Hitler, Verwoerd, Mandela and me
Publish date: 10 October 2016
Issue Number: 698
Diary: IBA Legalbrief Africa
Category: Corruption
Hitler, Verwoerd, Mandela and me
By Marianne Thamm
Tafelberg. R200
Thamm describes herself as ‘half-Portuguese, half-German, recovering Roman Catholic atheist lesbian immigrant’. She was born in the United Kingdom, where her father met her mother after his release as a Prisoner of War. Her book chronicles her early life as a tomboy ‘breker’ in Pretoria, South Africa, who took care of herself: ‘If you stuffed with me, I would hit you.’ A great part of the book includes her coming to terms with her father, who came to love her two adopted black daughters, albeit with his own peculiar rationale. Nelson Mandela offered her liberation as much as anyone, after years covering police violence in townships in the late apartheid era. Now she is at the forefront of breaking stories about the governing ANC’s continuing shame.
