If you reckon corruption in South Africa began with Zuma or even with apartheid, it’s time to catch a wake-up call. Rogues’ Gallery tells the story of some of the biggest skelms to grace our (un)fair shores, showing that dodgy dealings have been a national pastime for as long as South African history has been written down. The action starts with the machinations of three colonial governors: rotten Willem Adriaan van der Stel and the ‘twaddling’ British duo, Sir George Yonge and Lord Charles Somerset. Added to this is Cecil John Rhodes’s unparalleled success in poisoning the land with theft, fraud and war, and Oom Paul Kruger’s corrupt and compromised Volksraads (official and unofficial). Readers are then treated to apartheid’s finest...
Matthew Blackman has written on South African art, literature and history. He has a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of East Anglia. He is the co-author, with Nick Dall, of Rogues’ Gallery, Spoilt Ballots and Legends. He lives in Cape Town with two dogs of nameless breed.
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Nick Dall has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town. He’s written about everything from coelacanths to circus acts, but it’s the barely believable tales of our past that get him most excited. He is the co-author, with Matthew Blackman, of Rogues’ Gallery, Spoilt Ballots and Legends.He lives in Cape Town with his wife and kids.
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