Communication between people of different races was severely limited during the apartheid period. The short stories contained in Jump and Other Staries were written during the transition towards a multi-racial democracy when many of the apartheid laws had been repealed. Theoretically communication ought to have been easier and yet these stories are replete with examples of miscommunication. The first part of this paper looks at the reasons why the characters fait to communicate effectively. The second part considers communication between the writer and the reader and analyses some of the literary techniques used in the short stories.