibele Mayaba, who bares it all in the her memior, Postively Me - Daring To Live And Love Beyond HIV, co-authored with Sue Nyathi.

Born in Qgeberha in the 1990s, popular Aids activist Nozibele Mayaba’s upbringing was one of struggle and strife. She was raised by the tough hand of her mother in the confines of a strict Christian household. Nozibele strove to be the “good girl” that everyone adores to win her mother’s approval and the affection of her absent father.

She lived by the book and was steered by her faith. Hers becomes a life of firsts. She is the first person in her family to travel overseas. The first to graduate from university. It is also her first love, with his infectious smile that infected her with HIV.

This diagnosis throws her life into disarray. Fearing stigma and feeling the need to maintain her “good girl” image, she kept her status a secret. However, she soon succumbed to depression. It is in the aftermath, when she picks up the broken pieces of her life that she finds purpose in all the pain she has endured.

She went public with her story in a video that when viral and launched her onto a new path. Nozibele, who has since gotten married and recently became a mother, has made it her mission to hold open conversations about her journey living with HIV.

Told with gut wrenching honesty, Nozibele is at her most vulnerable in this brave account about what it means to live and love beyond HIV.

In this epsiode of Pagecast, Nozibele is in conversation with seasoned media practitioner Sebenzile Nkambule.

Enjoy!

After state capture, South Africa is (f*cked) not in a good place. The system is down. How do we reboot?

We are not the first country to find itself in a difficult spot. China, India, South Korea, Vietnam and many others have gone from being economic basket cases to powerhouses, lifting millions out of poverty. So how can we pick ourselves up and fix things? In this book, Roy Havemann argues that right now we need to focus on six basic ‘E’s: Eskom, Education, Environment, Exports, Ethics, and Equality.

Havemann lays out how we can practically bring in lessons from other countries and learn from their achievements and mistakes, for example, how China, Greece and Colombia solved loadshedding, how different South American countries are dealing with inequality and how Brazil and Kenya are upgrading their education systems.

He shows that we are slowly moving in the right direction. Our own ‘Operation Vulindlela’ delivery unit, which is a joint initiative of the Presidency and the Treasury, is implementing change where it’s needed but more can be done to accelerate reforms to make South Africa a success. Sometimes the solutions to our problems are right here in our very own country – all that is needed is for us to recognise and harness them.

*Foreword by Tito Mboweni

Roy Havemann has consulted to the SA Presidency, the Treasury, the World Bank and private companies among others. After lecturing macroeconomics, Havemann joined the National Treasury in 2002 and rose through the ranks to be head of the Western Cape budget office and Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni’s speechwriter.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Pagecast, brought to you by Jonathan Ball Publishers. 

From award-winning non-fiction writer Hedley Twidle comes Show Me the Place, an essay collection searching through history, memory and literature to find glimmers of utopia. The collection is a book of elsewheres; in it, the author charts a journey to find other liveable places and spaces in a troubled world.

Whether embarking on a bizarre quest to find Cecil Rhodes’s missing nose (sliced off the bust of the Rhodes Memorial) or bike-packing the Scottish islands with a couple of squabbling anarchists; whether learning to surf (much too late) in the wild, freezing waters off the Cape Peninsula or navigating the fraught politics of a Buddhist retreat centre – the author explores forgotten utopias, intentional communities and islands of imagination with curiosity, hope and humour.

Threaded through the pieces in this collection are questions of friendship and human community, of environmental destruction and repair, of landscape and memory.

In this episode, Hedley is in conversation with Mila de Villiers - Sunday Times Books digital editor.

Enjoy!

Thanks for listening to this episode of Pagecast, brought to you by Jonathan Ball Publishers. 

Today’s podcast features the Jonathan Ancer and his latest book Bullshit: 50 Fibs That Made South Africa.

An outrageous miscellany of lies, myths, untruths, fibs and fabrications that tell the woeful history of South Africa. Aimed at offending and entertaining everyone in equal measure, this will have South Africans sniggering and spluttering into their porridge. It will also pique their curiosity.

The lies come thick and fast, like a burst sewerage pipe. Way, way back the Europeans ‘discovered’ southern Africa and found a land that was largely uninhabited. Um, no. On the other hand, Africa was a paradise before the settlers pulled in. Not quite!

Back in the darkest of ages (the 1970s!), citizens were told that there were Satanic messages if you played The Beatles songs backwards. During the civil war in Angola, there were no South African troops in that country. National icon Hansie Cronje was a paragon of virtue and integrity … until he wasn’t. President Nelson Mandela told us that we, as a nation, were ‘special’. Turns out we aren’t.

Jonathan Ancer has written, after consulting with historians and barflies, a fascinating and witty collection of the lies we’ve been told – and the lies we tell ourselves.

In this episode, Jonathan is in conversation with Rebecca Davis, Senior Journalist at the Daily Maverick and author.

Enjoy!

Thanks for listening to this episode of Pagecast, brought to you by Jonathan Ball Publishers. 

Today’s podcast features the remarkable Karen Horn speaking about Prisoners of Jan Smuts

Equally skilled in different trades than in the art of love, the Italian prisoners-of-war who were incarcerated in South Africa during the Second World War are a source of great fascination to this day.

The first Italian POWs arrived in the Union of South Africa in early 1941, most of them being held in Zonderwater Camp outside Cullinan or in work camps across the country. The government of Jan Smuts saw them as a source of cheap labour that would contribute to harvesting schemes, road-building projects such as the old Du Toit’s Kloof Pass between Paarl and Worcester and even to prickly-pear eradication schemes.

Prisoners of Jan Smuts recounts the stories of survival and shenanigans of the Italian POWs in the Union through the eyes of five prisoners who had documented their experiences in memoirs and letters.

Many opted to remain in South Africa once the war had ended, forging quite a legacy. These included sculptor Edoardo Villa, who left an important mark in the local and international art world, and businessman Aurelio Gatti, who built an ice-cream empire whose gelato was to delight generations of South Africans.

In this episode, Karen is in conversation with Monique Verduyn author and literary reviewer.

Enjoy!

Thanks for listening to this episode of Pagecast, brought to you by Jonathan Ball Publishers. 

Today’s podcast features the phenomenal Margie Orford, speaking about her latest book - Love and Fury, a compelling and intimate account of the life, loves and furies.

In this brave memoir, the renowned South African crime writer divulges some of the harrowing experiences that have shaped her life and influenced her writing. Through sexual assault, divorce, depression and personal loss, Orford illuminates the trauma she has navigated. Tender and courageous chapters vividly recall memories of what she has been through as a woman, mother, wife, feminist and ambitious writer.

Love and Fury shows why trauma in our past can have such an enduring and debilitating effect on women’s lives. It also unpacks the healing power of love, creativity, courage and self-reflection, ultimately offering a profound message of hope and joy for any woman who has ever questioned themselves, their trauma and who they are in the world. This book is every woman’s love and fury.

In this episode, Margie is in conversation with Barbara Boswell, feminist literary scholar and Associate Professor of English at the University of Cape Town.

I promise its a chat you will never forget.

Enjoy!