Current AffairsSouth African Politics Book Bundle

About

Licence to Loot:

Eskom, the giant power utility that drives the economy, holds the key to inclusive growth and shared prosperity in South Africa. Instead it has become the site of corruption so rampant that it threatens the entire country’s wellbeing.

Award-winning journalist Stephan Hofstatter’s hard-hitting investigation traces the genesis of the Eskom looting spree from Transnet, where the blueprint for parastatal plunder was developed and refined with the help of top-dollar consultancies. From there he explores how the Gupta family extracted billions in suspected kickbacks from state contracts and scored hugely inflated coal contracts from backroom deals, and examines how Eskom’s top brass enriched themselves and their families at the power utility’s expense.

Licence to Loot delves into the secrets of the fixers, deal makers and bribe masters behind this epic pillaging of the public purse, and maps out the intricate network of executives, board members and cabinet ministers who facilitated it. From clandestine meetings in London hotel rooms and visits to African dictators, to offshore tax havens, shell companies and private jets worth millions of dollars – not to mention a secret Dubai bolthole fit for a fleeing president – this book lifts the lid on a complex looting scheme that almost sank the South African economy.

Heist! South Africa's Cash-In-Transit Epidemic Uncovered:

‘With meticulous journalism and at a cracking pace, Burgess exposes the inner mechanics of cash heists and the complicity of police officers …’ – Mandy Wiener, author of Ministry of Crime

From the horror of the 2006 Villa Nora heist – in which four security guards were burnt alive in their armoured vehicle after a ferocious fight-back against highly trained mercenaries – to the 2014 robbery of a cash centre in Witbank, where a gang made off with almost R104 million after impersonating police officers, Heist! is an impeccably researched exposé of an endemic crime phenomenon that some analysts warn could bring South Africa to its knees.

Using the information gleaned from thousands of pages of court documents and press reports, as well as interviews with police officers, crime intelligence agents, prosecutors, defence lawyers, researchers, journalists, security guards and the criminals themselves, Heist! provides unprecedented insight into a crime that increased by a staggering 49 per cent in the first eight months of 2017 alone.

As informative and thought-provoking as it is distressing, this is a book by an investigative journalist at the top of her game.

South Africa's Constitution At Twenty One:

'… in the new South Africa there is nobody, not even the president, who is above the law; that the rule of law generally, and in particular the independence of the judiciary, should be respected . ' - Nelson Mandela

In late 1996, South Africa’s Constitution acquired the force of law. Its Bill of Rights enshrined a range of fundamental rights to which all South Africans are entitled. In a marked breach with the past, citizens’ rights would no longer depend upon the pigment of their skin or other idiosyncratic features.

Today, 21 years since its inception, the Constitution has acquired an almost mythical status, both at home and abroad. Yet, crucially, its primary impact has been on the nuts and bolts of people’s lives. It means that the death penalty is no longer a sentencing option, and gays and lesbians can get married and adopt. It affects directly the types of contracts and commercial arrangements the courts will countenance and on people’s rights to land. As such, it impacts on each and every South African’s daily life and shapes the country and society we live in.

This collection of essays explores what the Constitution means for South Africans and for the world – both through its definition of legal rights and through the seepage into the real world of those rights, and the culture that has arisen around them. The contributors range from former Constitutional Court judges to activists, writers and philosophers, who look soberly at what has been achieved and what still needs to be done.

Product Features

Licence to Loot:

• ISBN 9781776093120 
• Format Paperback 
• Published July 2018
• Author: Stephan Hofstatter

Heist! South Africa's Cash-In-Transit Epidemic Uncovered:

• ISBN 9781776091713
• Format Paperback
• Published April 2018
• Author: Anneliese Burgess

South Africa's Constitution At Twenty One:

• ISBN 9781776091430
• Format Paperback
• Published October 2017
• Edited By: Jean Meiring