Liz McGregor 
Load Shedding 
Writing on and over the edge of South Africa

South Africa is not an easy place in which to live. Soaring crime levels, xenophobia, rampant corruption and the rise to power of the controversial Jacob Zuma all signal the end of the dream years. A new personal resilience is needed to cope with a new political uncertainty. Load Shedding is a collection of non-fiction stories by some of South Africa’s pre-eminent authors, journalists and commentators, including Imraan Coovadia, Achille Mbembe, Deborah Posel and Karina Magdalena Szczurek, that reveal how we live under pressure. Written during the nation’s period of electricity blackouts, these personal accounts shine new light on our contemporary South African world.

About the author

Liz Mc Gregor was educated at Wykeham School in Pietermaritzburg and the University of Cape Town. Mc Gregor is a veteran author and journalist who started off her career on leading South African newspapers including the Sunday Times and the Rand Daily Mail before subsequently moving to Britain where she worked for the Guardian as deputy editor of the Comment and analysis section for several years.
She also worked as a freelance journalist in South Korea for two years but in December 2002, she returned to South Africa. She has co-edited and contributed to two collections of essays: At Risk and Load-shedding: Writing On and Over the Edge of South Africa and is the author of Khabzela: The Life and Times of a South African. Mc Gregor is also the author of Touch, Pause, Engage! a book which explores the world of South African rugby. She will be publishing a new book, The Springbok Factory in 2013.