Rich Pickings out of the Past

Product Details:Author(s): Judge Bernard Makgabo Ngoepe Year Published:2022Edition1st EditionType:Print | Soft CoverLanguage:EnglishAbout this publicationThe book selects some past events and experiences, national and international, and wonders what lessons were missed, learnt, or are yet to be learnt from them. Tragedies happen again and again because we fail to learn from the past. The past is rich with valuable lessons – rich pickings. The reader is taken back into the past in search of some of those lessons, many of which, regrettably, we failed – and continue failing – to learn.  As we dig into the past for those rich pickings, there will be moments to laugh, cry or even weep; but that is exactly how lessons are learnt in life. Other similar incidents learnt from, both abroad and at home, relate to the author’s own experiences in South Africa, including as a Judge who heard amnesty applications as a member of the Amnesty Committee of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The book hopes to show that capacity for evil is not peculiar to any nation or race; it also discusses the dangers of tribalism. The chapter ‘Beyond the Frontiers’ takes the reader into the rest of Africa. A lot is revealed, including divisions the author witnessed – while serving as an AU judge based in Tanzania – within the AU along the languages of, ironically, colonial masters; also referenced is the sorry state of human rights in Africa. Have we seized the opportunity to learn all the valuable lessons which that great teacher, ‘The Past’, offered? The author leaves it to readers to make their own final judgement after reading the book as to whether, at the individual and collective levels, we have learnt those lessons and taken them to heart for the good of our individual and collective destiny.      
About the Author:
Judge BM Ngoepe was born in Limpopo where he practised law for many years; first, as an attorney in Limpopo and later as an advocate in Pretoria, acquiring the status of Senior Counsel (SC) before he was appointed a Judge, where he served before taking optional retirement. Positions currently held: South Africa’s Tax Ombud; Chairperson of the Appeals Board of the Council for Medical Schemes; Chairperson of the Appeals Panel of the South African Press Council; Chairperson of the Final Appeals Committee of the Advertising Regulatory Board of South Africa, and, finally, Independent Head: Investigative Unit, Cricket South Africa.ContentContents
Dedication Note of gratitude Foreword: Portraits and Lessons
Note on the Author Introduction: Why I wrote Prologue: Judges are human CHAPTER 1: The Village Boy 1.1 Familial ties: Core element of African culture 1.2 How about some rich pickings from ancestry? 1.3 The generation down 1.4 The “naming after” practice 1.5 Community systems: sources of enduring knowledge and skill 1.6 Back to the small question regarding the learning of human rights
1.7 How the values were taught and learnt 1.8 Summation 1.9 The small matter of superstitions CHAPTER 2: Spattering out of the Nest 2.1 Some reflections on the testing times at an African junior boarding school of the time 2.2 Conditions at the boarding school 2.3 Some quick reflections CHAPTER 3: The daring spirit of youthfulness 3.1 Too good to be innocent 3.2 Lessons from the commitment of white teachers CHAPTER 4: Testimony: Black teachers who taught and taught
CHAPTER 5: Triumph over Bantu Education 5.1 Recognizing and paying tribute 5.2 Reality of harm 5.3 Picking on a few lessons 5.4 Subsequent generations? CHAPTER 6: Some echoing themes from university life
6.1 Divide and rule 6.2 The rare privilege of getting to university 6.3 Superior by virtue of colour in supposedly hallowed academic corridors 6.4 The role of white lecturers in perspective, and lessons to learn
6.5 The triumph of intellectualism over ethnicity 6.6 Were the apartheid proponents also driven by fear of black knowledge and skills? 6.7 The valuable lesson of being pragmatic in life 6.8 University students who passed and passed and passed…
CHAPTER 7: In the midst of a complex society CHAPTER 8: Trials and tribulations as an attorney 8.1 Generosity across racial lines 8.2 In a country ravaged by racism, how are we to react to it? 8.3 The matter of subtle racism 8.4 The sin of ‘self-discrimination’ 8.5 The haunting evil of bedroom apartheid 8.6 Training or gate keeping? 8.7 Influx control: The antithesis of the call by the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (one of the greatest sins of apartheid: influx control) 8.8 Black Lawyers Association – transformation CHAPTER 9: Why they did not fail 9.1 Pragmatism 9.2 Belief in the attainment of an objective 9.3 Patience and perseverance 9.4 The closing whisper CHAPTER 10: Letting the sky be the limit 10.1 Wrestling with the risk factor 10.2 The issue of planning: overplanning or under-planning?
10.3 The case for multicultural understanding in a multicultural society 10.4 Death sentence or no death sentence? 10.5 Running the gauntlet of defending political cases 10.6 Some of the lessons from political trials 10.7 Black alienation from the judicial system and inequality before the law 10.8 A quick whisper behind the lawyers’ backs CHAPTER 11: Through the lens of a judge 11.1 The context in which one was appointed (as a black judge) 11.2 Becoming a judge: The urge to help put things right 11.3 The need to be alive to the impact of one’s powers 11.4 Common objective as a uniting force 11.5 Peeping behind the curtain: A few judicial conventions  regarding how judges work 11.6 Lessons from taking the law into own hands 11.7 Relationship between the Judiciary and the Executive
11.8 From the perspective of the Judiciary of the military CHAPTER 12: Taking a leap of faith 12.1 Human capacity for paradigm shift 12.2 The centrality of the Judiciary 12.3 Revelations and confirmations out of the process
CHAPTER 13: The ultimate challenge: Judicial transformation 13.1 Appointment and role as Chair of the Magistrates Commission
13.2 Taking the bull by the horns as Judge President: transforming the High Court 13.3 Appointment to vital positions: area of fierce contestation 13.4 Telling dynamics of my appointment 13.5 Unpacking the landing 13.6 Post-landing experiences: what to make of them 13.7 Unpacking transformation 13.8 The matter of the court language 13.9 The Judicial Service Commission 13.10 Parting shot CHAPTER 14: Across the frontiers Epilogue: The Hope  Interest / Benefit toProfessionals
Trade
Students
Key Features and Benefits
The present book is a series of distinctive and intricately connected episodes of the author’s enthralling life story. The judiciously crafted memoir straddles the nightmare of the apartheid era of the 20th century and the promise of the democratic dispensation of the new millennium. 
Ngoepe’s photograph and portrait in these galleries capture seminal moments in his life.
It is also dedicated to Diabetes Association of South Africa, to whom royalties are donated for the first three years from the date of the publication of this book, for their untiring and noble effort.