THE HONOUR TO SERVE, recollections of an Umkhonto soldier

271 pp., illus., paperback, Reprint, Cape Town, (2009) 2013

Foreword by Thabo Mbeki.

"Reinforced by diligent research the book provides telling insight into the reasons for MKs formation; explains what motivated its cadres and details their training and preparation; provides graphic details of campaigns and operations; illustrates how the strategy and tactics of People's War evolved..." Ronnie Kasrils

This book was shorlisted for the 2010 Alan Paton Award for non-fiction.

As a young man James Kgculu was inspired by the 1976 Soweto Uprising to join Umkhonto we Sizwe in exile in Botswana. He served as Secretary of the Regional Commissariat in Angola, worked in Maputo in the Internal Reconstruction Unit on Maputo and was Assistant Administrator at the Military HQ in Lusaka. He was also one of the founding members of MK Military Intelligence. In 1991 he returned to South Africa after getting a job in the University of Natal's Education Policy Unit. In 1994 he was elected Provincial Secretary of the ANC in the Western Cape, later serving as Provincial Chairperson. In 1998 he was elected to Parliament where he served on the Defence Portfolio and the Joint Standing Committee on Defence. He is also co-author of the book, "Ourselves to Know - Civil-Military Relations, Defence Transformations in Southern Africa".