Alex Boraine - Whats Gone Wrong?: On the Brink of a Failed State

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Whats Gone Wrong?
_________________________

SOUTH AFRICA ON THE BRINK
OF FAILED STATEHOOD

Alex Boraine

Foreword by
Desmond M Tutu

First published in the USA in 2014 by

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS

Washington Square

New York, NY 10003

www.nyupress.org

2014 by Alex Boraine

All rights reserved

Originally published in South Africa in 2014 by

JONATHAN BALL PUBLISHERS (PTY) LTD

A division of Media24 Limited

PO Box 33977

Jeppestown

2043

South African spelling and punctuation conventions have been retained.

References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.

For Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data, please contact the Library of Congress.

ISBN: 978-1-4798-5497-4 (cl)

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In memory of Frederik van Zyl Slabbert,
a special friend who never stopped asking questions.

To Jenny, always and forever.

CHAPTER ONE
The ANC in Exile: Early Years

CHAPTER TWO
A Government in Waiting: Exile in the 1980s

CHAPTER THREE
Parliament: Legislator or Lame Duck?

CHAPTER FOUR
Peoples Parliament

CHAPTER FIVE
The Role of the Judiciary in a Failing State

CHAPTER SIX
Corruption in a Failing State

CHAPTER SEVEN
The Role of Civil Society in a Failing State

CHAPTER EIGHT
Realignment and the Failing State

Chatting recently with someone very close to a top ANC leader, I remarked: We are where we were with the apartheid nationalists. They didnt ask what qualifications you had for a particular job. No, they asked, What is your political affiliation?

I was startled at first when she exclaimed: No! But then she went on to say, It is worse: they ask which faction of the ruling party you support.

We are in dire straits in our beloved country. In this hard-hitting volume, Alex Boraine incisively and with great perspicacity answers the question so many are asking: Whats gone wrong? Why, instead of working to eradicate poverty, do we have the widest gap between rich and poor globally; why do the nouveaux riches flaunt their often ill-gotten wealth so much, existing cheek by jowl with demeaning squalor? Much of our public service is in a dismal state. Our public hospitals and schools in the black townships leave a great deal to be desired. We have high levels of unemployment and violent crime. Corruption, frequently brazen, seems to be the order of the day. Effective law enforcement agencies are disbanded. A competent and principled national director of prosecutions was shown the door because he wanted to charge the then commissioner of police and Jacob Zuma, then deputy president. The government has treated with utter disdain a High Court order to produce the secret tapes whose contents were the grounds for dropping charges against Mr Zuma before he became president. It is odd that they should be so bashful about revealing evidence that those charges against him were contaminated by a political conspiracy.