Toh Unplugged

As we step into a new year, I would like to extend a warm welcome back and express my gratitude for your continued commitment to reading, engaging, and sharing your thoughts.  The arrival of a new year often encourages reflection on themes such as leadership, power, and the pathways that shape those who aspire to govern. It feels particularly fitting, then, to revisit the stories that lie behind South Africa’s political elite . I recently completed The Dark Prince by investigative journalist and author Pieter du Toit. The book offers a detailed account of Deputy President Paul Mashatile’s formative years, beginning with his modest upbringing on a farm outside Johannesburg where he lived with his parents, and moving through his early involvement in anti-apartheid movements during his high school years. These formative experiences became the foundation from which Mashatile immersed himself fully in the struggles of ordinary South Africans , aligning with the masses and the marginal...