Acknowledgements
Without the incredible body of work that has been produced by the Daily Maverick journalists over the last decade, this book would have been a glorified roll of toilet paper. Despite the daily pressures experienced by the editorial team investigating, reporting and delivering the truth to South Africa, they were infinitely generous with their time. Thank you for tolerating the late-night emails, all day WhatsApp messages and a constant barrage of questions.
Acknowledging the ever-persistent time and capacity constraints that our journalists face, we found two incredible writers to come on board and tackle this beast: Tudor Caradoc-Davies and Tiara Walters. They became T‑squared and together we brainstormed, fought over what absolutely had to be included, wrote, re-wrote, cried to each other in despair and built one another up when we felt the task before us was just too big. They produced extraordinary writing under the extreme pressure of a ridiculously short timeline combined with the magnitude of telling the Daily Maverick story. All with a dash of humour.
A massive thank you to Zapiro for being so generous and allowing us full access to his entire back catalogue of cartoons. This book is infinitely better because of it.
Electric Book Works, innovators that they are, held our hand and helped in every step of allowing We Have A Game Changer to become the unicorn that we envisaged.
Thank you to Karen Lilje for delivering a beautiful design and for being so giving with her expertise. A special thanks to Bernard Kotze and Tevya Shapiro for their dedication, their wit and their help with both the design and video elements of this book. Thank you also to Sahra Heuwel, Nicole Williamson and Kathryn Kotze for their assistance and cheerleading.
An enormous thank you is due to Rebecca Davis for hacking away at the absurdly long manuscript and lending her time, energy, editing prowess and humour to this project. She is exactly as fun as you think she is to work with.
Working at Daily Maverick is more than just a job; it can be all‑consuming. Normal working hours don’t exist, and when the opportunity has been given to you to run with a dream, time can stretch to 27 hours in a day to ensure that dream is realised. The power behind this space/time continuum are the spouses and families of the Daily Maverick staff who understand this and who, while ensuring that life outside the DM offices can continue, offer their constant support and encouragement. Rob Beighton, thank you for doing that for me.
As with every new endeavour these days, we must thank our Maverick Insiders. The support that you have given Daily Maverick has allowed us the privilege of expanding our horizons: this book being just one of those new frontiers.
Finally, it is a true rarity to be able to work with two founders of a company who not only lead and mentor their staff but who instil self-belief through their constant support and friendship. Thank you, Styli and Branko, for putting your humility aside momentarily and allowing this book to be written; for every word of encouragement, for your guidance and for being Mom and Dad to us all.
Fran Beighton