A LEGACY OF LIBERATION: THABO MBEKI AND THE FUTURE OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN DREAM

In South Africa the prosperous Mbeki clan lost everything to apartheid. Yet the family saw its favourite son, Thabo, come to lead the country’s first black government alongside Nelson Mandela and dominate its politics. Mbeki vowed to create “a better life for all” when he became president in 1999. A decade later, Mbeki was ousted by his own party and his legacy is bitterly contested – particularly over his handling of the AIDS epidemic and the crisis in Zimbabwe.Through the story of the Mbeki family, award-wining journalist Mark Gevisser tells the gripping tale of the last tumultous century of South Africa life, following the famly’s path to make sense of the liberation struggle and the future that South Africa has inherited. At the center of the story is Mbeki himself, a visionary yet tragic figure who lef South Africa to freedom but was not able to overcome the difficulties of his own own dislocated life. With unprecedented access to South Africa’s political leaders, Gevisser offers fascinating new perspectives on such iconic figures as Joe Slovo, Steve Biko and Nelson Mandela, and sheds much-needed light on the irvalry between Mbeki and his successor, Jacob Zuma. – a man who was once his closest comrade. Gevisser provides vital insight to the political crisis that has torn the ruling ANC apart, and assesses the prospects of South Africa under Zuma’s leadership.

Offering ground-breaking scholarship and piercing political analysis, A Legacy of Liberation is the moving and highly-readable account of a family and its struggle to fulfill the South African dream.