The other day I asked the sales clerk at Exclusive Books to retrieve two books for me. One of my own, Learning Lessons, and one by a brilliant young UCT psychologist, Wahbie Long, called Nation on a Couch: Inside South Africa’s Mind. She first brought my book and with a long face and limp-wrist gave me my work. Less than a minute later the same woman appeared with Prof Long’s book, suddenly looking radiant and excited: “Now THIS book is really selling, hey!” We had a good laugh, but I know why the Long book is making waves.

It was 27 years ago this week (Monday) that Nelson Mandela uttered those memorable words at his inauguration as our first democratic president: “Never, never, and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another ...” Three “nevers” were not going to be enough. We routinely abuse, humiliate, exploit and oppress each other...