The Fugard Theatre is launching a new series of conversations entitled The Fugard Conversations, which will take place on an occasional basis.

“We are launching this series of conversations to create a platform and space for important discussions and mindful debates to take place about current issues. I am thrilled that Fiona Forde and Ronnie Kasrils have offered their time to share their opinions and perspectives on “The Malema Dilemma” at our very first gathering” said Daniel Galloway, General Manager of the Fugard Theatre.

“The Malema Dilemma” will be a participative conversation between Fiona Ford, journalist and the author of An inconvenient Youth (the unauthorized best-selling biography of Julius Malema and the New ANC), and liberation struggle hero, former ANC Cabinet Minister and author Ronnie Kasrils. Fiona Forde is an Irish journalist based in Cape Town. For a number of years she has covered politics and current affairs in South Africa and abroad for print and radio media.

Ronnie Kasrils was born in Yeoville, Johannesburg "centuries ago". He always wanted to become a writer and after matriculating worked as a scriptwriter at a Johannesburg film production company. Following that, worked for a Durban advertising company's film unit but was fired after security police raided the office and arrested him in 1962. Within a year he was in exile and worked for the ANC, although he managed to produce three books on Bertrand Russell while living in London. His memoir Armed and Dangerous, first published in 1993, told of his political involvement over the years, and further editions included his career as a government minister – 30,000 copies were sold, including Russian, Spanish and German translations.

His latest book The Unlikely Secret Agent is a eulogy to his late wife Eleanor. Post-government he enjoys being liberated from bureaucracy and committee meetings; loves writing without deadlines, public speaking with hecklers, social activism with the politically marginalized. Fiona and Ronnie will be in conversation around the man who is making daily headlines both locally and abroad. The conversation takes place at the Fugard Theatre, Caledon Street, District 6, Cape Town on Tuesday October 18 at 17h30 for 18h00. Tickets cost R50 per person and guests will be welcomed with a complimentary glass of wine and snacks.