Portside

Author RW Johnson's latest aberration is a mix of fiction and lazy research that misrepresents anti-apartheid struggle leaders.

Ruth Heloise First was an outstanding revolutionary, who through practical experience became focused on developing ideas to drive social action. Biographical tribute by her comrade and friend, Ronnie Kasrils, on the 38th year of her assassination.

A member of the ANC's military wing, Denis Goldberg was sentenced with Mandela and spent 22 years in a whites-only prison - the only white member of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), to be arrested and sentenced for armed resistance to white-minority rule.

During the the famous series of battles around Cuito Canavale in Southern Angola in 1987-8, Wiseman, with his ability to monitor the South African communications, worked as a radio operator with the Cuban and Angolan forces defending the city.

When Mandela was captured in 1962 the police did not know that he had been overseas for military training and was Commander in Chief of the recently formed Umkhonto we Sizwe, Spear of the nation, (MK). Only later, when Rivonia was raided and they came across documents that pointed to Mandela's wider role. Raymond Suttner worked with Nelson Mandela when he was first released from prison, here he writes his reflections, and a glimpse of history - much not previously known.