White Wahala

Ekow Duker

01 August 2014
9781770103955

Synopsis

Cash Tshabalala is a notoriously brutal money-lender and snazzy dresser who operates in Scottsville, Soweto, from a kiosk he calls, ‘The Last Best Hope Financial Service’. Unashamedly violent when the need arises, Cash’s willingness to lend where reputable banks fear to tread has earned him a reluctant but steady clientele.

A chance meeting between Cash and Alasdair Nicholson, a closet drug user and only son of a fabulously wealthy white family, changes both their lives forever. Desperate for a fix, Alasdair drives to Scottsville to buy drugs, only to discover he doesn’t have enough money on him and he has to borrow what he needs from Cash. When Alasdair fails to keep his side of the transaction, Cash declares war on the Nicholson family and events spin dangerously out of control, eventually becoming a matter of national importance when populist activists step in, intent on realising their own agendas.

The conflict between Cash and the Nicholson family cleverly exposes the seeping wounds that still bedevil South African interactions two decades after the end of apartheid, forcing both communities to recognise the harsh realities of their past.