January/February 2017 Volume 61 | No 1

haar lewensverhaal aan die
vryskutjoernalis Carla van
der Spuy vertel en hieruit
het die boek ontstaan. Amor
se verhaal is skrikwekkend.
Haar pa het haar van jongs
af gemolesteer. Sy is daarvan
oortuig dat haar ma daarvan
geweet het, maar niemand
het daaroor gepraat nie. Die
hoop dat haar ouma, wat
eendag gesien het wat haar
pa aan haar doen, sou ingryp,
het beskaam. Trouens, daarna
het ook haar oupa en toe
verskeie ooms en ander jonger
manlike familielede begin om
haar seksueel te misbruik, nog
voordat sy puberteit bereik
het. Die psigologiese gevolge op iemand wat in so ’n totaal
liefdelose omgewing grootword, word breedvoerig verken.
Van der Spuy wissel Van der Westhuyzen se eie herinnerings
en vertellings met inligting en kommentaar deur sielkundiges
en enkele ander mense af. Uiteindelik word nie slegs die verhaal
van Van der Westhuyzen se ontsettende trauma vertel nie,
maar ook die verhaal van hoe sy hierdie verskriklike kindertyd
kon agterlaat en geluk en liefde kon vind. Dit is ’n ontstellende
leeservaring. Maar dit is ook ’n boek van hoop.’
(Vrouekeur, Willie Burger)
VAN LOGGERENBERG, Johann and Lackay, Adrian
Rogue: the inside story of SARS’s elite crime-busting
unit.- Jonathan Ball, 2016.
In this eye-opening local title,
two former senior employees
of the South African Revenue
Service (SARS) tell about
the investigative unit that
operated in SARS between
2007 and 2014, and give their
side of the story. In October
2014 the unit became known
as a ‘rogue unit’, accused
of being involved in several
serious criminal activities. The
Sunday Times covered the
story, with claims being made
that the officials associated
with this unit were corrupt.
They were accused of using
hundreds of millions of Rands
from secret funds, planting
listening devices, spying on President Jacob Zuma, other
politicians and top cops, running a brothel and entering into
illegal tax settlements. The matter was investigated in depth
by internal SARS panels, the Inspector General of Intelligence,
the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks)
and national intelligence, which cost the state and taxpayer
millions of Rands. Many SARS officials lost their jobs as a
result. In this book the authors clarify what this unit actually
did for SARS and South Africa and give background information
to put matters into perspective. Johann van
Loggerenberg was a group executive at SARS before he
resigned from the tax authority in early 2015 after 16 years’
service. His name featured publicly for his involvement in
SARS investigations into individuals such as Billy Rautenbach,
Irvin Khoza, Julius Malema, Lolly Jackson, Glenn Agliotti and
Radovan Krejcir. Adrian Lackay is a former spokesperson for
SARS. This is a very readable book on a widely publicised
drama, for which there was huge interest. SSJ
WEINTRAUB, Robert
No better friend: one man, one dog, and their
incredible story of courage and survival in WWII.
- John Murray, 2016.
In Weintraub’s exceptionally
well-researched and engaging
book, we meet Judy, a purebred
English pointer and hero
of World War II. How she
became the war’s only official
canine POW is a long story,
and one best left for readers
to discover for themselves.
The broad facts of Judy’s
life and times were available
to the dedicated author, but
filling in the sizable gaps
required digging deep into the
archives in order to illuminate
the Sumatran prison camps
where Judy was held and
the path she took in getting
there. Born in a British-owned
kennel in Shanghai, China, near to where the Royal Navy
stationed a small fleet of gunboats, Judy started hanging
out with servicemen and became a mascot to sailors on the
HMS Gnat. Accompanying sailors eventually taken prisoner
by the Japanese, she meets flight technician, Frank Williams.
Responsible for saving Frank’s life, and that of other POWs,
she becomes the first, and only, canine ever to be declared an
official POW. After the war she receives numerous honours,
and she and Frank would be inseparable until her death in
1950. Theirs is truly one of the great sagas of WWII, and one
that both dog lovers and history buffs will still cherish in years
to come. EB
WILDE, Lyn Webster
A brief history of the
Amazons: women warriors
in myth and history.
- Robinson, 2016.
The author, who is a broadcaster
and film producer
rather than a professional
historian or academic, sets
off on a mission to search for
the origins of the Amazon
myth. The tale comes to us
from Herodotus, the so-called
‘father of history’ writing in
the middle of the fifth century
BCE. He explains that the
Greeks and Amazons had
been at war and that the
Greeks had finally subdued
the savage women and sailed away in three ships with them.
Kaapse Bibliotekaris Januarie/Februarie 2017
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