Duiker, the eldest of three brothers, was born in
Orlando West, Soweto, and raised in Soweto at the height of
apartheid by middle-class university-educated parents. Sent out of the township to attend a
Catholic primary school from grade 5, he went first to
La Salle College until grade 7 and in his early high school years he was sent on to
Redhill School, an elite institution where he was one of the very few black pupils. Duiker was schooled at the height of
Apartheid, which influenced him greatly. He spent two years in England as a sixth-form student at
Huntington School, York, before returning to South Africa to attend university, where he studied copy-writing. He worked for an advertising company, before scriptwriting for the soapie
Backstage. Duiker received a degree in journalism from
Rhodes University, and also briefly studied at the
University of Cape Town. Duiker used drugs such as
LSD,
marijuana and others. After his expulsion from college, he was institutionalized at a psychiatric hospital. After release, he wrote his debut novel,
Thirteen Cents, in two months. ==
Thirteen Cents ==