End of the Road

R.W. Johnson

• BuyCyril Ramaphosa by Anthony Butler
  Currey, 442 pp, £18.95, February 2008, ISBN 978 1 84701 315 6
• BuyAfter the Party: A Personal and Political Journey inside the ANC by Andrew Feinstein
  Jonathan Ball, 287 pp, R 170.00, October 2007, ISBN 978 1 86482 262 5
• BuyThabo Mbeki: The Dream Deferred by Mark Gevisser
  Jonathan Ball, 892 pp, R 225.00, November 2007, ISBN 978 1 86842 101 5

South Africa is midway through a political revolution attended by many uncertainties, but it is already clear that the African National Congress, which has ruled the country since 1994, will never again enjoy the moral authority it had in the early Mandela years. Corruption, factionalism and rank incompetence have seen to that, but it’s important not to overlook the lingering force of its former moral and political authority. Not many South Africans have felt brave enough to stand up to the ANC in the years since 1994 and every sort of evasive tactic has been employed to ensure that the hard questions don’t get asked. They aren’t always asked in these three books.