Reading Matters (week 046) 11 November 2025

Paul Mashatile has risen through the ranks of the ANC to, it seems, the doorstep of our SA presidency. But is someone associated with the “Alex Mafia”, who leads a lavish lifestyle in CT and Jo’burg mansions, and has had a string of lovers, suitable for our highest office? Bestselling author Pieter du Toit asks the question in this his fifth book The Dark Prince (Jonathan Ball).

“It’s when his conduct in his personal life spills over into public life that it concerns us”, Du Toit answers in this interview. In his book, the author describes Mashatile, ‘up close, as seemingly disengaged and unserious, either incapable of grappling with complex issues or unwilling to do so.’ The Dark Prince is frightening in the fully researched details it lays bare of Mashatile’s questionable life. Read it!

For eight years cartoonist Carlos Amato has been making readers of News24, The Mail&Guardian, and other publications, chuckle. Now some of his work has been collected by Jonathan Ball Publishers in This is Wild, on glossy paper and in typical cartoon book format. If we don’t laugh, we’ll cry. Let’s laugh.

Richard Sutton, global health and performance expert, and of course author, has produced in his fourth book, his most powerful and personal work yet. SA is one of the most stressed nations on earth. Sutton is doing his best to help us, by assessing how Novak Djokovic, Lady Gaga, our own Black Coffee and Taylor Swift have, amongst others, created the enormous successes they are today.

In Shift Happens (Macmillan) he writes about his own struggles and it’s this personal approach that makes the book so readable. Yes, you too can shift your life and make it what you want.

Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head, aged 15, in Pakistan by the Taliban who wanted to end girls’ education. She refused to die. In Finding My Way (Widenfeld & Nicolson / Jonathan Ball) she declares, “I’ll never know who I was supposed to be”.

In a beautifully written account of her struggle to find out who she is, this extraordinary woman writes with blazing honesty of her life and dreams.

An astounding, inspiring read.

Reading Matters with Sue Grant-Marshall