MYTH & REALITY IN SOUTH AFRICA'S HISTORY, a conflicted past

256pp., illus., paperback, Best Read, Cape Town, 2025

ISBN: 9781928246695

Collection of newspaper opinion pieces and feature articles originally published in The Witness newspaper between 1991 and 2023.

"A political columnist needs an incisive mind, clear writing style and unwavering courage. Christopher Merrett has all these qualities. Myth & Reality is an important, truth-telling book." John Conyngham, former editor, The Witness

"Christopher Merrett's counter-narrative eloquently reminds us of the hidden history the new elite has forgotten. If ever there was a book that confirmed the relevance of a critical press, this compilation cements that legacy for The Witness" Professor Keyan Tomaselli, University of Johannesburg

Christopher Merrett is the editor of Natalia and manages the publication programme of the Natal Society Foundation. Previously, he served for three decades as an academic librarian and then campus administrator at the University of KwaZulu Natal. He is the author of A Culture of Censorship: secrecy and intellectual oppression in South Africa; co-author (with Mary Kleinenberg) of Standing on Street Corners, a history of the Natal Midlands region of the Black Sash, and (with Bruce Murray) of Caught Behind: race and politics in Springbok cricket; and editor of Born Our of Sorrow, essays on Pietermaritzburg and the Kwazulu-Natal Midlands under apartheid, 1948-1994.