Timothy John Leigh Bell, Baron Bell, was a British advertising and public relations executive, best known for his advisory role in Margaret Thatcher's three successful general election campaigns and his co-founding and 30 years of heading Bell Pottinger.
Sigmund Brouwer is a prolific Canadian author of children's, young adult, and adult books. He has over 100 titles and four million books in print.
Daily Maverick is a South African online news publication and weekly print newspaper, with offices in Cape Town and Johannesburg. It claims to have a readership of approximately 10 million readers per month. It was founded in 2009 by Branislav Brkic, who is also the Editor-in-Chief of the publication, and Styli Charalambous, its Chief Executive Officer.
The Quill Award was an American literary award that ran for three years, from 2005 to 2007. It was a "consumer-driven award created to inspire reading while promoting literacy." The Quills Foundation, the organization behind the award, was supported by a number of notable media corporations, including Reed Business Information, then parent of Publishers Weekly, and NBC Universal Television Stations, along with Parade Magazine, Borders, Barnes & Noble and the American Booksellers Association.
The Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize, established in 1986, is awarded annually to the best collection of poetry by a resident of British Columbia, Canada.
Jonny Steinberg is a South African writer and scholar. He is the author of several books about everyday life in the wake of South Africa's transition to democracy. Two of them, Midlands (2002), about the murder of a white South African farmer, and The Number (2004), a biography of a prison gangster, won the Sunday Times Alan Paton Award. In 2013, Steinberg was awarded the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize.
Guy Tillim is a South African photographer known for his work focusing on troubled regions of Sub-Saharan Africa. A member of the country's white minority, Tillim was born in Johannesburg in 1962. He graduated from the University of Cape Town in 1983, and he also spent time at the Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg. His photographs and projects have been exhibited internationally and form the basis of several of Tillim's published books.
Vivek Shraya is a Canadian musician, writer, and visual artist. She currently lives in Calgary, Alberta, where she is an assistant professor in the creative writing program at the University of Calgary. As a trans woman of colour, Shraya often incorporates her identity in her music, writing, visual art, theatrical work, and films. She is a seven-time Lambda Literary Award finalist, and considered a Great Canadian Filmmaker of the Future by CBC Arts.
Zwelini Lawrence Mkhize is a South African medical doctor and politician who served as the Minister of Health from May 2019 until his resignation on 5 August 2021. He previously served as the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs from 2018 to 2019. Before that, he was the fifth Premier of KwaZulu-Natal from 2009 to 2013.
Lauren Beukes is a South African novelist, short story writer, journalist and television scriptwriter.
Igor Kenk is known since 2008 as the most infamous and prolific bicycle thief in Canada. More than 3,000 bicycles were recovered in police raids. Kenk pleaded guilty to sixteen Criminal Code charges of theft on 15 December 2009 at Old City Hall court. He was dubbed "the world's most prolific bike thief".
Danila Botha is a Canadian author and novelist. She has published two short story collections, with a third to be published in 2024 and two novels, with the second to be published in 2025.
The Constitution of South Africa protects all basic political freedoms. However, there have been many incidents of political repression, dating back to at least 2002, as well as threats of future repression in violation of this constitution leading some analysts, civil society organisations and popular movements to conclude that there is a new climate of political repression or a decline in political tolerance.
Mandela's Gun is a 2016 South African biographical film of Nelson Mandela's experience as a guerrilla fighter for the African National Congress. It was directed by John Irvin and shot in South Africa.
The Gupta family is a wealthy and influential business family from India, with close ties to former South African President Jacob Zuma and his administration. The family's most notable members are the brothers Ajay, Atul, and Rajesh "Tony" Gupta—as well as Atul's nephews Varun, and US-based Ashish and Amol. The family's business empire in South Africa spanned a variety of industries, including mining, media, and technology. The family name has become synonymous with corruption in South Africa as well as undue influence, and state capture. They have been sanctioned by multiple countries for their activities, with investigations ongoing in both South Africa and the United States. Many prominent South Africans and politicians have been linked to the family's alleged corrupt activities, including members of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party. The Gupta family has since fled South Africa and their current whereabouts are unknown although since fleeing the country their presence has been reported in Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Vanuatu.
Phumzile Van Damme is a South African consultant and former Member of Parliament representing South Africa’s official opposition, the Democratic Alliance described by the United Nation’s Africa Renewal as a “Young MP with a mission.” She was first elected at the 2014 South African general election and re-elected in 2019. She served as a Whip in the National Assembly and was the Shadow Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies Committee.
Tanya Talaga is a Canadian journalist and author of Anishinaabe and Polish descent. She worked as a journalist at the Toronto Star for over twenty years, covering health, education, local issues, and investigations. She is now a regular columnist with the Globe and Mail. Her 2017 book Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City was met with acclaim, winning the 2018 RBC Taylor Prize for non-fiction and the 2017 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing. Talaga is the first woman of Anishinaabe descent to be named a CBC Massey Lecturer. She holds honorary doctorates from Lakehead University and from Ryerson University.
Influence is a 2020 Canadian/South African documentary film written and directed by Diana Neille and Richard Poplak. The film follows Lord Tim Bell and his associates, known for their controversial geopolitical spin-doctoring. This not to be confused with the 2020 Drama/Mystery Thriller by Carl Weber, Influence.
Pumla Dineo Gqola is a South African academic, writer, and gender activist, best known for her 2015 book Rape: A South African Nightmare, which won the 2016 Alan Paton Award. She is a professor of literature at Nelson Mandela University, where she holds the Research Chair in African Feminist Imaginations.
Kenk: A Graphic Portrait is a book written by Richard Poplak about notorious Toronto bike thief Igor Kenk.
