Polity Author Articles

Five decades after the 1976 Soweto uprising that changed South Africa forever, little is known about its most iconic leader, the charismatic Tsietsi Mashinini.

Blending sharp analysis with vivid storytelling, Predatory Welfare offers a bold rethinking of welfare, development and racial inequality.

Tara Roos cuts through the political noise with this analysis of South African politics that argues that we have entered the age of uncertainty as populism is on the rise.

Through exclusive interviews with zama zamas, syndicate insiders, intelligence operatives, and law enforcement officials, Zama Zama sheds light on the hidden mechanics of this shadow economy.

Part political history, part personal reflection, My Boss, Mrs Winnie Mandela cuts through the myth of Winnie Mandela to show her not only as a political icon, but as a strong, complex, sometimes wounded, but always fiercely loving woman.

A raw, darkly humorous memoir that follows one conscript’s chaotic journey through South Africa’s military machine during the border war.

Apartheid’s Granddaughter is not a story of guilt or absolution, but of courage and repair. It’s an invitation – to white South Africans to face their inheritance with honesty and courage.

Drawing on unsealed government documents, interviews and her own personal journey to revisit her family history and home, Diseko offers a moving memoir of resistance, secrets and the lasting cost of freedom.

Loud Explosions, Silenced Cries invites readers to engage with the moral questions of conflict; it challenges their perspectives and aims to cultivate empathy in a world torn apart by this tragedy.

Southern Africa is heating at twice the global average. With the failure of the UN multi-lateral process to rapidly phase out fossil fuels, the world has lost the opportunity to prevent a 1.5°C overshoot. South Africa and the region have to brace for 3°C of heating.