Book reviews: These Things Really Do Happen to Me & Confronting Inequality

These Things Really Do Happen to Me

Rating: ★★★☆☆
Author: Khaya Dlanga
Publisher: Pan MacMillan
Price: R155
Pages: 256
ISBN: 9781770106314

Storytelling at its best

We all have stories to tell, but we are not all storytellers. Some people just have a talent for transporting others when they recount the most mundane details of a seemingly ordinary event.

Khaya Dlanga is one of those people. The author of two other books, one of which (To Quote Myself), was shortlisted for the 2016 Sunday Times Alan Paton Prize, is a bona fide collector and teller of stories.

It’s this talent that makes his latest book, These Things Really Do Happen to Me, such a good read. Dlanga discusses race, politics, heritage and religion with honesty and consideration tinged with his unique sense of humour and flair for words.

This is a book you want to leave in full view of those uptight, politically correct individuals in your groups of acquaintances.

Confronting Inequality: The South African Crisis

Rating: ★★★☆☆
Author: Michael Nassen Smith
Released by: Jacana Media
Price: R210
Pages: 200
ISBN: 9781928232735

Current Affairs/Politics

South Africa is a country divided between the haves and the have-nots. More than half a century of apartheid and some three centuries of colonialism have resulted in policies that have intentionally created extreme inequality.

Our country remains the most unequal country in the world where, in terms of wealth, the top percentile households hold 70.9% while the bottom 60% holds a mere 7%.

These figures explain the continued violent protest and a widespread sentiment that the legacies of apartheid and colonialism have not yet been overcome.

The book is a series of papers by eminent academics and policymakers, such as Kgalema Motlanthe, professor Thuli Madonsela and professor Ivan Turok.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.