This lively reference work gives readers an under-the-skin look at the South Africa's political elite, including government officials, judges, priests, premiers, and powerful individuals.

Paul Stober is deputy editor and political editor of the Mail & Guardian.

Barbara Ludman, co-editor of all four editions of the A-Z of SA Politics, is a founder and a former associate editor of the Mail & Guardian.

The Mail & Guardian is the most influential newspaper in Southern Africa. It was founded in 1985, at the height of apartheid and of resistance to apartheid, and both the paper and its reporters have regularly won prizes for courageous journalism ever since. Among its awards: the University of Missouri’s medal of honour for distinguished service in journalism. It has also been honoured for its arts, science and technology, personal finance and environmental reporting; for courageous journalism; and its reporters have won several awards for investigative reporting.