In an article for UJUH, financial journalist Sibonelo Radebe outlines the lessons he believes can be learnt from Sam Motsuenyane’s biography A Testament of Hope: The Autobiography of Dr Sam Motsuenyane on how to create a new people’s bank in South Africa.

Motsuenyane is the founding chairman of African Bank and former president of the National African Federated Chamber of Commerce (Nafcoc). Radebe relates his description of how organised black business realised their dream of creating a bank for black people in the 1960s.

On the day of the first NACOC conference in 1964, about R70 was put on the table to advance the development of the bank. The target was R1 million which, Radebe says, was the minimum equity required to establish a bank.

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From the R70 base of 1964 NACOC traversed all corners of the country to secure a broad based buy-in that came via the R100 per participant. The momentum was boosted by some Bantustan leaders. The contribution of the Zululand government under the leadership of Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi is highlighted. The ‘cantankerous’ Chief is said to have been highly enthusiastic and put up R25 000 from KwaZulu. The R1million target was hit and African Bank launched its first branch in 1975 in Ga-Rankua with Dr Motsuenyane as chairperson.

Dr Motsuenyane states that the day African Bank was launched it was blessed by “a tremendous downpour of rain”.

“Just after we said ‘Amen’, the rain came down in torrents,” says Dr Motsuenyane. “The streets in the township were flowing with water and people shouting, Pula (rain)… We sang ‘Glory Hallelujah’ when our long-cherished dream was transformed into reality.”

• Complete article: UJUH

Book details

• A Testament of Hope: The Autobiography of Dr Sam Motsuenyane by Sam Motsuenyane
  EAN: 9780620512602
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Nia Magoulianiti-McGregor was a guest on the SABC’s Morning Live show, to chat about her new book How to Marry a Politician and Survive.

Magoulianiti-McGregor reveals that she worked with a flirt coach when writing the book, who gave her good advice on how to bag a politician.

“Men really like three things: sport (soccer), sex, and food,” Magoulianiti-McGregor, adding that the book includes recipes from renowned traditional South African chef Dorah Sithole, as well as instructions from Lucas Radebe explaining the offside rule in simple terms.

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Book details

• How to Marry a Politician and Survive by Nia Magoulianiti-McGregor
  EAN: 9780992232924
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During a visit to an eye specialist Fred Khumalo was surprised to be questioned about his heritage. The specialist explained that his type of corneas were not usually found in indigenous South Africans and discussed the wealth of genetic information that can be discovered by examining people’s eyes.

Khumalo discussed the recent popularity of mapping people’s histories using genetics in a column for Sunday World:

All I really needed was an eye test so I could get new lenses for my glasses. But the visit to my eye specialist three weeks ago ended up with me discovering that I probably was not who I thought I was.

Having examined my cornea with his state-of-the-art computer, the eye specialist was visibly excited: “Are you sure you’re South African? Are both your parents from this country?”

• Complete article: Sunday World

Book details

• Zulu Boy Gone Crazy: Hilarious Tales Post Polokwane by Fred Khumalo
  EAN: 9780620448895
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Martin Legassick, author of The Struggle for the Eastern Cape, 1800-1854, is involved in an historical debate with Professor Hermann Giliomee, who is objecting to a land claim in Salem in the Eastern Cape. The local Xhosa community is laying claim to the thousands of hectares of Salem commonage which was divided up amongst the 1820 settlers and is currently home to several farms.

Giliomee is arguing that there is no evidence that the Xhosa people occupied that area but Legassick says that “old-fashioned histiographies were often blinkered and exclusive concentrating mainly on whites” and therefore the accounts we are now left with may not be accurate:

Two world-renowned South African historians are squaring up in the Land Claims Court in Grahamstown over events that happened between 70 and 200 years ago.

Celebrated left-wing South African historian and theoretician Martin Legassick is taking on prolific South African historical and political author Professor Hermann Giliomee over a massive land claim in Salem, some 15km south-west of Grahamstown.

• Complete article: Daily Dispatch

Book details

• The Struggle for the Eastern Cape, 1800-1854 by Martin Legassick
  EAN: 9780620366106
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!