» Some reviews of Diepsloot

Some reviews of Diepsloot

June 7th, 2011

A mix of reviews of and articles related to my book:

Maureen Isaacson in the Sunday Independent
Sue Baines in the Business Day
“Whose story is it anyway?”, by Andile Mngxitama in M&G
‘Geregtigheid’ in a bottel parafien - Rapport
“Van die sloot op die wal?” by Anim van Wyk in Beeld.
Jenny Crywys-Williams talks to Harber (Podcast)
Litnet: Maggie Marx interviews Harber
Cape Times Review, by Tyron August

Entry Filed under: Anton Harber, Journalism

2 Comments Add your own

1. Roots | June 8th, 2011 at 9:41 pm

Hey Anton, I read Andile’s review. I cant help but find it ironic that he being a black writer has issues with a book about a black township written by a white writer. The irony I guess is that his review is published by a newspaper started by the same white writer he has issues with.

From his analyses, it seems he has no issues with the author’s work per se, so he resorts to talking about their skin pigmentation. Perhaps what Andile needs to do is stop deluding himself into thinking he is the vanguard of black thought in this country. Just like Mangcu, he seeks to position himself as the spokesperson for what Fanon and Biko stood for.
2. clive | January 9th, 2012 at 9:43 pm

Awesome read, spelling tripe should be straight foward, you have many people. Who can write vernicular from the interviews.Thanks

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Anton Harber: Media

Professor Anton Harber directs the Journalism and Media Studies Programme at Wits University. He is former editor of the Mail & Guardian.
Full bio

Daily newspaper sales, South Africa
(Ave sales Jul-Dec)
1960 - 681 053 (Population 17,3m)
1970 - 723 566 (22m)
1980 - 803 229 (27,5m)
1990 - 1 214 396 (35,2m)
2000 - 1 117 886 (44m)
2006 - 1 600 000 (47,3m)
2011 - 1 310 000 (49m)

(Sources: ABC and nationmaster.com)

“It was pure political theatre. The excited room was filled with government officials, government consultants, quasi-government agencies, politicians and pupils from government schools. As if on cue, the room rang with applause as one education victory after another was claimed. This was, after all, the annual drama in which the minister of basic education appears on stage to announce the Grade 12 National Senior Certificate (NSC) results …” - Educationist Jonathan Jansen, one of the few with the credibility to look critically at this “celebratory orgy of mediocrity”.

“The (Incwala) ceremony is cloaked in secrecy and marks the (Swaziland) king’s return to public life after a period of withdrawal and spiritual contemplation. Among its highlights is a symbolic demonstration by the king of his power and dominance in a process involving his penetration of a black bull … But last year’s selected bull, according to a recent account from a whistle-blowing Incwala initiate, objected strongly, and threw off Africa’s last absolute monarch.” - Some surprises in this (un-bylined) account of Swaziland politics in Southern African Report

“When the Great Zucchini arrived that Saturday morning, Don had no idea who he was. Frankly, he didn’t look like a great anything. He looked like a house painter, Don thought, with some justification. He wears no costume. He was in painter’s pants, a coffee-stained shirt and a two-day growth of beard. He toted his beat-up props in beat-up steamer trunks, with ripped faux leather and broken hinges hanging askew.” - A classic of magazine profiling, by Gene Weingarten of the Washington Post.

Diepsloot (Jonathan Ball, 2011)

Diesploot: Of Frogs and Fractals, a public lecture at the University of Johannesburg, 4 August 2011

Troublemakers - The Best of South Africa’s Investigative Journalism (Jacana, 2101), edited by Anton Harber and Margaret Renn

Introduction - The Troublemakers: An account of the rise of a new wave of investigative journalism in South Africa.

What is Left Unsaid: Reporting the South African HIV Epidemic, edited by Kristin Palitza, Natalie Ridgard, Helen Struthers and Anton Harber (Fanele, 2010)