Mark Heywood plays a pivotal role in South African public life and in the movement for social justice. He has spearheaded momentous victories for poor people, establishing the right to antiretroviral treatment and to textbooks in schools among others. Executive Director of Section27 and a key figure in #SaveSouthAfrica, UniteAgainstCorruption and the Treatment Action Campaign, Heywood has inside experience of tough campaigns and what it takes to mobilise thousands to create change.

Get Up! Stand Up! provides frank insights into how power and politics work as it calls on each of us to play our part. Urgent and inspirational, it is also a personal story about love, loss and safeguarding your soul. It is a book of justice and hope.

‘A remarkable memoir. Poetry, music and activism combine in a life that contains an astonishing range of insights and experiences … the pages throb with eloquent intensity.’ Stephen Lewis – former UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa

‘Courageous and steadfast, Mark Heywood has been at the vanguard of activism that led to critical changes in health, education and human rights in our country. He reminds us that we need not be famous, rich or powerful to make a difference. We just need to care.’ - Redi Tlhabi – author and radio personality

‘In recounting his journey, an impassioned, glorious journey, Mark Heywood reminds us that at the heart of the struggle for human rights is a struggle for love and belonging.’ - Sisonke Msimang – writer and social commentator

About the author
Mark Heywood is a leading voice in the current political crisis in South Africa. He heads Section27, a human rights organisation based in Johannesburg, and is a key figure in the Save South Africa campaign. He was a keynote speaker at the Daily Maverick’s The Gathering in 2015 and 2016, and the first stand-in for Redi Tlhabi on Radio 702.

Outspoken activist Mark Heywood, widely known for spearheading remarkable victories for justness in South Africa, is a leading voice in the current political crisis. As founder member of TAC and director of Section 27, he has been intimately involved in some of the biggest political battles of the recent era, from forcing the government to provide treatment to HIV-positive patients to exposing the text-book crisis in Limpopo.

Heywood's critical yet inspirational opinion pieces often appear in the Daily Maverick and Mail & Guardian, amongst others. He is an influential thought leader regularly featured on Radio 702.

Get Up! Stand Up! is published by NB Publishers