Product Description
Spoilt Ballots
Authors: Matthew Blackman, Nick Dall
Format: Paperback
The Elections that Shaped South Africa, from Shaka to Cyril
If you paid even a moment’s attention during high-school history class, you probably know that 1910 brought about the Union of South Africa, that the 1948 general election ushered in apartheid, and that the Rainbow Nation was born when Madiba triumphed in the country’s first democratic elections in 1994.
Spoilt Ballots dishes the dirt on these pivotal turning points in our history. But it also sheds light on a dozen lesser-known contests, starting with the assassination of King Shaka in 1828 and ending with the anointing of King Cyril at Nasrec in 2017.
Spoilt Ballots dishes the dirt on these pivotal turning points in our history. But it also sheds light on a dozen lesser-known contests, starting with the assassination of King Shaka in 1828 and ending with the anointing of King Cyril at Nasrec in 2017.
Spoilt Ballots is as much about the people who voted in some of our most decisive elections as it is about those who didn’t even get the chance to make their mark. It explains why a black man in the Cape had more political rights in 1854 than at any other point in the ensuing 140 years and how the enfranchisement of women in 1930 was actually a step back for democracy.
The book will leave you wondering if Oom Paul Kruger’s seriously dicey win in the 1893 ZAR election might have paved the way for the Boer War and whether ‘Slim Jannie’ Smuts really was that slim after all. It’ll explain how the Nats managed to get millions of English-speakers to vote for apartheid and why the Groot Krokodil’s attempt to co-opt coloureds and Indians into the system backfired spectacularly.
Entertaining and impeccably researched, Spoilt Ballots lifts the lid on 200 years of electoral dysfunction in our beloved and benighted nation.
About the Author
Matthew Blackman has written on South African art, literature and history. He has a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of East Anglia. He is the co-author, with Nick Dall, of Rogues' Gallery, Spoilt Ballots and Legends. He lives in Cape Town with two dogs of nameless breed.
Nick Dall has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town. He's written about everything from coelacanths to circus acts, but it's the barely believable tales of our past that get him most excited. He is the co-author, with Matthew Blackman, of Rogues' Gallery, Spoilt Ballots and Legends.He lives in Cape Town with his wife and kids.
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