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Book reviews |
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Reviews |
UNDERSTANDING THE NEW SOUTH AFRICA A review by Giles Hugo ANYONE with an interest in the history of South Africa, the climactic developments there last year and future possibilities, will find this A-Z guide invaluable. Divided logically into sections such Personalities, Organisations and Institutions, Forums, Issues, Statistics, History, Office Bearers and Acronyms, it's an easy-to-use reference that also offers interesting browsing. Since the mid-'80s, the desktop-published Weekly Mail newspaper has been one of the most astute and influential observers of the rapidly changing scene during the decline and fall of apartheid, and editors Anton Harber and Barbara Ludman have both been in the thick of covering the recent history of South Africa - trying and testing times for journalists - and they have drawn on the knowledge of 28 colleagues and associated laager watchers. This range of talent has been focused on 182 individuals, 57 organisations and 18 issues. Harber acknowledges that 'The Volatility of South African politics makes this (accurate assessments of possible future events) an extremely risky task.' And subsequent events have proved this to be the case - especially in regard to some of the political parties' performances in the '94 election. He also notes that they chose to include only a handful of businessmen, while there is a diverse range of policemen - powerful figures in the 'old' South Africa - soldiers, lawyers, priests, unionists, civic leaders and academics. With each personal entry there is a phone number, so if you want to you can contact personalities as diverse as Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi; poet and former political prisoner Jeremy Cronin (jailed for seven years for distributing pamphlets); ex-student leader and detainee 'Fink' Haysom, appointed to the Police Board in 1992; 'Comrade' General Bantubonke Holomisa, who took control of the Transkei 'homeland', freed political prisoners and allowed banned organisations to operate; Ellen Kuzwayo, whose many 'firsts' as a black woman include an honorary degree from the University of the Witwatersrand and the CNA prize for literature (for 'Call Me Woman', 1986): and even Winnie Mandela. Johan Heyns, former moderator of the NG, who was one of the first Afrikaner church leaders to denounce the 'biblical' legitimacy of apartheid, is not contactable - he was assassinated recently, presumably by vengeful right-wing forces. Speaking of which, among the organisations listed (including phone numbers), there is a veritable bestiary of neo-Nazi nationalist groups - including the Afrikaanse Weerstand Beweging (AWB), Afrikaner Volksfront, Boereweerstandbeweging, Easter Transvaal Boerekommando, and Pretoria Boerekommandogroep. In the Issues section we learn that: 'Interestingly, while some ANC office bearers (like Albie Sachs) have supported the drive for gay rights, other (like Tokyo Sexwale) are still capable of homophobic comments - and groups like the Pan Africanist Congress display antipathy to the idea of gay rights; Benny Alexander is on record as saying homosexuality is "un- African".' Phone numbers of gay activist groups are appended. By examining the Statistics section you can begin to understand how effective apartheid was in enforcing inequalities: although whites are outnumbered by blacks one to five, there are 10,553 whites with doctorates, compared with just 743 black PhDs, a ratio of 14 to one. Also, between 1991 and '92 murders had climbed from 14,693 to 16,067, a chilling 9.35% rise. In the same period rape was up 7.3%, but bicycle theft was down 7.89%, and the real victory in crime-fighting - or perhaps a change in political tactics - arson was down an astonishing 73.29%. An indicator of the continuing rise in deaths due to political violence is 879 killed in 1985 and 4364 dead in 1993, a year before the change of government. It makes informative and chilling reading if you can imagine the individual people and lives that are reflected in these stark statistics. Review by Giles Hugo, © Copyright
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