R340.00
In The End of Normal, Max du Preez reflects on fifty years of South African history through the eyes of a journalist who witnessed both the country’s darkest moments and its democratic turning points. From his upbringing within Afrikaner nationalism to reporting on the Soweto uprising and exposing the brutal realities of apartheid, du Preez traces his journey from insider to outspoken critic. Insightful, vivid and deeply personal, this memoir is a powerful account of political awakening, moral courage and the unravelling of an old South Africa.
Description
In 1976, Max du Preez witnessed the first stones thrown and the first shots fired in Soweto on June 16 as a young newspaper reporter. Having grown up in the heart of Afrikaner nationalism, it was the end of his normal. It was also the end of normal for white South Africans, most of whom were living in blissful ignorance. The events of 1976 set in motion a continuous series of developments that led to the ruling National Party and the main liberation movement reaching a settlement in 1994 that brought democracy to South Africa for the first time.
Over the last fifty years, Du Preez has had a front-row seat witnessing South Africa’s darkest and brightest moments as a journalist. He paints a colourful story as a child of apartheid, doing his military service, studying at Stellenbosch University and starting his career at Afrikaans newspapers. But what he experienced and had to report on, eventually led him to rebel and become a traitor to his volk and a media terrorist exposing apartheid’s darkest secrets.