Totally occupied for weeks with final illness and farewells for my wife Eve, ever an ANC loyalist, I have completely missed the wide coverage of Mark Gevisser’s book on Thabo Mbeki. Just until I have completed and sent off this article, I will stay outside the buzz of interest which the book – by a fine writer, after years of research – is stirring, for its full and sensitive treatment of the subject: I know that to understand can be to forgive – but it should not be to excuse, to validate, and to allow the subject to carry on messing up our national politics. Of course Thabo Mbeki should not be standing for a third term as ANC President – it simply muddies the fountains of choice as to who will lead the country into the next crucial phase of transition. But sadly, it is only the latest and greatest act of irresponsibility and manipulation in a catalogue of choices which I believe have characterised and shaped the course of the presidency, and of national policy. Like most long-standin
Left wing commentary from the heart and the head